Green Living: Attracting Wildlife to Your Green Garden
One "green living" approach to gardening is to create a habitat that attracts and supports wildlife. A green garden is a haven where wildlife can make homes, feed, and breed safely without danger from pesticides and other chemicals. You can help wildlife species to recover from the decimating effects of changes in farming methods and disappearing natural habitat.
What you plant in your garden affects the kinds of birds, insects, mammals, and amphibians that choose to live there. Think carefully about the species you want to see, and grow the appropriate plants to attract them. (Fuchsias and salvias, for example, encourage hummingbirds to visit). If you grow the wrong plants, you may attract unwanted species like ants, slugs, and moles that may make it impossible for other plants to survive.
Wildlife isn't limited to furry critters. You may think all insects are unwanted visitors to your garden, but that's not the case at all. A bug is your friend if it helps pollinate your plants or controls the population of bad bugs. For example, honeybees are nature's great pollinators; dragonflies eat mosquito larvae and adults; and ground beetles feed on root maggots, caterpillars, and slugs, among other things.
Make your garden as varied as possible to attract as many species as possible, by following these suggestions:
- Plants, such asroses, honeysuckle, and lavender each attract different insects like bees and butterflies.
- A woodpile encourages another set of garden dwellers. You may find frogs in the woodpile if it's damp; and if it's big enough to offer a safe place, a rabbit may move in.
- A wildflower patch can encourage native insects (including butterflies) and birds to linger in your garden. Growing a wildflower patch can be as simple as planting a wildflower mix seed packet that's available at garden stores — just make sure that the packet notes the climate zone and area for which the flowers are intended so that you know the flowers are well-suited for your area. Garden center staff also can help you choose wildflower seeds and plants to get you started.
- A water source created from an old bath or basin — or, on a larger scale, a pond — draws everything from dragonflies and frogs to birds and snails.
Change the water in your basin or pond regularly to prevent it from becoming a mosquito-breeding ground, or use a mosquito dunk, which is a small tablet that you drop into the water to kill mosquito larvae. The biological control versions of the dunks contain bacteria that destroy the larvae and are much better for the environment than chemical versions.
- Hedges are great for attracting birds and insects and providing protected space for small animals to make their homes. Grow as many different hedge plants as possible together in your hedge because each different plant attracts different species.
- Trees and shrubs that produce fruit, berries, and seeds are sources of food for your furry and feathered friends.
Boxes and feeders attract birds, bats, and bugs galore.
Visit the National Wildlife Federation for a little inspiration and the exact steps you need to create a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Gardening Glossary
annuals
Plants that complete their entire life cycle within one growing season. The plant germinates from seed, grows and blooms, and then produces seed and dies.
Gardening Glossary
biennials
A plant that take two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. It germinates and grows leaves and stems in the first year; produces flowers and fruit (seed) in the second, and then dies.
Gardening Glossary
bolt
When a plant flowers or produces seed prematurely.
Gardening Glossary
cold frame
A wooden or concrete block box in which you can grow plants or hold dormant during the cold winter months.
Gardening Glossary
cole crops
A family of vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts. They thrive in cooler weather.
Gardening Glossary
complete fertilizer
Any fertilizer that contains all three of the primary nutrients, N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). Phrase is based on regulations governing the fertilizer industry. Does not mean that the fertilizer literally contains everything a plant needs to thrive.
Gardening Glossary
deadheading
The practice of pinching or cutting off spent flowers
Gardening Glossary
evaporative-pad humidifier
A humidifier in which fans blow across a moisture-laden pad that sits in a reservoir of water.
Gardening Glossary
harden off
The process of acclimating plants grown indoors gradually to the brighter light and cooler temperatures of the outside world.
Gardening Glossary
hardiness
The ability of a plant to survive is called its hardiness.
Gardening Glossary
humus
A stable end product of organic-matter decomposition that's believed to increase microbial activity in soil, improve soil structure, and enhance the root development of plants.
Gardening Glossary
Bacillus thuringiensis Bt
An effective bacteria that attacks only the larvae of caterpillar family insects. It is safe to other insects, animals, and humans.
Gardening Glossary
macronutrients
Mineral nutrients that plants need in the largest quantities: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
Gardening Glossary
mulch
Organic or inorganic material placed over the surface of soil, usually directly over the root zone of growing plants. Used to conserve moisture, kill weed seedlings, modify soil temperature, provide attractive covering to garden beds.
Gardening Glossary
organic matter
Once-living stuff like compost, sawdust, animal manure, ground bark, grass clippings, and leaf mold (composted tree leaves). Used to enrich soil and improve soil texture.
Gardening Glossary
perennials
Any plant with a life cycle of three or more years. Herbaceous (non-woody) perennials include flowering plants and herbs, mainly. Woody perennials include trees and shrubs. Longevity depends on the plant and growing conditions.
Gardening Glossary
pH
The measure of soil's acidity. Soil with low pH means it's too acidic; soil with high pH means it's alkaline. Most plants grow best in soil with a pH value between 6.5 and 7.2. Neutral soils measure 7.
Gardening Glossary
photosynthesis
The process through which plants take nutrients from the air and from the water in the soil to produce sugars that fuels the plant's growth.
Gardening Glossary
primary nutrients
Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are the three nutrients plants need in the largest quantities.
Gardening Glossary
root crops
Plants with edible underground roots such as onions, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips. Most root crops are cold-weather crops.
Gardening Glossary
self-blanching
A type of cauliflower with leaves that naturally curl over the head and exclude light. Requires cool temperatures for leaves to curl effectively.
Gardening Glossary
sets
Small onion bulbs, about 1/2-inch wide, that were started from seed the previous year. Grow onion sets with the pointy end up.
Gardening Glossary
side-dressing
The act of adding a small amount of fertilizer around or "on the side" of plants after they're growing.
Gardening Glossary
succession planting
Planting small, 2-to-4-foot patches of plants every two weeks throughout the growing season so that you can harvest a crop over an extended period of time.
Gardening Glossary
thinning
The act of cutting the least robust seedlings in your garden to give the healthier plants more room to grow.
Gardening Glossary
vining crops
Crops that grow on vines, such as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and winter squash. They usually require support (staking, trellising, etc.) to keep them off the ground.
