Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard

First, because your article is focused on pollination, let me refer you to our UMaine Extension Pollinator-Friendly Gardening page and our UMaine Extension Plants for Pollinator Gardens (focused on ornamentals, but probably still informative for you). You might also reach out to my colleague, Lynne Holland, who spearheads our pollinator efforts.

To your questions:

“1) What are the (20 or 30) most common vegetables grown in Maine home vegetable gardens? “
Honestly, 20-30 would pretty much cover most (if not all) of our traditional vegetable garden plants. For a tighter list, I might recommend our UMaine Extension plant calender and MOFGA’s planting calendar (which includes culinary herbs and a couple of less common offerings like celeriac and chickory) for a snapshot of the plants we most commonly advise on and anticipate gardeners growing.

“2) Are there any bats in Maine that pollinate? Bats are often included in native pollinator lists, but I’ve learned most of the species that pollinate are tropical.”
To my knowledge, Maine bats feed primarily on insects and do not engage in a substantial amount of pollination (perhaps incidental). The State of Maine has a great web page on bats, but it doesn’t list them as pollinators, either.

“3) Aside from the Ruby-throated hummingbird, are there any bird pollinators in Maine?”
Per UMaine-Orono ornithologist Dr. Brian Olsen, all of our native hummingbirds are pollinators, but the ruby-throated is the only one that breeds here. There are a number of other species that may contribute to pollination incidentally, but Dr. Olsen would not categorize them as true pollinators.

“4) Are there effective natural ways to deal with lawn grubs?”
As always with this category of question, it depends on your definition of “natural.” Many natural remedies in the garden can be quite dangerous (e.g., horticultural vinegar is all natural, but highly acidic) and many synthetic approaches can be targeted, effective, and relatively safe if used properly and judiciously (e.g., chlorantraniliprole, see below). That said, we try to encourage and advocate for integrated pest management, a multi-pronged approach that priorities things like manual control, scouting, and low impact bio or organic interventions before considering the use of pesticides only as a last resort (generally for a commercial operation with money invested in a crop, or a prized specimen for a home gardener). That said, the timely application of something like beneficial nematodes or the use of bT products–both “natural” biocontrols–can be effective at managing grub populations, especially in conjunction with things like proper lawn management to boost the turfgrass’ natural aptitude for resisting pests. You can read more about these approaches, and chemical intervention for severe cases, on our UMaine Extension IPM White Grubs page.

Happy gardening.