Wildlife garden

Whether we like it or not, devel­op­ment has been and will con­tinue to be the Amer­i­can way. Farm­lands and wooded areas are plowed under to make room for sub­ur­ban homes and shop­ping cen­ters. Such devel­op­ment has enabled many to achieve the Amer­i­can dream but for wildlife, it has been the Amer­i­can nightmare.

One of the great­est threats to wildlife around the world is the loss of habi­tat. It is par­tic­u­larly crit­i­cal in met­ro­pol­i­tan areas where devel­op­ment con­tin­ues to reduce or even elim­i­nate nat­ural areas. Publicly-owned parks and nature pre­serves help sup­port wildlife pop­u­la­tions; how­ever, here in Ohio, just 7 per­cent of the land is pub­li­cally owned. Clearly, we must pro­vide habi­tat on pri­vate lands if we are to con­serve wildlife pop­u­la­tions. In addi­tion, fewer peo­ple have easy access to nature and wild ani­mals as Ohio land­scapes con­tinue to urban­ize. Pri­vate, local habi­tats are impor­tant for both edu­ca­tion and appre­ci­a­tion of nature.

You can make a dif­fer­ence to wildlife whether you have a 20 acre farm or a small sub­ur­ban patio or bal­cony. The first step is to decide what type of wildlife you want to attract, and then eval­u­ate your par­tic­u­lar space from a wildlife per­spec­tive. Like humans, wildlife requires food, water, cover and a place to raise their young.

Food can be pro­vided in the land­scape or feed­ers. In the land­scape it is impor­tant to select native plants that pro­vide a source of food year-round. For exam­ple, black­ber­ries and rasp­ber­ries pro­vide fruit in sum­mer; dog­woods, moun­tain ash and spice­bush pro­vide fruit in late sum­mer and early fall and are an impor­tant food source for fall migrants. Plants that retain their fruit through win­ter into early spring, the time of great­est food scarcity, should also be included. Exam­ples are hawthorn, crabap­ple and holly. Con­tainer gar­den­ing has become very pop­u­lar for those with lim­ited gar­den space. Rose­mary and laven­der do very well in the sum­mer and will be a mag­net for bees and hum­ming­birds. Bird, hum­ming­bird, squir­rel and but­ter­fly feed­ers are also very impor­tant in times when nat­ural food sources are not avail­able. Wild bird stores can help you decide what type of seed or feed­ers to pur­chase depend­ing on what you would like to attract.

Wildlife need clean water sources for many pur­poses, includ­ing drink­ing, bathing and repro­duc­tion. Bird­baths, small ponds, and even dishes of water will attract wildlife. Dur­ing warm weather, be sure to change the water in bird­baths and dishes two to three times per week to avoid breed­ing mos­qui­toes. You might even con­sider pur­chas­ing a small heater at a wild bird store to keep water from freez­ing in winter.

Wildlife needs places to feel safe from peo­ple, preda­tors and inclement weather. Cre­at­ing lush growth in a few places will sim­u­late a nat­ural envi­ron­ment. Ever­green trees and shrubs make some of the best shel­ters, espe­cially those with branches close to the ground. You can cre­ate sim­ple shel­ters with log piles, stacks of fire­wood and rock or brush piles. Dead trees and stumps and can also pro­vide a haven.

In cre­at­ing a wildlife habi­tat we should keep in mind the entire life-cycle of a species to occur, from tad­pole to frog, from cater­pil­lar to but­ter­fly. By pro­vid­ing the right cover we can also pro­vide a safe place for ani­mals to raise their young. Tree cav­i­ties in both liv­ing and dead trees pro­vide nest sites for a vari­ety of species includ­ing wood­peck­ers, nuthatches, chick­adees, fly­ing squir­rels and gray squir­rels. Bird­houses and nest­ing boxes can also become a wel­come home.

Chem­i­cals like fungi­cides, her­bi­cides and insec­ti­cides can reduce soil and water qual­ity on your prop­erty and directly harm wildlife. Con­sider using organic tech­niques for gar­den­ing and lawn care when­ever pos­si­ble. Nat­ural con­trol agents like lady­bird bee­tles, some wasps and birds can be effec­tive. Highly toxic or broad spec­trum chem­i­cals that kill most inver­te­brates should be avoided.

Plan­ning ahead can make your back­yard wildlife gar­den flour­ish. Draw a map of your prop­erty includ­ing exist­ing struc­tures and plants, and then use this design to achieve your vision. A lit­tle research will let you know what to plant in both sun and shade.

Build a wildlife haven in your yard, invite nature to your back­door and you will be greatly rewarded! You may obtain more infor­ma­tion from both the National Wildlife Fed­er­a­tion nwf.org and The Ohio Depart­ment of National Resources Divi­sion of Wildlife (800-WILDLIFE). The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion Fact Sheet Back­yard Enhance­ment for Wildlife can be ref­er­enced at ohioline.osu.edu/w-fact/0010.html.

Gar­den structures

Join the Mas­ter Gar­den­ers for a gar­den pro­gram on raised beds and trel­lises. Explore ideas and instruc­tions on how to build and use these struc­tures in your gar­den. The pro­gram is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thurs­day, April 19, held in the com­mu­nity room of the Delaware Com­mu­nity Cen­ter YMCA, 1121 S. Houk Road. It’s free of charge and open to any inter­ested gar­dener. Call the OSU Exten­sion office at 740–833-2030 for more information.

Michele Pear­son is a Mas­ter Gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Apr 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.