Tips for a Flower Garden That Attracts Wildlife
Perhaps you’ve made up your mind to create a garden that can be enjoyed by not only you, but by nature’s insects, birds and creatures too. Yet, do you have many gardening questions that need to be answered? Flower gardening for wildlife involves several different components. Most creatures like to live near a water feature, where they can get hydrated on those warm summer days. Birds are especially drawn to fountains full of circulating water. They also like to dwell near a food source. This means different things for different animals, of course, so you’ll need to do your research. Creatures also like places of shelter, such as rocks, bird houses or ground cover, for example.
If you are thinking about creating a garden that will be a magnet for song birds, then you can incorporate a few special bushes, annuals, perennials, cultivated and native flora to attract them to your yard. By cultivating plants from each category, you can supply fruits and seeds for all seasons to keep the birds chirping throughout the year. Make sure to include a bird bath and toss seeds out in the wintertime to keep your bird family content.
Also, think about the fact that, as well as your flowers, birds are fond of trees for safety, nesting and cover from the weather. Often the trees also provide food like berries, sap and seeds. You can consider leafy trees such as dogwood, red mulberry, American mountain ash, sassafras, hazelnut, chestnut and black walnut, along with coniferous trees like red cedar, blue spruce, American holly white cedar, Douglas fir, California juniper and ponderosa pine.
Flower gardening is an important source of food for sparrows, finches and other songbirds. You can try perennials like penstemon, tickseed, bee balm, goldenrod, cosmos, purple coneflower and four o’ clocks, or you may try annuals like sunflowers, asters, bachelor’s button, spider flower, snapdragons and cockscomb. Garden guides also recommend planting shrubs and vines where birds can hide from predators and seek out food. Some tasty plants (like cherries and raspberries) are preferable to our flying friends, but they’re picked clean in a hurry. On the other hand, birds can be seen feasting all year long on elderberries, blackberries, huckleberries, chokecherries, bayberries, Oregon grapes, beauty-berries, silver-berries, blueberries, crab apples, cranberries and currants all year long.
If you’re flower gardening to attract butterflies, then you will need a place for the insects to gather water, to seek solace from the sun and predators, as well as sources to breed and feed. With the exception of monarchs and other migrators, butterflies generally don’t like to migrate too far from what they need, so if your yard has it all, you’re likely to keep these beautiful insects around. Garden supplies stores online sometimes sell butterflies from farms that you can let loose in your backyard once it’s all set up to jumpstart the process.
Your house may be beautiful, but if the surrounding area isn’t well maintained, it ruins the whole effect. Home gardening can make a tremendous difference in the appearance of your property. Visit the Landscaping Ideas site for some fabulous ideas to add class and style to your property.
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