 | Many people opt for a natural garden because of the enjoyment derived from the various specimens of wildlife that visit. Another appreciated attribute is low maintenance. The less you maintain your garden, the greater diversity you encourage.
These gardens work with, and benefit from, nature and wildlife. Other garden types can also benefit from nature and wildlife.
Your garden soil, plants growing in it and natural debris on its surface abound with a multitude of various organisms. Though some are invisible to the human eye, they have a profound affect on the lives of plants and animals, large and small. They are an important part of the biological community, helping to provide food for animals and birds.
A wise gardener will support these microorganisms by providing them with plenty of organic matter to recycle. The caregiver of a natural garden is one such gardener, and understands the benefits of working side by side with nature.
Whether a natural garden or not, there are good, viable reasons for encouraging certain specimens of wildlife to the garden.
Toads and frogs help to control garden pests, and lady bugs have voracious appetites when it comes to aphids. Worms help to aerate the soil, praying mantis seek out a variety of “bad insects,” and butterflies and bees help pollinate. But there are many other reasons to encourage wildlife interaction in the garden.
Birds (Attracting Backyard Birds)
Besides being a delight to watch, birds are useful in the yard and garden because they eat a large variety and quantity of insects. Swallows eat their weight in insects each day – including pesky mosquitoes. Robins, flycatchers, vireos, warblers, and woodpeckers are also primarily insect eaters. Even hummingbirds will occasionally supplement their diet of flower nectar with insects. In fact, birds are among the best natural means of keeping garden pests in check.
In order to encourage birds to your yard and garden, a few basic needs must be met: food, water, shelter, and a place to rear young. A wise gardener will provide an environment that will offer birds these basic needs.
Water should be made available during every season of the year. During winters in northern states or in the mountains, where hard freezes occur, a small immersed heater made for that purpose will keep a pond or birdbath from icing over.
You can help insure that birds will visit often by providing bird feeders in and around your yard. To attract a wide variety of birds, offer a variety of feeding stations and different types of food. If hawks are prevalent in your area, shelter these feeding stations with a wire roof. Birds will be better protected against predators, and you will still be able to see and enjoy them.
During cold winter months, help birds survive by providing high protein enriched foods. Suet is easily available, as are sunflower seeds. Bacon drippings, shortening, and butter cut into small cubes will also attract and benefit many varieties of birds during the winter.
By providing birdhouses and material for nests, you encourage birds to settle in “your neck of the woods,” for future benefit to your yard and garden. A natural garden will offer an ample supply of nesting material not found in other type gardens.
Besides twigs and dry grass, birds also make nests from yarn, strips of cloth, string, and animal hair. Human hair, pulled from a hairbrush or swept from the floor after cutting provide coveted nest lining, as does lint collected from the clothes dryer filter.
Offer a variety of types of birdhouses to attract different species. Purple martins nest in communities and prefer apartment-style housing, while blue birds favor private compact houses with small entry holes positioned high. A large variety of birdhouses and nesting boxes are available through plant nurseries, garden stores, and many pet stores.
Butterflies (Create a Butterfly Garden)
Flowers and butterflies go hand in hand; they help to pollinate and add beauty to the yard. Because natural gardeners avoid the use of pesticides and chemicals, butterflies are not only drawn to, but flourish in that type of garden.
Some species of butterflies live only a few days, while others can live up to a year. Butterflies are cold-blooded and require an air temperature of at least 60 degrees F to fly; this is why you don’t see them flitting about on cold mornings.
While most butterflies only sip nectar, some feed on rotting fruit. You can attract hackberry, mourning cloak, and red-spotted purple butterflies, and other fruit eating species, by setting out diced apples, bananas, and pears.
The best way to attract butterflies is to plant the colorful flora they prefer: butterfly weed, purple coneflower, honeysuckle, morning glory, lantana, azalea, hollyhock, petunia, milkweed, wisteria, lilac, and roses are among the favored.
Butterflies like warmth. Placing flat stones in sunny locations around the garden will provide a basking platform, and encourage them to linger.
Other insects
Some insects are ready enemies of the flower and vegetable garden, regardless of number. Other insects are destructive only when too numerous. Insects in general, however, can be a positive influence in the garden.
Bees, wasps, and butterflies are necessary for pollination. Spiders trap and consume many garden pests, including mosquitoes and small flies. Dragon flies, lady bugs, and praying mantis also feed on a vast variety of garden pests. In fact, large praying mantis, or mantids, will even prey on mice, small snakes, and other mantids.
Tree crickets eat vegetation when young, but adults feed on aphids and garden grubs. Wasp and hornets are also affective and efficient garden predators; white-faced hornets kill and eat horseflies, and yellow jackets are exceptionally good at controlling striped cucumber beetles and other chewing insects.
Even the destructive aphid – when paired together with ants – can inadvertently protect your plants from other insects. Aphids attach themselves to plants and process plant fluid many times their weight each day. Excess fluids are excreted as a sweet sugar ant-favored delicacy called “honeydew.”
Ants protect their stash of honeydew even to the extent of driving away and killing caterpillars or any other insects that might interfere with the aphids. So while it is true that aphids are harmful to plants, their relationship with ants can be of benefit.
Earthworms
Earthworms are important for healthy garden soil because as they burrow and move about, they aerate it. They also eat decomposing organic matter and carry it into the topsoil. Earthworms are also important in a compost pile; they help recycle organic matter, reducing the need to turn the pile in order to keep it aerated and to facilitate the decomposition process.
Mammals
Foraging and burrowing animals, for the most part, make the average gardener cringe. Certain types of mammals, however, can actually benefit a garden.
Bats, for example, consume thousands of mosquitoes, moths, and other insects each evening. Moles forage on grubs and bugs that live underground, while shrews feast on insects that inhabit the surface. Shrews, in fact, are ferocious and will eat small rodents such as mice and infant rats. And skunks feed on grubs, beetles, and rodents.
By creating a balance and working in harmony with nature, nearly every garden can benefit from interaction with wildlife.
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