To create a natural
habitat garden, you need to include plants that provide food for the wildlife
that live in your area. Growing plants that provide berries and seeds
attracts a wide variety of wildlife and the plants are pretty easy to find. I’m guessing you currently have some of
the plants growing on your property.
The following native
- Sugar Maple (Acer
saccharum) - Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
- Box Elder (Acer negundo)
- River Birch (Betula
nigra) - White Pine (Pinus
strobus)
We have turkeys that
stroll through our property. I enjoy their company. They are quite
comical to watch as they bob and weave and strut around the place.
The following native
perennials plants produce seeds that provide food to migrating birds and birds
that stay all year, including cardinals, goldfinches, sparrows, chickadees,
nuthatches, towhees, mourning doves, and finches.
- Asters (Aster)
- Coreopsis (Coreopsis)
- Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea
purpurea) - Joe-pye Weeds (Eupatorium
maculatum) - Sunflowers (Helianthus)
- Blazing Stars (Liatris)
- Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia)
- Prairie Dock (Silphium
terebinthinaceum) - Compass Plant (Silphium
laciniatum) - Goldenrods (Solidago)
- Ironweed (Vernonia
missurica) - Big Bluestems (Andropogon
gerardii)
- Little Bluestems (Schizachyrium scoparium)
The
important thing to remember when growing perennials is to NOT deadhead the
flower heads. Leave the dead
flower heads on the plants through fall and winter to feed the local and
migrating birds.
Berries
are also an important food source for birds and other wildlife all year.
Winter
The birds that over
winter in an area feed mostly on berries. A great bush to add to your landscape
is Bayberry or Sweet Gale (Myrica gale).
The leaves often survive into late winter providing shelter to birds and the
berries are a great source of food.
Spring
Come spring, Serviceberry
(Amelanchier arborea), Red-Osier
Dogwood (Cornus sericea), and Silky
Dogwood (Cornus amomum) provide
berries for hungry wildlife. These
early ripening berries are a welcome food source for the wildlife that stayed
the winter, for the early migratory birds, and for those mammals that are
waking up from hibernation.
Summer
Elderberry (Sambucus
canadensis) produces dark purple berries
in the summer and early autumn. The berries are eaten by over 50 species
of songbirds, along with wild turkey and ruffed grouse.
Autumn
Maple
Leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium)
and Arrowhead Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum)
provide berries to migratory birds just when they need the energy to fly south.
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is
another shrub you should consider adding your garden since the red berries are
very popular with birds along with raccoons and opossum.
