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¼ cup toasted walnuts

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 celery stalk, halved vertically and thinly sliced

2 scallions, green and white parts, thinly sliced

Put the eggs in a saucepan with cold water to cover, 1 teaspoon salt, and the vinegar. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the water, covered, for 15 minutes. Drain the eggs and transfer to a bowl of ice water. When cool, peel and finely chop the eggs and put them in a large bowl.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan with cold water to cover and a dash of salt. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer, covered, until just tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and let the potatoes cool. Add the potatoes to the eggs.

Combine the parsley, anchovies, olives, walnuts, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. With the food processor running, slowly pour in the olive oil. The pesto should have a coarse texture, so turn off the machine once all of the oil has been poured in to prevent overprocessing.

Gently toss the pesto with the eggs and potatoes. Fold in the celery and scallions. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.

Grow Native Plants to Support Wildlife

The best way to attract friendly native insects and birds is to let native plants—the ones that have been around for at least a couple of centuries—flourish in your garden. In addition to providing natural security against pests, turning your garden into a haven for plant-friendly wildlife gives them a much-needed helping hand as their wild habitat disappears.

Native flora supports native fauna because the plants and animals evolved side by side. Most animals, including the creatures at the bottom of the food chain that we generally fail to notice, can’t nourish themselves on foreign plants. But even these lowly beings have a huge impact on our ecosystem, because if they disappear, so do all the animals above them on the food chain—the charismatic wild animals that we pay homage to in pictures and poetry, like wolves, owls, and turtles. We can help these animals to thrive by planting native species.

The process of pollination is one of nature’s foundations. It happens when pollen is moved within flowers, or from one flower to another within the same species, ensuring that a plant will produce healthy fruit and be capable of germinating. Pollen can be moved by the wind, but most of the time it is moved by animals, including bees, wasps, birds, bats, butterflies, moths, and beetles. We want to attract pollinators to our gardens to not only help our food grow, but also to provide nourishment and shelter for these creatures whose habitat has diminished through pesticide use, pollution, and the clearing of wild land. If we don’t help to protect these pollinators, many of which are endangered, the effects on the natural world could be extreme.

To draw beneficial insects into your garden, plant flowers and other plants that they like. Some insects are very small—like tiny pollinating wasps that don’t sting humans—so they favor tiny blossoms like the ones that grow on mint and other herbs. But once herbs begin to flower, the leaves become bitter. If you are growing parsley, basil, arugula, and other herbs in your kitchen garden, you should pick off the flowers and add them to your salad as soon as they appear. If you are also trying to provide food for pollinators, a good solution is to plant more than one basil plant, for example, and leave the flowers on the ones you care to donate to the birds and bees. Once a week, pick off the flowers—it will make the plant thicker and stronger, and the flowers will reappear in a few days. The good insects you attract will devour garden pests and then harvest the nectar and pollen from the flowers.

Following is a list of food-bearing or edible flora whose blossoms attract pollinators. This is only a partial list, however, as there are many plants the world over that attract pollinators,