A Native Shade Garden in Sydney -- Year Two

Native shade garden in Sydney, Australia -- Year Two

In April 2013 I visited my daughter, Liz, in Sydney, Australia, and wrote a post about a native shade garden she was planting. Liz has continued working on the garden, and here's her update on progress:

Phase I is now complete!

I'll start with the failures:

Not everything has worked in this garden, and bush turkeys were a big issue initially. Because they forage in the soil, they are particularly drawn to areas that have been recently disturbed, and if the plants are too small (less than about 30 cm), the turkeys will pull them out by their stem or just snap them in half. The native gingers fell victim, and the burrawang cycad (Macrozamia communis) was defoliated. Two unfortunate losses, as both would have offered something different to the garden from the simple flowering plants. We also lost a flax lily and a native indigo to the turkeys, but I had them in multiple so they still have a presence in the garden. The Kangaroo fern died slowly from some incurable unhappiness, and the strap water fern looks like going in the same direction but it hangs in there for now.

Successes

The Chinese wisteria has been 95% successfully removed and I will finish the job this summer. I used a 50/50 mix of tree poison and kerosene applied liberally to a freshly cut stump. The kangaroo vine is now in its place and taking off like a rocket. I hope I didn't make a mistake there! All the plants other than ferns were tubestock when I planted them, and some are just now getting to a regular nursery size. Others have already reached their full height and spread, including the native indigo, which is now taller than me and bursting with flowers in the spring (it was stunning!). All of the original non-invasive ferns (I think they are common ground ferns) have taken well to being transplanted and spread around the garden.

Additions

I have added a number of new plants (see the list below). Some of them are transplants from this garden or a friend's, others were nursery purchases and a few are propagation successes from a local parkland.

And bees! I applied for a native stingless beehive from the council two years ago and finally made it to the top of the waiting list. They aren't for honey, just a bit of ecosystem repair and a talking point. They now live in a sunny corner of the shade garden and the colony will be split every spring (when possible).

A box full of native stingless bees for the garden

Phase II is now underway!

I gave some time (ok, an entire weekend) to the smaller upper level of garden mess that sits beneath the tall camelia. Once I cleared the area, I placed some silver lady ferns (Blechnum gibbum) and a prostrate geebung (Persoonia chamaepitys), as well as some transplanted ferns. Most of this space is deep shade, so will require true shade-lovers. The planting continues...

Silver lady ferns and a prostrate geebun keep the camila company

Maintenance

I have laid very course gum tree chips over the entire area which get refreshed yearly. The garden also gets a native fertilizer about every three months (or whatever the packet suggests), and the ferns get an additional handful of compost whenever I have it available. Since the first summer passed, I only water when the plants look limp, which is only on the hottest days, and weeds are a non-issue. This garden now needs less attention than any other area of our property, which is an amazing transformation from its original state.

Wildlife results

Birds are regular visitors to the garden, the main attraction being the birdbath - butcher birds, rainbow lorikeets and noisy miners all come daily, and a rare king parrot has made a visit. Lack of interest in the plants is probably due to a combination of causes. This is the first year of blooms for several of the flowering plants, including the lomandra and native indigo, but the cordylines, tuckeroo, and banksia remain flower-free. Additionally, none of the plants are large enough to host a perching bird, but perhaps next year we will see a change as the banksia looks set to take off with a growth spurt this summer. Turkeys still forage regularly through the garden, but the plants are all big enough to withstand the occasional partial exhumation. For all their trouble, the turkeys are still some of my
favorite garden visitors.

Lizards and amphibians are either rare or well camouflaged. One aspect the garden lacks is a decent ground cover, and this would definitely encourage the smaller vertebrate visitors.

The list of new plants

Lindsea linearis - Screw fern, a very distinct-looking small, upright fern

Calochlaena dubia - Common ground fern

Blechnum gibbum - Silver lady fern/dwarf tree fern

Cyathea australis - Tree fern, grows to 6 m with long, broad fronds up to 4 m each

Hakea sericea - Silky hakea, foliage provides protection for small birds and flowers attract birds

Persoonia chamaepitys - Creeping geebung, provides low cover for lizards, flowers attract birds

Correa glabra - Native fuchsia, attracts honeyeater birds

Correa baeuerlenii - Native fuchsia, attracts honeyeater birds

Scaevola aemula - Fairy fan flower, a bit of summer color in an otherwise very green garden

Hardenbergia violacea - Native sarsparilla, provides low cover for lizards, improves soil and attracts seed eating birds and insects

Cupaniopsis parvifolia - Small-leaved tuckeroo, small dry rainforest tree to 6 m (in NSW), fruit attracts birds and butterflies

Planting a Native Australian Shade Garden in Sydney

Bird's Nest Ferns

I'm visiting my daughter, Liz, in Sydney, Australia, where she's rejuvenating the landscaping around her home. Like most gardens in this country, hers is dominated by non-native plants -- in this case English cottage garden plants such as camellias, azaleas, lilies, iris, and daffodils.

This would be fine, except that imported plants have an unfortunate tendency to "escape" from gardens and displace native species in the wild, causing irreparable harm to the delicate ecosystem here. Australia's geographic isolation has allowed its native plants and animals to evolve uniquely, and many species aren't found anywhere else the world. Since European settlement, 61 native plant species have become extinct, and a further 1,239 are threatened. Although many factors contribute to this tragic loss of diversity, the introduction of invasive, non-native plants into the ecosystem is a major one.

With this in mind, Liz has accepted the challenge to replace non-natives in her garden with native plants indigenous to the Sydney area. And a challenge it is. The small part I've taken has made me appreciate why people prefer gardening with familiar plants from their own countries (and may explain why Australia has so many non-natives). There is so much to learn! Australian native plants aren't like anything I've dealt with before. Their appearance is unfamiliar. I don't know their growth habits or their sun/shade/water/nutrient/soil requirements. I can't distinguish a weed from a desirable plant, or a native from a non-native. 

To meet the challenge, Liz has adopted a phased strategy, planning to take on just one section of the landscaping at a time, clearing it and figuring out which plants will work best in that particular spot. This should make the learning curve a bit less steep. Fortunately, most of the non-native plants in her yard are fairly well behaved and not known to be "escapees," and the problem plants can be controlled by removing their flowers and seed pods until such time as the plants themselves can be removed.

During my visit, I've assisted with Phase I: rehabilitating the garden across the driveway from the patio -- the most visible one. The whole garden is shaded all winter, and the front of it's sunny in summer.

Phase I: This garden hosts several invasive species, including Fishbone ferns, which are native to another part of Australia, but invasive here, where they choke out other plants.  The fence in back is covered with Chinese wisteria that Liz will remove in the  future and replace with native Kangaroo vine. Just as we experience in Seattle, the wisteria wants to take over the world, and will climb trees and strangle them if not constantly cut back. 

Liz clears the ground, digging out roots and tubers. Fishbone ferns seen on the far left of this photo are in a Phase II section of the garden and will be removed later.

We acquired these natives in an expedition to two native plant nurseries. Liz selected plants with a mixture of growth habits, adult heights, and foliage. Small plants are less expensive and easier to plant than larger ones. See below for her plant list.

Here's a close-up of several ferns, which should do well in this shade garden.

The planting begins.

Everything's now in the ground, including some stones for a path to the birdbath. As the plants mature, they will overtake the empty spaces and create a full, lush effect.

Here's a different viewpoint. Liz has started to apply a thick layer of mulch to retain moisture and help give the plants a good start.

And here's the next section waiting for rehabilitation.

Liz's list of shade-loving (or tolerant) Australian native plants and their habitat value:

Indigofera australis - native indigo, shrub, 1.5 m tall.  Produces small pink flowers which attract native bees and butterfly larvae, seeds attract birds.
Dianella caerulea – flax lily/paroo lily, perennial herb, 1 m tall. Purple berries attract birds and butterflies.
Alpinia caerulea - native ginger (and Atherton ginger*), perennial herb, 1.5-3 m tall. White flowers and blue fruit attract birds.
Lomandra fluviatilis - no common name, NSW ENDEMIC, 50 cm tall, tufted perennial herb. Attracts seed-eating birds and provides shelter for small birds and lizards.
Cissus antarctica - kangaroo vine/water vine, climbing vine. Provides nesting sites for birds. Purple fruit attracts birds, moths and ringtail possums.
Macrozamia communis - burrawang cycad, NSW ENDEMIC, 3 m wide, 1-2 m tall. Large seeds attract marsupials, large birds and fruit bats. However, they are extremely toxic to humans and non-native animals/livestock and can cause death.
Cordyline stricta – slender palm lily/narrow leaved palm lily, shrub, 2-3 m tall.  Attracts butterfly larvae.
Blechnum patersonii - strap water fern. Provides shelter to small birds and lizards.
Microsorum diversifolia - kangaroo fern. Provides shelter to small birds and lizards.
Doodia aspera - rasp fern. Provides shelter to small birds and lizards.
Asplenum australasicum - birds nest fern. 
Adiantum spp. – maidenhair fern (already in the garden).
And then of course the sun-loving Banksia integrifolia – coast banksia, tree, 25 m, to create more shade for the shade-loving plants.  Large flowers attract nectar-feeding birds and seeds attract small mammals.

*The Atherton ginger was the only plant we brought home that is not indigenous to the Sydney area. This ginger comes from Queensland, but we fell in love with the red underside of the leaves.

For an update on Liz's progress, see A Native Shade Garden in Sydney -- Year Two.

For more information on Australia's native plants, see: 

Flora of Australia Wiki

Australia Native Plants Society

Australia National Botanic Gardens and Biodiversity Research

Flora and Fauna of Australia

How Much Stuff Does It Take to Be Happy?

Recently, my young friend Lori wrote about paring down her possessions so she can move to the east coast and attend a writing program. In her post, she lists five benefits of owning less, including

• saving money,
• gaining appreciation of the stuff you decide to keep,
• traveling and relocating more easily,
• making other people happy by giving them your castoff things, and
• reducing the urge to buy more stuff and thereby overspend.

To Lori's list, I'd add this bullet:

• feeling great about "treading more lightly on the earth," counteracting the trend seen in this terrific, and terrifying, video:

Anyway, the subject of stuff is one I've been thinking about for years. It started with a study I read in Utne Reader about 15 or so years ago. It reported that the happiest people on earth were living in a tiny town in India, where a person with a stool to sit on was considered rich. In spite of the dearth of physical possessions, the people in this village managed to educate their children from a communal library, maintain good health, and have strong social bonds. 

This shocked me. I haven't been able to find it on the web to share it with you, and it may not still be valid, but the point is, it got me thinking. Up until then, like many people around me, I'd measured success in monetary terms. For example, one of my goals was to earn enough money to buy a pair of gold hoop earrings. When I finally had enough extra money for them, I judged I'd really "made it."

BUT -- what was next? What would really make me and the kids happier? (We were already happy, I should add.) More stuff to follow the earrings?? Accumulating possessions seems to be the goal of many of us in this country. I kept thinking about this. And buying more stuff.

I found it difficult, if not impossible, to go against the flow, to take a different direction than the larger society, regardless of any intentions otherwise. As time went on, though, I began feeling weighed down. Possessions were supposed bring happiness, but the pleasure was short-lived, and then I had to worry about housing, cleaning around, and moving an ever-increasing amount of stuff.

When the kids left home for college about a decade ago, I started paring down, hoping to lighten this burden. About halfway through that process, Bill and I met, married, and merged households, so I got to weed out even more stuff. Then the kids needed us to store "just a few boxes" for them. During that time, I felt like I'd acquired some very bad "garage karma" because no sooner did I get it cleaned out, than it would magically fill up again, with no help from me.

Now, a few years later, I'm in the final stages of what turned into a gigantic effort. Last year, Bill and I moved into the city to be closer to his work and cultural activities. Because homes here cost nearly twice as much per square foot as the suburban home we'd left, and we wanted to tread more lightly on the earth, we bought a small house, small enough, in fact, to be considered a "cottage." However, in spite of my efforts up to now, we still had way too much stuff to fit in it. Now, after another whole year of weeding out, and with some things still to give away, we can finally walk around the house  without tripping over too many things.

We fit everything into our cottage, almost.

While it's been a big adjustment to live in such as small space, by today's American standards anyway, I'm pleased to report being much, much happier here than when living in a far larger house with lots and lots more stuff.

In sum, if I had it to do all over again, this would be my theme, as gorgeously performed by Ella Fitzgerald:



You might also enjoy:

• World Environment Day  - I never would have heard about this, but for a comment from a reader in Indonesia.
• Buhtan's Gross National Happiness  -  Would you rather have your government promote happiness or gross domestic product? 

Listen to Orca Whales Live!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we love our Orca whales so much that scientists have installed microphones to listen to their sounds, just like moms and dads listen to baby monitors. The microphones are called hydrophones because they work under water. There's a whole network of these hydrophones in the Salish Sea and Puget Sound, and anyone can listen to them online. In fact, you're encouraged to listen and help monitor the whales' calls to help scientists identify which pod is making them.

Orcas Live! on the Hydrophone Network

Scientists, along with the rest of us living in this region, are worried because the Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, are stressed, and some of them here are dying prematurely for no apparent reason, so their population is dwindling. One theory is that ship and boat motor noises, among other things, are stressing them out, so scientists are listening to help figure out what's going on.

You can see the locations of the hydrophones and listen to them on the Orcasound Hydrophone Network site. It has a map with markers showing the locations of the hydrophones. You can click on a marker to hear any sounds being made at that location. (You may need to install some software first. The page has information about what you need.) You can also listen to recordings to learn about the unique sounds the different whale pods make, and explore lots of other interesting stuff. A different site has links to web cams recording live video of different locations. Check it out!

Also be sure to visit the Killer Whale Tales web site, which has lots of information about the endangered Orcas in our area. For children, download this free booklet from Killer Whale Tales that explains all about Orcas and has fun activities: Orca Booklet for Children. (They say the booklet's for children, but I'm sure enjoying it!) For more information about the research being done on the effects of man-made noise on the Orcas, see this article.

If you're interested in ways that you can help Orcas, see Rain Gardening for Orcas.

And read this story about the birthday party for a 100-year-old Orca.

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Listen to Orca whales live on the Hydrophone Network.

World Environment Day

I just learned from a blogger in Indonesia that June 5 was World Environment Day. I didn't know there was such a thing, did you? I sure won't want to miss it next year when people all around the world focus on the environment.


A United Nations Environment Program, WED is an "annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. WED activities take place all year round but climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere."

Awfully cool. Thanks, Multibrand!

Plants for Pacific Northwest Shade Gardens

Trillium

My sisters were just asking for ideas about what to put in a moist, shady garden, which prompted this post. If you have such a place in your yard and are at a loss for what to put in, here are some ideas. I've found these plants have done well in the cool, maritime climate and acidic soil of Western Washington. At the end of this post are photos of a few of these plants from my gardens. Update: Yesterday I got some photos of shade plants at the Arboretum exhibit, "Bird Song" at the 2012 Flower and Garden Show. You'll find them at the end of this post.

Tips: Put the tallest plants in the back of the garden, and work forward according to size. Mix the plants with spiky flowers in with the bushier plants. Pacific Northwest natives are starred. * Natives are good because they require less care and support local wildlife. If you can't find them at a mainstream nursery, look for a native plant nursery either locally or online. See also the Washington Native Plant Society page.

Perennial plants from short to tall:

• Iris moss - 1 inch (There are lots of different kinds of moss that are beautiful in a shade garden.)
• Creeping Jenny (ground cover, yellow green, evergreen, likes to drape down things like sides of rockeries) - 1 inch 
• Do not plant variegated ground elder. It will take over your entire garden and yard. Bill calls it a bio hazard.
• Periwinkle/Vinca minor (dense dark evergreen ground cover with periwinkle blue flowers) - 2 inches
• Native violet* (dainty. I personally love these) - 2 inches
• Anemone (bulb. little blue flowers in spring. leaves die off in summer) - 3 inches
• Grape hyacinth (bulb. small plant with bright blue flowers in early spring) - 4 inches
• English Primrose - 4 inches
• Bunchberry dogwood* (Ground cover with evergreen, dogwood-type leaves and white flowers that turn into berries.)  - 4 inches
• Cyclamen (bulb. Flowers in late winter. Foliage dies out in summer. Needs dry shade.) - 6 inches
• Western Trillium * - 6-8 inches
• English Violet - 6 inches
• Deer Fern * (the Hardy Fern Foundation is a great resource for ferns) - 6 inches
• Oxalis* (ground cover - looks like 4-leaf clover, only leaves are much bigger and its a beautiful emerald green. needs rich soil, as in amended with compost) - 6 inches
• Salal* (a native with wonderful evergreen foliage. florists use it a lot in bouquets) - 6 - 18 inches
• Holly Fern *  - less than 1 ft
• Coral bells (comes in a variety of colors, easy to care for) - 1 ft
• False Solomon’s Seal * - 18 inches
• Columbine* (biannual. self-seeding, blooms 2nd year. tall flower spikes. Nice leaves) - 18 inches
• Astilbe (tall flower spikes in summer. a bit fussy. expensive. needs lots of water. a lot of people love them.) - 2 ft
• Oregon grape* (Evergreen holly-like foliage. These can get leggy, so get one of the lower-growing varieties) - 2 to 4 ft
• Aster* (tall flower spikes)  - 2-1/2 ft
• Pacific Bleeding Heart * I love these because of the airy foliage and drooping flowers - 2-1/2 ft
• Campanula (one of my favorite garden flowers - bell shaped flowers on tall spikes) - 2-1/2 ft
• Hosta (hostas can cover a lot of bare ground. they come in all types of sizes with different colors of green, stripes, etc. They die to the ground in winter and come back in late spring. I love them!) - 2-1/2 ft + or - a foot
• Iris * (natives are on the short end of the range) - 2-6  ft
• Hellebore (Blooms in winter. Has fleshy stems and leaves. Grows in a somewhat random habit.) - 3 ft
• Sword Fern * - 3 ft
• Foxglove (biannual, self-seeding, blooms in second year. leaves are poisonous, so not good in a yard with young children). I just found this site that has lots of different varieties. - 3 ft
• Evergreen huckleberry* (small bush with berries for birds)  - 4 ft
• Deciduous huckleberry* (ditto)  - 4 ft
• Hardy fuchsia (these can get large. Plant root ball at least 6 inches below ground level to protect from freezing. See also the Northwest Fuchsia Society) - up to 5 ft
• Tree fern * (grows to be tree-like.) - 6 ft or more. 
• Wood fern * Not as sturdy as a tree fern. Dies down to the ground in winter and comes back in spring.
• Native honeysuckle vine * (dark glossy green leaves with fragrant orange flowers that attract hummingbirds. Leaves fall off in winter, so don't plant it all by itself in a focal position.)

Shrubs:

• Kalmia (aka Mountain Laurel. expensive to buy but has beautiful evergreen foliage and flowers) - 4 ft
• Hydrangea (always one of my very favorites. Looses leaves in winter.) - 5 ft
• Shade- or partial shade-loving rhododendrons * (Evergreen. Some varieties are native, and not generally the ones found in gardens, but essentially all of them do well in our climate. Can get very large, but are relatively easy to move if they outgrow their spot.) - 3 to 20 ft
• Shade- or partial shade-loving evergreen azaleas (not deciduous azaleas, which need sun) 2 to 5 ft
• Snowberry * (native deciduous bush with white berries) -  5 ft
• Camelia (Glossy evergreen leaves. Can grow very large, but you can get smaller varieties.)
• Snowball bush - vibernum (Deciduous leaves. Clusters of stems grow straight up from the ground, up to 20 feet high. Has the wonderful white flower balls in late spring.)

Trees:

• Vine maple *
• Japanese maple

Hosta

In the center foreground is a Yak rhododendron aptly named "Mardi Gras" because it will have gaudy pink, white, and purple blooms in late spring. Volunteer iris is growing up between its leaves. To the left is the newly planted hosta and some more iris. To the right is a Crocosmia, which I call the "hummingbird" plant because the hummers love it. In summer it has 5-foot long spikes covered with small, bright orange flowers. 

Camelia can grow 20 or 30 feet tall, although there are varieties that stay much smaller. They come in a variety of pink and red colors.

Hydrangea. To make next year's flowers pink, add lime to the soil. For blue, leave the soil acid. For in between, like these, go halfway with the lime.

Common floxglove stands tall against the fence. To the left in back is the tall iris foliage (will have yellow blooms). In front you can see a small vine maple that we'd recently planted. It's the one with reddish tinge on the leaves. It will grow up to 20 or so feet tall. To the right is some sort of crabapple tree with draping branches.

Fancy foxglove I got at the nursery. I call it the Beatrix Potter foxglove because it looks like the ones pictured in her books.

Variegated and plain hosta, center, sword fern, back left, in front of the fern is native iris and in front of that is English primrose. To the right of the primrose is Irish moss, then another foxglove. Behind the foxglove is oxalis. In the far back is a Fortunei rhododendron.

Native violet in foreground. Behind it is foxglove and then hosta. Further back is a large sword fern. To the right of the sword fern is bleeding heart. More oxalis in front of that and then another foxglove.

Lady ferns surround a Jean Marie De Montague rhododendron. Columbine grows under the rhodie and sends spikes of blue and white flowers up in between the rhodie's leaves.

Iris fronted by feverfew (not a good shade plant, BTW). This iris grows to about 2 feet with flowers another foot taller.

Coral Bark Japanese maple

I took the following photos of shade tolerant (or loving) plants at the Arboretum "Bird Song" display garden at the 2012 Seattle Flower and Garden Show. Most are Northwest natives.

Left front: Mahonia (Oregon Grape). 

Front left: Red twig dogwood. Middle left: Ninebark and then Camelia. In front of the  Paperbark Maple is sword fern.

To the left, Camelia and right with yellow flowers is a Witch Hazel variety.

Red twig dogwood, again. I don't know what the yellow bush is. 

Here's a richly flowered Oregon Grape variety, called Mahonia aquifolium "Orange Flame." I need one of these!

Ninebark in the background and Bunchberry in the foreground.

You can find some more plant ideas in Shady Characters, an article by Valerie Easton, published in Pacific Northwest.

You might also enjoy:

• Planting a New Pacific Northwest Shade Garden - We moved to Seattle and planted a new shade garden in our city yard.
• How to Plan a Garden - Some basics you might want to consider.
• Gardening for Wildlife  - Find out how to create a backyard wildlife habitat.
• Rain Gardening for Orcas  -  Rain gardens help keep raw sewage out of Puget Sound.
• An Excursion to the Flower and Garden Show - More photos of the 2012 show in Seattle.
• Planting a Native Australian Shade Garden in Sydney - Liz replaces non-natives with natives in her Sydney garden.

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A plant list for temperate, moist, shady locations.

Rain Gardening for Orcas

Thanks to my friend, Katie, for pointing out that yesterday was Endangered Species day (although wildlife could really use at least a bit of our attention every day). She posted a link to this great article about ten things we can each do to help.

Here in Seattle, the Puget Sound gets runoff from the surrounding areas, which includes a lot of pollutants. As a result, the sea creatures trying to live in it are stressed and their numbers are dwindling, including the beautiful, intelligent Orca ("Killer") whales.

A major contributor to this pollution comes from the sewer system in Seattle, which collects roof and road runoff along with the sewage. Whenever we get a hard rain, the sewer system is overwhelmed, and raw sewage runs into the Sound. Even in areas where raw sewage isn't a problem, rainwater runoff carries all sorts of toxic stuff into lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean. For details, see the People for Puget Sound's "Polluted Runoff" page.

To help this problem, Bill and I had a rain garden installed to catch the runoff from our roof, filter it through the roots of plants, and return it to the ground water table. We are lucky to be in a zone where the city is testing rain gardens as a solution for the overflow problem, so we got ours for free. Watching the contractor install it, we realized that this isn't rocket science, and the materials are fairly inexpensive: plastic piping to run the water out to the garden, some gravel, some compost, and some plants that don't drown from being occasionally deluged.

Water from the roof is piped into this bowl-shaped garden where it slowly seeps into the ground.

Probably most landscapers could install a rain garden for a reasonable cost, or homeowners who are a bit handy could do it themselves. The main things are to size the garden correctly and remember that water runs downhill. If you're interested in a rain garden, there's a lot of information online about how to make one of your own. A good place to start is the City of Seattle Rainwise site. It has information about planning and about what kind of plants to use in your rain garden. It also has a list of City of Seattle-approved contractors. Richard Cox put in our rain garden.

Happy rain gardening!

PS  Did you know that you can listen to Orca whales talking to each other on the hydrophone network?

PPS The Whale Trail is offering free Orca Steward Training. Learn all about it at their web site. Also check out this FaceBook page: Killer Whale Tales

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Rain gardens help keep storm water out of the sewer system, and sewage out of Puget Sound.

Gardening for Wildlife

Did you know about the National Wildlife Federation program to help us build wildlife habitats in our yards? A wildlife habitat is a place that welcomes birds, butterflies and other local wildlife. To create one you provide the four elements animals need most: food, water, shelter, and places to raise young. Then you apply to have your yard certified, and get a cool sign to proudly display.

In our previous yard, Bill and I created a certified wildlife habitat by adding native plants that were decorative and provided food for birds and native bees. We planted evergreen huckleberry, snowberry, salal, and mahonia for their berries, and a lot of different native flowering plants to provide pollen and nectar for the bees and hummingbirds.

We also put nesting boxes--on poles to keep them away from predators because squirrels and racoons love to eat bird eggs. The boxes attracted chickadees and house wrens. We soon learned that house wrens are bossy. They scolded us soundly every time we came near the garden during nesting season. We also ended up installing three bird baths rather than just one because the crows took over the big one, and the little birds needed plenty of room for pool parties. When everything was set up, we ordered a yard sign from the National Wildlife Federation. It was a great conversation starter and led to some friends and their children learning more about wildlife.

Bill and I recently moved, and our new yard is a "blank slate," which is a fancy way of saying that it doesn't have much in the way of landscaping. The good thing is that we'll have lots of fun planting stuff. The less good thing is that establishing a new garden takes time. With nothing to attract any wild visitors to our new yard, I pined for some little friends. What could I do until we got a garden going?

Well, one afternoon instead of clearing a pathway through the living room and finding some dishes to eat on, I visited the Wild Bird Store and came home with an elaborate bird feeder, which I immediately assembled and put right in front of our living room window.

This is the view from our living room. The red thing way in the back is a hummingbird feeder. On the front of the box it came in was a photo of three hummingbirds peacefully sitting on the feeder together. This photo was digitally altered. In fact only one hummingbird is allowed on the feeder. The biggest hummer guards the feeder and attacks interlopers We had to get a second feeder so that more than hummer could eat, and had to put it on a different side of the house so two hummers never see each other eating. This helps prevent deaths from the vicious areal combat that's triggered whenever one hummingbird sees another one eating.

As you can tell from this photo, goldfinches aren't so good about sharing either. When a flock of them lands, they take turns knocking each other off their perches. I haven't noticed any deadly areal battles, though, which is good because we haven't got the budget for all of the extra feeders required for this group.

I hung an adorable bird bath from the feeder as well, but the yard squirrel was able to use it as a landing platform and a comfortable place to sit while devouring the expensive, hull-less bird seed I use, so the bird bath is currently on the ground. I need get a different pole to hang it from.

Anyway, I'd encourage you to make your own habitat. Watching wild creatures is endlessly entertaining, whether it's feathered ones playing King of the Mountain on the bird feeder, or furry ones performing acrobatic feats to get to the bird seed. And it's rewarding to know that you're helping them to live and thrive in harmony with humans.

Update: My sister, Jenn, has just set up her new bird feeder extraordinaire: 

Jenn lives out in the country, as you can see, so her feeder attracts all sorts of different birds. She gets a huge number of gold finches, who love niger, which is why she has two extra-large niger dispensers.