- Author: Carol Nickbarg
- Contributor: Native Plant Subject Group
- Editor: Kamille Hammerstrom
Planning a Wildlife-Friendly Garden
A sustainable wildlife-friendly garden rests on habitat creation – the addition of native plants and physical features to your garden, and on diversity of insect species – the wildlife “foundation” of your garden. To plan what to add or encourage, inventory the present state of your garden:
- Observe your garden throughout the year. What types of desirable wildlife are already in your garden? Where in the garden do they appear: plant species/physical feature, shade/sun, feeding/nesting? Do they appear seasonally or year-round? Not all plants (even of the same species) or physical features are alike. For a plant...
- Author: Carol Nickbarg
- Editor: Kamille Hammerstrom
- Contributor: Native Plant Subject Group
Extend Your Garden's Hospitality -- Go Wildlife-Friendly!
This is the first part of a two-part post. Look for Part II next week here on the blog.
Welcoming seasonal birds, dragonflies or other favorite wildlife to your garden can be a gratifying experience and a wonderful way to support the ecological health of your garden and community. Yet evidence is growing that our gardens can also be indispensable resources for wildlife, providing critical habitat to offset some of the losses caused by fragmentation of our wildlands. Although garden and wildland spaces are often...
- Author: Kamille Hammerstrom
The California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds, and Other Animals by Nancy Bauer. University of California Press, published in 2012, 232 pp.
I stumbled across this book in the Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore in Lee Vining, CA while visiting Mono Lake this summer. I'm committed to creating native plant and animal habitat on my 1 acre plot in Prunedale and I'm always on the lookout for books that help not only with plant selection, but habitat creation. While planting native California plants is a good move for their drought tolerance, adaptation to local climate, and low maintenance qualities, to create habitat that functions well as a place for refuge, foraging, and...
