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Winterizing Your Garden for Wildlife

	Rudebeckia Seed Head

It’s a cold, slate grey winter day with a warm fire burning in your fireplace, a cup of hot tea and plate of cookies by your chair, a good book and the dog curled up at your feet. Let’s see, did we forget anything in this cozy tableau? How about the birds, small mammals, and insects that call your yard home or may be passing through on their way to warmer climes? Have we created a habitat that keeps them healthy during the long winter months?

Mahonia

There are some easy ways to help our furry and feathered friends. Birdfeeders and suet holders provide year-round sustenance for all varieties of birds (with the occasional squirrel thief for good measure). Make sure you provide different types of seed and nuts, strewing some on the ground for the ground feeders. Pinecones with suet or peanut butter packed into them and then rolled in bird seed are fun to hang on tree branches.

	Asclepias

There are a number of plants with winter appeal for gardeners that also provide food and habitat for birds and mammals. Cotoneaster, pyracantha, winterberry, snowberry, wintergreen, and ‘Charity’ mahonia are but a few of the shrubs that will provide food and delight the eye at the same time. Leaving the seed pods on echinacea, asclepias, grasses, goldenrod, sunflower, and rudbeckia not only provides food for small birds but also a resting place for butterflies. Allow any uneaten vegetables to go to flower and provide a winter smorgasbord for all of your garden friends.

Goldenrod and Coneflower

While preparing your garden for winter leave a few piles of leaves and twigs piled in the corners as a warm refuge for snakes, lizards, and insects. Water for drinking and the occasional bird bath (brrr) is welcomed and necessary.

Gardens are beautiful any time of year, filled with great texture, shape, and color. Let’s share that beauty with our furry, feathered, and slithery friends to create a healthy and safe habitat.

By Deborah Boyer
Skylights Autumn 2008, Vol 23, No. 3

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