Gardening for wildlife is much more fun and relaxing than gardening purely for beauty or to keep up with your neighbors’ expectations for yards in the neighborhood.
A landscape with perfectly trimmed trees and shrubs and annuals lined up in rows like soldiers may be pretty, but it is rather sterile. Add some birdsong and butterflies and the yard instantly comes to life.
To welcome wildlife, four items are needed: food, water, protective cover and places to raise young.
Putting up a bird feeder is one option for providing food, but not the easiest. You have to remember to fill it, clean it occasionally and try to keep the squirrels from stealing the bird seed. A better way to provide food is to plant native plants that will provide nuts, seeds and berries for wildlife all year long. Once native plants are established, they need little or no maintenance. The National Wildlife Federation lists these plants as the top ten native plants for Wisconsin: northern white cedar, black oak, American highbush cranberry, northern hackberry, gray dogwood, chokecherry, swamp milkweed, wild columbine and cup plant. There are hundreds more beautiful and interesting plants native to our area. A good place to find out about them is at www.for-wild.org or the library.
Butterflies like red, orange, pink or purple blossoms. The flowers should be flat-topped or clustered or have short flower tubes. Some of the best butterfly attractors are zinnias, marigolds, tithonia, buddleia, milkweeds, verbenas, and many mint family plants. Make sure they are located in a sunny area.
Water can be provided with a birdbath, a small pond or just a shallow dish set out on your patio. Be sure to place the water source within sight of your window so you can watch the birds frolic!
Protective cover means a place for wildlife to hide and feel safe. You can plant a small meadow or prairie, or if that is too ambitious, plant densely-branched shrubs and evergreens. Hollow logs, brush piles and rock piles also provide cover. You can make or buy nesting boxes too. A little research will tell you the proper kind of nesting box for the birds you want to attract.
Most important, once you attract the wildlife to your yard, don’t kill them by using any kind of insecticide. Insecticides aren’t choosy – they will kill any kind of insect, including butterflies and caterpillars. They can even poison the birds who eat the insects.
When your yard provides food, water, cover and a place to raise young, you can certify it with the National Wildlife Federation at www.nwf.org/backyard.
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