Save the Wildlife, One Yard at a Time: Backyard Wildlife Habitats
(Page 2 of 3)
March/April 2009
By Carol Crupper
Mountain runoff feeds a pond the Guthries built behind their two-story log home. Brimming with bluegill and goldfish and planted with native cattails, this watering hole attracts great blue herons, kingfishers, ducks and osprey. Swallows hone in on the insects the pond attracts. “They’re our mosquito patrol,” Mary says.
RELATED CONTENT
Whether you have a backyard or a balcony, you can enhance biodiversity by providing a habitat for b...
On a northern Minnesota farm, a young mother passes down the love of gardening, native plants and t...
Make sure your site has adequate food, water and sustainable spaces....
Build a water garden in your backyard for a natural retreat. Learn about tips for building a pond, ...
After heavy rains, pipes pull excess pond water into a nearby wetland, a nesting site for snipes. Nesting boxes throughout the garden shelter finches, wrens and swallows.
Supplemented with an array of feeders, plants provide seasonal feasts. In spring and summer, red-winged blackbirds dine on blue lupine while goldfinches opt for cosmos. In fall, sunflowers left to dry augment crabapples, elderberries, twinberries and serviceberries to feed wildlife.
Wild, on the tame side
Not all wildlife gardens evoke such a wild feel. Retired chemistry professor Jack Landgrebe tends a woodland shade garden behind his home in Lawrence, Kansas. Neat paths meander through hundreds of species of plant life, each meticulously labeled. “You have to keep things trimmed to keep it under control,” Jack says.
This scientist adjusts for micro-climates and thinks seasonally. In a particularly wet area, he built a bog garden with sweet flag, ferns and horsetail. Cardinals hide in a tangle of Virginia creeper that clings to an old stump. In winter, the garden offers cones, seeds and berries; evergreens provide shelter.
Groundcovers (wild ginger, creeping Jenny, vinca and bishop’s weed) eliminate the need for mulch. A manmade pond, bubblers and fountains entice turtles, herons and possums. Jack calls the rocks around his pond “sort of a Taj Mahal for chipmunks.”
Farms go wild, too
In rural Kansas, Cheryl and Charlie Thomas garden on a much larger canvas. A decade ago, the two purchased a 153-acre former cattle farm, which they’ve converted into one of more than 2,800 National Wildlife Federation-certified farms in the United States.
With help from the Kansas Depart-ment of Parks and Wildlife, they’re restoring most of their land to native prairie and attracting upland game birds such as quail, turkey and pheasant. They’ve planted golden currants, chokecherries, native plums and an array of grasses. They’ve coaxed two dry ponds back to life and built a third with running water.
Speckled eggs lie hidden in swaying grass. Shades of gold and green coat the rolling hills as clouds billow across the wide azure sky. Wild strawberries, blackberries, butterfly weed and bee balm add summer color. In fall, native cedars stand festooned in bright orange bittersweet. A ribbon of woodland draws mountain lions, bobcats, coyote and deer. As he cleared pathways through the dense woods, Charlie left dead trees to provide cover and food for wildlife.