Blog #13A Attracting Wildlife: A How-to Guide
Blog Description: An overview of principles for attracting beautiful and useful wildlife to your garden, and why.
The birds, the bees, the bats, oh my!
Today we’re delighted to begin our short series on attracting wildlife. Over the course of the next 5 posts we’ll share tips on how to create a garden that not only soothes your soul, bestows beauty, and stocks your kitchen, but also provides respite to migrating wildlife and habitat to local dwellers.
So grab a cup of tea and get ready to observe your garden.
Whether you are starting with a clean slate or giving your existing garden an overhaul, consider turning your attention to the wildlife in your area. Your garden space can provide an oasis for wildlife amongst the urban sprawl of a suburban landscape.
There are two types of wildlife we usually want to attract, the beautiful and the useful. Often the two overlap.
Attracting native wildlife to your garden creates a symbiotic relationship. While your garden can provide food, safety, and habitat, the wildlife you attract can pollinate your plants and eat pesky mosquitoes and pests such as aphids. Others will lift your heart with delight as they flutter through the garden, buzz past your ears, and fill your yard with song. Some will do both!
From a wider lens, attracting wildlife is a wonderful contribution to restoring the ecosystem in your area. It is one small way you can help collectively towards the effort to conserve our environment.
What if you got together with some neighbors and you all began this effort together? You might create a wildlife corridor right there on your street! Trade cuttings and discuss new habitat ideas together, two heads are better than one as they say.
Okay, so let’s get into how to create a hospitable environment for these wildlife allies of ours.
Tips to Attract Wildlife:
- Remove invasive plants
- Minimize lawns
- Plant wildflowers
- Plant perennial pollinator plants
- Offer water sources
- Keep small, neat brush piles and dead tree trunks
- Place flat rocks out for sunning on
- Allow for sandy spots
- Install bat or owl houses
- Put up bird feeders
- Plant food – bushes that produce berries and flowers that produce delicious seed heads
It can be as simple as this: provide food, water, and a safe place to rest and reproduce.
Observe:
You will want to have your trusty garden notebook with you for this. Grab that cup of tea we mentioned and find a good observation point, in Permaculture lingo we call it a “sit spot”.
From your vantage point, take 30 minutes to observe your garden in the early to mid morning or the evening before the sun goes down – or both if you’ve got the time!
Write down all of the wildlife you see, from insects to vermin to winged animals and garden pests. Notice where they go, what they do, and what they eat, if anything. Write it down.
What are the vermin attracted to? That will direct you to how to keep them out of the yard.
What plants and flowers are the birds attracted to? Maybe plan to grow more of it.
Are there no bats at sundown? Perhaps a bat box is in order.
Are your flowers covered in aphids? Time to attract some ladybugs.
These notes will be invaluable as you plan your next moves in the garden.
Remember, a garden is a living, breathing, ever evolving ecosystem. You are not going to restore balance to a yard ravaged by suburbia overnight, but with a little elbow grease and a lot of love, you will get there. The wildlife will come. And they will rejoice in the haven you have nurtured for them.
This post is the first in a short series on attracting wildlife. We go more in depth in the posts to come on specific types of wildlife and what they need to thrive. Look forward to posts on bees, butterflies and moths, birds, and predators coming up shortly!
As always, we love to read your thoughts and ideas and field your questions. Collectively, we learn more and become better stewards of this beautiful planet we call home when we brainstorm together.
Happy Gardening!
Mary