Do you enjoy feeding and watching the birds? Do you have a place on your property where you can enjoy a butterfly garden ? Would you like to learn how to provide native wildlife with more natural food choices? Backyard Wildlife Habitats are fun for the entire family! I call this style of gardening “Naturescaping”.

Connecting with and supporting nature in my own backyard is one of my main reasons for gardening. I also enjoy teaching and inspiring others to do this type of gardening on their own properties.

Since moving into our Hadley home in the early 1980’s, I’ve been practicing backyard conservation and nature-friendly gardening. Several years ago, I had our 1.25-acre property certified with the National Wildlife Federation as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat. How does a property qualify for certification?

Throughout my property, I continuously enhance habitat by providing four important elements

A red-bellied woodpecker is a daily visitor

1. Food – in addition to supplying birdseed and suet, and provide a natural food source — seeds, nectar, pollen, berries, as well as insects that the plants attract, to support native habitat. I also incorporate the best host and nectar plants for butterflies and moths.

2. Water – a small pond, birdbaths (heated in winter), and shallow saucers of water placed throughout the garden provide water for drinking, bathing, and for some wildlife, a place to live.

3. Cover –strategically placing trees, shrubs and plants for birds, small mammals, and other forms of wildlife for protection from predators and extreme weather is essential.

4. Places to Raise Young – my property is full of birdhouses, roosting boxes and places where bird nests can be built in dense shrubbery and tree branches. Dense vegetation, stonewalls and brush piles are available for small mammals and reptiles to call home.
In addition, I’m also very careful to follow sustainable gardening practices for the least negative impact to the environment. This means practicing companion planting and integrated pest management, eco-friendly lawn care, building and encouraging good soil with helpful and supportive microorganisms, consciously conserving water, and recycling garden and kitchen waste to make compost. The more I do, the more wildlife will benefit.
My rewards for creating this habitat are many! Visitors often comment that my garden feels “alive” with birdsong, butterfly and hummingbird activity, frogs croaking, dragonflies perching on bamboo sticks in my pond, chipmunks scurrying, rabbits hopping, and all forms of pollinators and insects enjoying flowers, herbs, berries, and seed pods.

Dragonflies are regular visitors to my water garden.

Veggies, herbs and edible flowers harvested from my gardens.

Not only do my gardens aid and nurture wildlife, they provide me with fruits and vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs, gorgeous blooms for cutting, and a strong sense of connection to Mother Earth.

I know that I’m doing my part to help heal the planet in my own backyard and I feel really good about supporting wildlife and people by gardening this way.

View this wonderful video by the National Wildlife Federation , then give me a call. I’d be happy to start you on the path of building and enjoying your own backyard wildlife habitat!

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