Planning for your garden face-lift now

SPRING MAY SEEM a long way off, but at least daylight is actually increasing each day now. Despite the fact that our gardens are dormant and out of sight, they need not be out of mind. If your landscape needs a facelift this year, now is the time to start planning for it.

Whether you are thinking of a complete overhaul or just want to make a few changes, you might consider creating a backyard wildlife habitat. If you appreciate nature and enjoy having many of God's little creatures visit your yard, there is a special approach to landscaping your backyard.

Designing a landscape to attract birds and butterflies, insects and small mammals, adds a whole new dimension to your landscape. It is possible to have a beautiful yard that is wildlife-friendly, as well.

There are just three easy steps to implementing a wildlife habitat in your yard:

Assess your yard

The first thing you need to do is identify the habitat elements that already exist in your yard. You probably already have several elements present in your backyard. Inventory all the plants that are growing in your backyard, including trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses.

If you find that many of your plants are native to Virginia, you may have less to replant than you think. Many native plants provide food, such as fruit, nuts, seeds and nectar for our native wildlife. Native plants also provide safe cover or nesting places.

Another important element for wildlife is dead or dying trees. If you can leave them without causing a hazard or complaints from your neighbor, they are excellent habitat features. Woodpeckers and squirrels will excavate them and use them for shelter, as well as a multitude of insects and cavity nesting birds such as wrens, bluebirds, chickadees and owls.

Make a list of structures that provide habitat elements, such as bird feeders, nesting structures, rock walls or brush piles.

Also note physical and environmental features such as soil conditions, hours of direct sunlight and wind exposure.

Provide the basic elements

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Native plants

Trees

Black gum, tulip poplar, persimmon, white oak, red oak, beech, sourwood, pawpaw, river birch, fringetree, sweetbay magnolia

Shrubs

Witchhazel, inkberry holly, mountain laurel, bayberry, highbush blueberry, Virginia sweetspire, spicebush, red chokeberry, flame azalea, pasture rose, wax myrtle

Herbaceous perennials

Wild columbine, New England aster, lance-leaved coreopsis, common sunflower, summer phlox, bee balm, black-eyed susan, cardinal flower, goldenrod, downy lobelia, butterflyweed

This is by no means an exhaustive list of native plants. A more complete list can be obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Chesapeake Bay Field Office, 177 Admiral Cochrane Drive, Annapolis, Md. 21401.

Date published: 1/5/2007

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