Tips from a Wildlife Expert

Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden

There are three basic requirements needed to attract birds and other wildlife to your garden: food, water, and cover.

• To guarantee a year-round food supply, you need a diverse selection of plants that will bear seeds, fruit, and nuts. Consider planting evergreens, which offer shelter and breeding sites while also being a good source of berries and seed-filled cones.
     
• Plan your garden to have a wide variety of flowering plants. Flowers blooming throughout the season keep hummingbirds and butterflies coming back.
   
• Plan for a birdbath. You will be rewarded all year long with bathing birds in the summer and a drinking station in the winter.
   
• Mulch will attract foraging birds looking for high-protein insects and worms. Allowing leaf litter to remain throughout the winter will also attract insects.
   
• Do not deadhead until spring. If this terminology is new to you, deadheading is the process of removing flowers after they have bloomed and faded.  This redirects the plant’s energy away from producing seeds and into forming more new blossoms. Instead, allow seed heads to persist in the garden for winter interest and a food source for birds.
   
• If you can tolerate a small messy corner in your garden, allow for a brush pile to accumulate. This will work as cover for over-wintering birds and for rabbits. Birds will forage the pile for bugs all winter.