|
|
|
|
April 1998
Spring is here, and I’m planning what to do this season to enhance the yard as wildlife habitat. Even though I live in a small town, I see my yard as a small clearing in the big Maine forest. Living in the forest, I share the landscape with the wildlife. There are resident and migratory birds. There are butterflies, moths and bees. There are woodchucks, skunks, bats and raccoons. There are salamanders, snakes, and toads. We even have occasional visits from a moose.
In addition to big shade trees and evergreens essential for winter cover, I plant fruiting shrubs and trees. These provide nectar and fruit, and offer nesting, roosting, and perching sites as well as cover for protection from weather and escape from predators. Often I group shrubs together to create thickets, or plant them in lines to form hedgerows. To provide food throughout the year, I consider whether the fruits will be available in summer and early fall or will persist into the winter and early spring. Some of my favorite fruiting shrubs are serviceberry, highbush blueberries, winterberry and holly. Viburnums are fruit bearing shrubs, and I have planted varieties such as the wayfaring tree, the mayflower and the cranberry. I have two mountainash and several varieties of crabapple, trees that provide fruit in fall and winter. This spring we are adding four Cornus alternifolia, Maine’s native dogwood.
While I choose plants to benefit wildlife, I am not totally unselfish in these selections. The trees and shrubs blossom earlier than anything in my gardens and the persistent fruits are colorful in the winter. The leaves of many of these plants become vivid red or yellow in the fall. These trees and shrubs are in the small range, from 6 to 25 feet when mature, and each species and variety has its own unique branching habit and bark texture that add beauty to the landscape. When deciding where to locate the plantings, I consider the views from the windows and the flow of movement in the yard.
I choose disease and pest resistant varieties, so that I am not tempted to use chemicals dangerous to wildlife. This also saves money and keeps these substances away from me. Last summer aphids attacked the serviceberry. On a warm day, I used the hard spray from the garden hose on all the leaves to remove the aphids. The shrub recovered, and I was pleased with the method. When I see white-faced hornets around, I know they eat insect pests, and I am happy when ladybugs are abundant. A few years ago, I bought praying mantis egg cases, and set them about the yard. I now sometimes find a praying mantis in the vegetation. The bats I see in the evening and insect-eating birds such as kingbirds, hummingbirds, and several species of warblers help to control insects. Toads and snakes eat insects, and skunks patrol the lawn eating Japanese beetle grubs. It seems that everything is helping me.
Some of the yard goes semi-wild. The leaves collect at the edges of the yard where birds find insects and worms to eat. Wildflowers volunteer and surprise me with beautiful blossoms. After my unsuccessful attempt to cultivate foxglove, an accommodating bird dropped seeds at the edge of the yard, and I now have foxglove blooming most of the summer. The area over the septic field is mowed only in early spring and wildflowers and grasses have volunteered, giving a fair impression of a tiny meadow. Butterflies and moths are attracted there.
Spring is a perfect time to start or add to brush piles. I put them in the back corners of the yard, out of sight. Branches, stalks of the perennials from spring cleaning gardens, and even grass sod from digging a new garden build up over the years as I add to the piles and they settle from rain and age. Salamanders, snakes, birds and mice all use the brush piles for shelter.
When selecting flowering plants for the garden, I look for single blossom varieties that have sweeter and more accessible nectar than do double blossom varieties. This includes members of the daisy family such as aster, gayfeather, goldenrod, sunflower, and black-eyed Susan. Many plants such as aster, phlox, gayfeather, coreopsis and blue globe thistle provide seeds for the birds when I leave them standing in the garden until spring. For ruby-throated hummingbirds, I plant tubular flowers. They use Solomon’s seal, an early-flowering perennial, phlox and blue globe thistle. This year I am planting red salvia, an annual, and cardinal flower, a perennial lobelia. Even though they prefer red flowers, hummingbirds use nectar from flowers of other colours. For the bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds, I am working toward having a succession of flowers blooming from early spring until fall.
I choose plant species that are native to Maine, or non-native plants that are not invasive. Invasive non-native plants such as purple loosestrife, multi-flora rose, bittersweet, autumn olive, and Japanese barberry take over habitats and out-compete native species. Native plant species may be of greater benefit to native wildlife because they evolved together and have developed complex adaptations and relationships. Gardeners appreciate native species over non-natives because they are better able to survive in our climate and require less maintenance.
It is a creative endeavor to combine the aesthetics of landscaping and gardening with the requirements of wildlife habitat. Pursuing the goals of aesthetics and habitat puts the human and the natural in harmonious relationship. We are, as wildlife and vegetation are, part of the landscape. In my lovely corner of this great forest, providing for the needs of wildlife satisfies the needs of my soul.
By Nancy Coverstone (ncstone@umext.maine.edu), University of Maine Extension Educator in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties
Return to Wild About Nature Table of Contents
Putting knowledge to work with the people of Maine
A Member of the University of Maine System
Last Modified:
08/13/06
These pages are currently being maintained from the
Communications Office Office, University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Send comments, suggestions or inquiries to www-questions@umext.maine.edu
COUNTY OFFICES | PROGRAMS | RESOURCES | PUBLICATIONS | WHAT'S NEWS | UMAINE EXTENSION HOME | UMAINE
Information in this web site is provided purely for educational purposes. No responsibility is assumed for any problems associated with the use of products or services mentioned in this web site. No endorsement of products or companies is intended, nor is criticism of unnamed products or companies implied.
