SPRINGFIELD — When Deborah Shea steps out to survey her garden from the back door of her home nestled on a corner opposite the woods of Forest Park, she’s thinking about the birds and the bees. Literally.

Shea, an avid birdwatcher, is among a growing number of environmentally conscious gardeners who are creating pollinator gardens to attract birds, bees and butterflies whose existence depends on the availability of native plants like spotted beebalm, swamp milkweed and cut-leaf coneflower.

Noting that there is a serious decline in birds, insects and other pollinators, Shea said she and her husband, Lou Harm, transitioned away from tomato plants to a pollinator garden both to help the ecosystem and for the fun of it.

“Given a chance, I wanted to plant things that are native,” she said, adding that for a nature lover the rewards are many.

In addition to monarch butterflies and humming birds, she recently spied an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly feasting on some agastache, a perennial flowering plant is commonly known as giant hyssops or hummingbird mint.

“I bought the plant at a local nursery when I noticed that bees and bugs were all over it,” she said.

Pollinator gardens are gaining popularity everywhere as global warming is threatening the environment.

“Two other neighbors also have replanted their yards to attract bees and butterflies and one of them now has a hive,” she said. “In addition, there are now two small pollinator gardens on the edge of Forest Park along Washington Boulevard and another near the park’s administrative building.”

The latter three gardens mentioned by by Shea are ReGreen and Springfield Garden Club projects.

Janet Burdewik, retired pastor of Faith United Church, and Kathleen Plante, an advertising consultant, live down the street from Shea and are also are avid pollinator gardeners.

Tall stalks of milk weed, buzzing with insect activity, frame the side yard of Burdewik’s Pineywoods Avenue home. “I didn’t start out as a pollinator gardener,” she said, “but I am concerned about the damage pesticides and herbicides do to the environment.”

Plante, who has lived in a house a few doors down from Shea and Burdewik, had taken a break from gardening when she moved to Springfield from Seattle, but decided last year that she needed “to get my hands back in the dirt.”

She had four yards of compost delivered to her front yard and went to work planting native species. “I wanted something to help the native pollinators,” Plante said.

Now, a year after she planted the garden, it is buzzing with bees, other insects and birds. “Last year, there wasn’t enough to feed them,” she said.

“Pollinator gardens don’t have a manicured look,” Plante explained, noting that clover and crab grass are just fine with her. “I wanted a natural look,” she said, adding that her garden has offered passersby an educational opportunity .

Pollinator gardens are low maintenance and require less watering than other kinds of plantings, she said, pointing to the black-eyed susans and sweet fern shrubs that frame the sidewalk to her front door.

The Forest Park pollinator gardeners get plants from friends, area nurseries and the Native Plant Trust, which is based in Framingham at Garden in the Woods, a native plant botanic garden. The trust also operates a native plant nursery at Nasami Farm in Whately.

The trust was established more than a century ago to stop the destruction of native plants, and remains a national leader in native plant conservation, horticulture and education.

Shea said resources for would-be pollinator gardeners are plentiful from organizations like the Native Plant Trust, the Massachusetts Audubon Society and gardener associations.

“I’m a novice,” Shea said, adding that there is a big learning curve ahead,.

In the meantime, Shea and her neighbors are enjoying the journey while communing with the bees and butterflies.

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