As I’ve mentioned, I’m deep into my end-of-season garden assessment. This week I’m thinking about the critters in my garden!
Assessment, Part 3: Wildlife
One of my favorite things about gardening . . . is attracting wildlife to my space. Birds, bees, butterflies, insects, frogs, toads, even snakes . . . I love to see them in my garden. And, in fact, I garden specifically to attract them!
Many, many years ago, I “certified” my garden as a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat. (It’s a simple process. You can do it, too! Click the link above for how-to information.) What does that mean, exactly? It means I provide food, water, cover, and places to raise their young for all kinds of wildlife in my garden . . . and that I utilize sustainable gardening practices (I don’t use pesticides or herbicides in my garden beds, for example, and I follow recommended practices for cleaning and maintaining my garden spaces).
I do, of course, attract some wildlife I’m not particularly excited about (too many deer, for example) (and that nest of yellow jackets JoJo disturbed back in August; trust me . . . that was no fun). But, mostly, I’m really excited about seeing all the living creatures who visit my garden.
Here are a few of the critters who lived in my garden spaces this season . . .
Frogs and toads! I’m always happy to see the frogs in my pond. It took several years before the pond attacted them, but now we seem to host them every year. (I think the frogs might be my favorite garden critter, and I know they’re Tom’s.) And I find toads nearly every time I work in the beds. They are so well camouflaged that they always take me by surprise when they move.
Birds! We have so many birds in our garden! So many. And they bring us great joy all year long. We only have one bird feeder in the garden, but I garden “for the birds,” so they can find plenty to eat. I plant perennials and annuals and natives and trees and shrubs that produce food they like to eat, and I make sure there is plenty of “unmulched” ground and untreated lawn for insect-grubbing. This year, my pergola was “home” to several robin families and it was fun to watch them fledge all season. We also had nesting cardinals, mourning doves, and (somewhere in the garden) a family of flickers. We enjoy watching the hummingbirds every day as they gather nectar from my flowers (I don’t have a feeder). And we love capturing sound recordings on the Merlin app . . . where we know we’ve had many new-to-us bird visitors this year, including a great horned owl!
Pollinators! My garden brings ALL the bees all season long. And fewer butterflies than I’d like . . . but more this year than last year, so that’s a big plus. I do have quite a selection of milkweed plants throughout the garden, and I’m always thrilled when I find Monarch caterpillars (I found several this year; still haven’t found a chrysalis, though. . . )
Furry critters! This was certainly . . . the Summer of the Bunnies. Hoo boy . . . did we have bunnies! (One would think that with a dog, maybe we’d have fewer bunnies? But . . . not with ours. She’s too old now to care and too slow to chase, so the bunnies just taunt her from a distance. I think she’d like to be friends with them?) Anyway. I did enjoy watching (several) bunny families grow up in my garden this year. They mostly ate the clover in the grass (which is fine by me), but they also decimated my asters (I give up), my parsley (as in ALL of it), and for the first time ever, they munched my perennial salvia. But, for the most part, the bunnies and I enjoy a peaceful co-existence. We’ve also got chipmunks, squirrels, a neighborhood cat, possums, raccoons, and a woodchuck. (And, of course, deer. Lots and lots of deer.)
And there you have it: Assessment 3 in the books. Big takeaways?
- The deer stayed out of the back garden, thanks to Tom’s “fake double fence” approach (first, the car lot flags last winter, replaced this spring with solar patio lights). I’ve just resigned myself to having them munch my front garden beds, though. (Sigh.)
- The pollinators loved the annual verbena I planted around the garden this year, so more of that next year.
- Keep planting black-and-blue salvia for the hummingbirds!
- And milkweed varieties for the Monarchs!
- Try a bigger patch of dill next year for the Swallowtail caterpillars.
- Think about adding more seed-producing plants in the back garden (free from the deer) – elderberry? winterberry? even coneflower for the finches?
- Splurge on a Bird Buddy feeder to capture bird photos while they’re munching.
- And plant more parsley next year so maybe the bunnies will share?
What incredible photos! You captured a LOT of activity–and beautifully! So glad Tom’s ‘double fence’ did the trick. (You guys really worked overtime on solving that probably in the best of ways.)
I think the frog would have to be my favorite, too. I did look for the black + blue salvia last time you mentioned it (early spring?), but no success in our nurseries here. (Haven’t give up, though.)
I think this is my favorite installment in this series, yet!! Happy weekend to you and yours.
Your garden sounds like an adventure, Kym!
I always enjoy reading your tales from the garden.
Oh, everything is so beautiful!! Great photos, Kym. I plant my parsley in pots and try to keep them out of critters’ reach!
Your garden is a veritable zoo of critters! It would be nice if the rabbits at least shared the parsley with you, but rabbits aren’t known for sharing. I don’t know how the animals would feel about elderberry but you could make elderflower cordial!
Our heated birdbath draws bluebirds every winter. (And I suppose a steady supply of dried mealworms doesn’t hurt!) They used to remain all summer long, building nests in our provided houses. But the damn English sparrows kept attacking their nests, killing the babies. Alas, numerous attempts to thwart these invasive sparrows failed. The bluebirds finally gave up last summer and, for nesting purposes at least, found friendlier grounds. I miss them, but look forward to their return later this year. Such bright color against our snowy deck!
My all-time favorite backyard visitors? A nesting Sandhill Crane pair. When we lived in Perry they used our side yard to teach their babies how to fly! We lived atop a hill and the man-made flat spot (for our drain field) provided the perfect runway to the sloping drop off. Oh, how I loved them!
Last year the deer ate all our Winterberry berries! So far this year they have left them alone. But…for the first time ever, I caught a deer dining on one of the mums that Fletch had just bought that morning! frustrating. now we move them onto the patio at night where (so far) the deer have not ventured. And we had a giant toad the other night on our patio. Hoping the frogs will come. And bunnies galore – they love the clover.
Well, you know I have bunnies galore here. I have yet to see a deer on our street, but I’ve seen then close by. I have been happy to see lots of bees (they like my Russian sage, salvia, and sedum), and yesterday I was thrilled to see a monarch butterfly, but it didn’t want to hold still enough for me to take a photo. I’ve got a mental note for next year to research plants that the bunnies don’t like (they loved my hostas this year).
What lovely photos! I would give anything for bunnies (but then I have a raised bed garden with fences around it).
Your tales from the garden are enchanting and envy-producing. My body cannot do the work of maintaining a garden, but I live vicariously through yours.
We’ve been working on attracting butterflies to our garden by planting milkweed (several varieties) and pollinating plants, too. We were told that the caterpillars will crawl up to 32 feet away from the milkweed to find a safe place for the chrysalis and use a tree or a fence post to blend into the scenery. They can be very hard to spot. Your garden is just lovely! The life and the colors, the textures and the sounds would be so soothing.
I love all of your wildlife! We have lots and lots of birds and squirrels. We had 2 rabbits but I’m pretty sure the neighborhood hawk got both of them. We have 4 female and 1 male hummingbirds and they enjoy my flowers as well as the feeder. And bees! Bumblebees love dahlias and yesterday when I was cutting them I had to move several that were sleeping in them because it was chilly and rainy. I never saw a single monarch butterfly this year and that bums me out.
I love all your wildlife! I do have suet feeders… and boy are they loved! And last month I started putting out some “bird bark” and that has brought so many new birds! We have bunnies (and Sherman would LOVE to be friends with them!) and squirrels (this is the third year we have had a nest in our front tree!) I looked for salvia and could find none at all in any garden place. I am contemplating seeding some next year.
Your garden is so lovely. I don’t know that bunnies understand the concept of sharing – at least not in Nebraska. I didn’t realize that dill attracted caterpillars. I have been considering finding a spot for dill next year. Now I am going to officially add it to next Spring’s list.
I love these assessments, Kym – I know they’re useful for you, and they’re such a treat for this non-gardener. That Bird Buddy sounds amazing (for next year)! We had a lot more bunnies and chipmunks around this year and Lucy would love to make friends; she’s always outside on a leash, though, so that’s unlikely to happen. Our last walk each night is to “see the bunnies” and she’s so excited … and it’s only happened twice that she’s seen them (and now it’s dark on that last walk, and I think bunnies are tucked up in bed).