elise's Blog

Nature to the max!
Apr 4, 2007 | 4:19 PM PST
Tags: wildlife , garden , design , plan , vegetables , habitat , flowers , native , birds , animals , bugs , insects

Here are some ideas about how to make your garden the most rewarding place to be for yourself and for wildlife.

1. Think about how you typically walk to your house and what parts of your garden you spend time looking at every day, walking by and looking out your windows. These areas will become your visual focus areas. The rest of the yard can become devoted to fruits, vegetables, compost, and wildlife habitat.

2. Plant your visual focus areas with all your most beautiful plants and with plants that grow fruits you can pick as you pass by every day. Remember that even garden areas designed for visual appeal can be made beautiful using native plants that provide nectar, seed and fruit for wild birds and insects.

3. Section off more remote areas of your yard for dense, native-only plantings to give your critter friends a place to feel safe when they visit your garden.

4. Keep your veggies clustered together so the extra watering they require won't be wasted on other plants that don't need it.

5. Find a corner of your yard where you can pile all your pulled weeds and prunings for compost. This spot should be easily accessible but out of sight from your normal paths. If you live in a temperate climate you can mix your non-greasy food waste in with your yard compost and within a year the bottom of the pile will become fresh, nutritious compost to feed your flower beds. If you use this instead of store-bought fertilizers you will cut the risk of poisoning the wildlife you want to invite to your yard.

Tips: Before buying plants, research the native birds, mammals, and insects of your area. Find out what they like to eat and live in. Remember that birds often come to plants to eat the insects which are attracted to those plants.