Most weeds and native plants are very attractive to pollinators. is there a small portion of your garden that you could leave feral or untended?

I would love to but my husband is neat freak and hates that dirt even exist.

If you don't grow the plants that attract pollinators - or have them available very close by - then the pollinators are not going to be present in your garden. It is as simple as that.

I understand but I didn’t need to do that at my previous house

Perhaps there were just a lot more pollinators around because more weeds and/or native plants were present close by?

If you can't leave any area natural, then I'd work on increasing your palette of gardenworthy pollinator attractors. Several of the plants on your list have little or no appeal unless in flower or will only attract specific pollinators that are unlikely to be helpful for fruit and citrus trees.

Native Pollinator Plants for South Texas

Attracting Bees to Your Yard and Garden

And make sure there is something in bloom at the same time the peach and citrus are in flower.

Humble, bees and other pollinators (but especially bees) are in disturbingly short supply in recent years. I can testify that I haven't seen a single honeybee on my property this year....and I have gardens filled with an assortment flowering plants most of the year. Even my backyard "bee tree", a Carolina Silverbell, was disturbingly silent this year, other than a few Carpenter bees and they bit through the flowers and killed them.

I hear the same lament from peers in many other parts of the country. I urge you to contact your local County Extension office to see if there's a similar trend in your location.

P.S. if you grow modern hybrid citrus cultivars, you won't need insect pollinators. Check with your Extension on that, too. 🐝

Thank you rhizo, I’ll check with my county. I’m in Texas ( I accidentally posted here) and someone in San Antonio said it’s been so dry this year, hence the lack of bees,so I’m hoping things change soon

Floral, I have wondered that as well. I have seen the employees run a small tractor over the golf course and other work as well and I can’t be sure what they are up to. There are natural wooded areas on the golf course that they don’t touch.

Actually, golf courses, for the most part, are far from sterile. Most have huge sections of undisturbed native areas, lots of flowers, native trees and grasses. Bees and other wildlife have access to water on golf courses!

More and more courses have worked very hard at becoming good stewards of the environment, even attaining certification with the Audubon society. They are considered "bee banks" with their areas of bee safe perimeters and islands. I've consulted with golf courses that allowed bee keepers to house their hives on the property.

Of course, it takes a concerted effort to operate a golf course that meets high environmental standards. It's not difficult....just different. Bees, any kind of bee, have very little interest in golf greens or fairways; that's the real estate that sees most of the pesticide applications.

GCSAA (Golf Course Superintendent Association of America), the governing body for those who care for golf grounds, has been deeply involved in environmental aspects of course management for many, many years.

A more likely cause of severe bee decline is loss of habitat, and indiscriminate pesticide use by homeowners, landscaping companies, and some agricultural practices. Parasites that kill bees are widespread, too.

I had no idea that golf courses were thoughtful like that, that makes me feel better. After thinking more about this situation I realize there have hardly been any mosquitos either and I'm in Houston, TX, the mosquito captial of the world.

I'm thinking that the gardener from San Antonio is correct and that the problem is that Houston is experiencing drought like conditions when normally we have loads of rain

Well, that’s good hear. Perhaps my information is out of date. Sources don’t seem to be in agreement. https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/01/09/golf-is-a-giant-board-game-damaging-the-planet-time-for-it-to-go versus https://auduboninternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GE-Golf-and-the-Environment.pdf for example.

Mosquitoes are underrated pollinators. :)

I haven't been on a golf course in ages but back then, some were very unfriendly to nature. It's nice to hear they are improving.