Gardeners may think of the back yard as a very personal place, but a good garden is always full of guests. In fact, they live there.
Birds, bees, chipmunks, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, spiders and lightning bugs make a horticultural showplace more of a home–which is to say, a thriving, buzzing ecosystem. They should all be encouraged to make themselves comfortable.
Birds and bugs like the same things in a garden that people do. There should be sun, shade, open space, shelter and water, whether it is a fountain, pond or the dancing spray of a sprinkler. The same trees, shrubs and flowers that express the gardener’s style also provide food and shelter for helpful insects and wildlife.
You don’t need to arrange special accommodations for all the visitors to your back-yard habitat. But you can decorate the garden with all sorts of good-looking and ingenious creature comforts to encourage a greater diversity of insects and wildlife.
More and more people are placing birdhouses, bee boxes or blocks, toad abodes and other amenities in their gardens. “This is a big growth category for us,” says Cindy Goodenow of Gardener’s Supply Co. “I definitely think it’s the combination of something that looks smart or cute in the garden and something that works that attracts a particular species.”
People have always put up birdhouses. Nowadays, roosting pockets, which look like tiny baskets for chickadees and other small birds, are “hot, hot sellers,” Goodenow says.
Bees, spiders and bats
Bee boxes, some as simple as a block of wood with holes drilled into one side, are also catching on. Unlike butterfly houses, which were widely available until butterfly experts pronounced them charming but ineffective, bee blocks really do house bees.
“I put up bee blocks in my garden,” says Eric Grissell, an entomologist and the author of “Insects and Gardens” (Timber Press, 345 pages, $30). “I like to see lots of things flying around: butterflies, dragonflies, bees, wasps, flies. I think it’s part of the garden–to have lots of life in it.”
You don’t have to be an entomologist to appreciate the sight of a bee covered with bright yellow pollen, determined to check on every flower. It’s always a good idea to be cautious around bees, but you don’t need to fear them. The bees that populate bee blocks and bee boxes are more interested in the garden than the gardener.
A beautiful spider web, glistening with dew, can stop a gardener in her tracks. Spiders are amazing architects, particularly good at drawing delicate connecting lines between art and nature.
Even if you’re a little squeamish about spiders, you might appreciate a handsome formal frame for a web. With a frame, you can get to know a spider on your own, carefully defined terms. Spider-web frames are available at some garden shops.
Bat houses created a sensation when they appeared on the market a few years ago. At the time, bats were not the sort of thing most people wanted to encourage, but attitudes have changed, says Kim Williams, director of the Organization for Bat Conservation. “People now know they are beneficial,” Williams says. “Almost all of them eat insects, and they can eat 600 to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour.” With a thriving bat population, mosquito spray is unnecessary, she says.
“There is no bat in the world that is aggressive,” Williams says. “They have personalities like rabbits; they are very skittish and afraid of people.”
Balance in the yard
It is important to be aware of the need for diversity in the garden, Grissell says. “A lot of insects serve as food for other things, like birds, and if you want birds in the garden, you need some insects,” he says.
Nature should be in balance, even in your own back yard. Pesticides upset the balance and kill good bugs as well as bad. “Some people have preconceptions and misconceptions and don’t have that much enthusiasm for diversity,” Grissell says. “They are missing something.”
Learn more about wildlife gardening
To find out more about bees, bats, butterflies, birds and all manner of back-yard insects and wildlife, do a little research. Garden books, Web sites and the staff at shops that specialize in birds and gardening supplies can answer basic questions and help you find more information.
– To learn more about bats, contact the Organization for Bat Conservation, 1553 Haslett Rd., Haslett, MI 48840, 517-339-5200 or www.batconservation.org. The organization sells bat houses and bat books. On the Web site, you also can find a plan for a bat house you can make yourself.
– The Bee Works, 1870 W. Prince Rd., Suite 16, Tucson, AZ 85705, 520-888-7422 or www.thebeeworks.com, provides lots of information about bees and other pollinators, including information about a national pollinator protection campaign. The Web site has links to many other conservation sites. Books, bee houses and other products are available.
– “Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology” (Timber Press, 345 pages, $29.95) by Eric Grissell is a good book to check out. “Theme Gardens” by Barbara Damrosch (Workman Publishing, 224 pages, $19.95) has an excellent chapter on butterfly gardening.
– Gardener’s Supply Co., 128 Intervale Rd., Burlington, VT 05401; 800-863-1700 or www.gardeners.com, sells a variety of decorative houses, shelters and other supplies to encourage insects and wildlife through its free seasonal catalogs.
– Wild Birds Unlimited, www.wbu.com, is a national retail franchise system with several stores in the Chicago area. The shops sell birdhouses, nesting boxes and other products, and offer information on birds, bats, butterflies and other back-yard wildlife. The Web site will help you find the shop nearest you or call 800-326-4928.
– The North American Butterfly Association works to promote the conservation and appreciation of butterflies. The organization’s Web site, www.naba.org, answers questions about butterflies and butterfly gardening and has links to local butterfly clubs. Membership in the national organization ($30 a year) includes a quarterly magazine, Butterfly Gardener. To join, write to: NABA, 4 Delaware Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960.
– The National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Habitat Program has information, supplies and recognition for wildlife gardening. Contact National Wildlife Federation, Backyard Habitat program, 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5362; 703-438-6000; or www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/.
– The Chicago Audubon Society holds classes on gardening for birds and butterflies and a summer garden tour of Chicago-area butterfly gardens. Contact the Chicago Audubon Society, 5801-C N. Pulaski Rd., Chicago, IL 60646-6057; 773-539-6793; or http://homepage.interaccess.com/(tilde)s tephenc/index.html.
— Marty Ross and Beth Botts
