Designing Your Wildlife Garden
Reclaiming wildlife habitat yard by yard is a vital step anyone can take just outside their door. Re-establishing native plant communities and protecting the local watershed with sustainable gardening practices is what gardening for wildlife is all about.
Here are some simple ways you can provide the essential habitat components of food, water, cover, and places to raise young while designing a garden space that appeals to your aesthetics and enhances the natural landscape.
Decide on the type of habitat garden based on your region.
There many options, such as bird-, bee-, and butterfly-friendly gardens, rain gardens and water gardens, meadow or prairie gardens, etc. Existing trees and plantings in your yard may help dictate what native plants will do well.
Observe the amount of sun and shade your intended garden habitat receives during the day. For example, any area that gets six or more hours of sunlight will thrive with sun-loving plants. Areas that tend to collect water or stay moist will be suitable for more wetland plants.
Prepare your site for planting.
Clear new planting site of all turf grass and weeds, unless your soil is too compacted to plant in—natives do not need much soil amendment. In fact, soil that is too rich and loamy results in very tall plants that can flop over.
Decide on a focal point for each garden bed or section of your yard.
These can be natural, like an anchoring shrub, tree, or hollow log. Human touches, like a birdbath, fountain, bench, or sculpture can add interest and draw people in to the landscape.
Balance the “natural look” with some definition.
Well-designed borders, paths, hedges, plant islands, and fencing frame the features of the garden and provide a neat appearance that your neighbors will appreciate.
Select plants that provide year-round diversity.
Wildlife need food, water, cover, and places to raise young with flowers, shrubs, trees, and grasses all year. To understand the benefits of these read about Plant for Diversity, then explore the types of plants and wildlife native to your area by entering your zip code in the Native Plant Finder.
Plant similar species of plants in groupings.
You will get larger color and textural impact, and eye-catching patterns throughout the garden bed or landscape. This technique also draws the eye into the garden and the close plantings will prevent weed groups and minimize the need for excess mulching.
Provide a backdrop of texture and structure.
Evergreens, native grasses, or taller plants will help frame smaller plants.
Sustain your wildlife garden and the ecosystem with Sustainable Practices.
Maintaining your landscape in a sustainable,
environmentally-friendly way ensures that the soil, air, and water that native wildlife (and people) rely upon stay clean and healthy.
Practice neighbor-friendly gardening.
Explain to your neighbors the intent and design of your garden and yard that may not conform to common garden or neighborhood association expectations.
Celebrate by certifying and displaying a sign!
Show why you have designed your yard intentionally to help wildlife and encourage them to do the same.
https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create/At-Home
Gardening for wildlife? Sometimes it seems like that’s all we do here. I think the rabbits, deer, and birds harvest more of everything than we get.
“Rats with white tails.” I've given up on hostas, hydrangeas, English hollies, arbor vitae, liriope, azalea blooms, any kind of lilies, geraniums, crysanthemums. In a pinch they will even eat marigolds, which normally they disdain. Deer repellents are expensive and time-consuming. Sometimes they even tear wire garden fencing up out of the ground with their teeth.
The worst is when they mistake the reflection of trees on the front picture windows of our townhomes for the forest behind our houses, and break into someone's living room, bleeding all over the carpets and upholstery.
So far (knock wood), I've only suffered dents to my car and my metal front door, but my neighbor and my church has had them bust in, create chaos trying to get back out via the kitchen, and die in the process of skating around in a panic on the tile floors and stainless steel appliances.
See if your state has a State Nursery. They sell native trees and shrubs that attract native wildlife and it’s cheap. I’ve bought from mine before. Some did ok, some didn’t do squat and some did ok. The hardest part id getting the good stuff. They run out in less than 24 hours it seems. Of course by good stuff, I mean human edible. Hazelnuts, Papaws, various berries.
It was another warm and dry week here in Central Missouri. Not really ideal weather for deer hunting season, which opened a week ago Saturday. My freezers are all full so I didn’t buy tags this time.
My garden rebuild project is going well. I’ve finished moving dirt out and am ready to do the finish grade. It’s raining here today, but the forecast is dry for the rest of the week so with a four day weekend coming I should be able to get that task knocked out.
Once that’s done it will be time to do some measuring to lay out the perimeter and figure out how big/how many planter boxes I’ll need to build. I’ve settled on using corrugated barn roofing sheets for the sides/ends of the boxes. Boxes built with that stuff look nice, and it’s quite a bit less $$$/sq. ft. than pressure treated lumber.
I’m also planning to use long posts for the corners on some of the boxes so I’ll have a way to hang shade cloth above plants that don’t enjoy constant beating from the sun.
One side of the hoop house incorporates the perimeter fence on the west side of the garden so it will have to be torn down and rebuilt too.