Posts Tagged ‘flower garden’

Perhaps you’ve made up your mind to create a garden that can be enjoyed by not only you, but by nature’s insects, birds and creatures too. Yet, do you have many gardening questions that need to be answered? Flower gardening for wildlife involves several different components. Most creatures like to live near a water feature, where they can get hydrated on those warm summer days. Birds are especially drawn to fountains full of circulating water. They also like to dwell near a food source. This means different things for different animals, of course, so you’ll need to do your research. Creatures also like places of shelter, such as rocks, bird houses or ground cover, for example.

If you are thinking about designing a garden that will catch the attention of song birds, then you can include a few special bushes, annuals, perennials, cultivated and native foliage to draw them to your property. By growing plants from each group, you can offer seeds and fruit for each season to keep your feathered friends singing throughout the year. Be sure to provide a bird bath and put seeds around in the wintertime to keep your bird family happy.

Moreover, consider the fact that, as well as your blooms, birds are fond of trees for protection, nesting and shelter from the weather. Sometimes the trees also supply food including berries, sap and seeds. You can consider leafy trees like black walnut, red mulberry, dogwood, sassafras, American mountain ash, chestnut, and hazelnut, along with evergreen trees including red cedar, blue spruce, American holly white cedar, Douglas fir, California juniper and ponderosa pine.

Flower gardening is an important source of food for sparrows, finches and other songbirds. You can try perennials like penstemon, tickseed, bee balm, goldenrod, cosmos, purple coneflower and four o’ clocks, or you may try annuals like sunflowers, asters, bachelor’s button, spider flower, snapdragons and cockscomb. Garden guides also recommend planting shrubs and vines where birds can hide from predators and seek out food. Some tasty plants (like cherries and raspberries) are preferable to our flying friends, but they’re picked clean in a hurry. On the other hand, birds can be seen feasting all year long on elderberries, blackberries, huckleberries, chokecherries, bayberries, Oregon grapes, beauty-berries, silver-berries, blueberries, crab apples, cranberries and currants all year long.

Naturally, flower gardening to attract both hummingbirds and butterflies is ideal. Gardening tips suggest incorporating bee balm, California fuschia, salvia, columbines, daisies, sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, peas, clover, mint, milkweed, parsley, violets and pansiesthe to increase your odds of keeping these creatures nearby. Nature stores also sell very effective red and yellow hummingbird feeders that these little winged beauties just love. Since hummingbirds can be pretty territorial, you might want to set up more than one in different locations around the yard if you notice the birds are coming to your home.

Your house may be beautiful, but if the surrounding property isn’t well maintained, it ruins the whole effect. What you need is some landscaping gardening ideas that will help you create the perfect setting for your home. Visit the Landscaping Ideas site to learn more.

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