Natural Habitat Garden
Creating Backyard Habitats for Wildlife makes a healthier habitat for you and your family. You don't need a lot of space to make a big difference in the neighborhood.
Small projects with big punch:
Hang a bird feeder. My favorite feeders are the simple little green plastic "gazebo" feeders that you find in hardware stores quite cheaply. The birds like the shelf around the bottom and they are easy to put away each night ( You don't mind encouraging habitat, but raccoons will break almost any feeder)
Hang Suet cakes, or balls. Birds who like suet generally like to eat bugs. Works for me.
Set up a birdbath
Leave a little brush pile somewhere in your yard. It provides great refuge for little birds, such as creepers, that feed on the ground
Keep the area around your feeders mowed and trimmed so as not to provide predators with a hiding place
Bigger Projects:
- Wildflower meadow
- Snake den
- Building a Flying Squirrel Box
- Putting up a bat house
- Bee bungalow
- WILD Education - Habitat 2000 / Learning About Wildlife
Little ponds or water features will attract wildlife. Be careful stocking it with fish, as that may attract predatory hawks and eagles to the detriment of the other birds.
Garden organically. Those darn chemicals aren't good for wildlife either.
Mix and Match
Incorporate native trees, shrubs and flowers in with the showier ones to encourage natural wildlife in your own backyard. Click Here to access the CWF Wild About Gardening plant database.
Special Note: Every gardening expert and pro will advise tilling and trimming and tidying up the gardens in the fall. So why don't I do that? Because one year I had to have surgery and didn't have a chance to do that. All winter long, I noticed that the birds had a heyday with the untrimmed and untilled garden.
Ever since then, I have left it in place in all its unkempt glory and enjoyed the extra treat of winter birdwatching from any window in the house. Which, I might add, makes for excellent cold weather cat tv for my kitties.
