How to Encourage Garden Wildlife: Butterflies, Native Plants and Animals

While a garden can be quite lovely on its own, the real pleasure comes from the Garden Wildlife, the spiders and Butterflies and other creatures that take up their place in your landscape. In most cases, critters will find their own way into your garden, but if you want a nice balance of Plants and Animals, there are a few ways you can plan your landscaping to encourage wildlife to join you.

Sustainability is key to the perfect wildlife garden. You want a garden that will look beautiful, attract nice insects and birds and flourish overall. A variety of plants will help the garden stay lovely looking and provide food and shelter for insects and other creatures throughout the year. Native Plants are usually a very good choice, because they will already be a natural part of the habitats that your creatures are familiar with.

Any type of plant with fruits and seeds will tend to attract birds and these can also be quite decorative, so everyone benefits. The fruit will add extra colour to the garden and provide some extra food for the birds. Flowers will attract Butterflies and other types of insects, which will also bring in the birds that prefer to eat creepy crawlies.

A little research can go a long way, also. If you would like to see specific types of birds in your Garden, or if you are a keen photographer and want to take Bird Pictures for instance, you might plant the sort of trees or shrubs that they enjoy.

The same goes for Butterflies. Certain species are attracted by different types of flowers. Finches, for example, love primroses and greatly enjoy the seeds produced by honeysuckle, which also attracts bees.

You'll find that many birds like ivy and lavender, and Butterflies can be attracted with daisies and marigolds, among many other flowers. Planting a variety will ensure that the garden is full of colours throughout the seasons and provides a continuous array of Garden Wildlife. Plants and Animals go well together so if you plan it, your garden can become a wonderful world of its own, full of Native Plants and insects, positively vibrant with life.

Keep in mind that you are planting for yourself as much as the wildlife, so take the time to choose plants that are pleasing to the eye.

Add in a few that smell lovely, such as honeysuckle and lavender to ensure that the garden is just as attractive to humans as it is to the Butterflies and birds.

You can enjoy the best of both worlds!

Caring for the Garden

In most cases, the ambitious gardener will clear away dead plants immediately and is constantly tending the garden. While this is good, you may want to adjust your methods somewhat to promote more Wildlife and Sustainability. This includes leaving dead plants just a little longer so that the birds might take advantage of their seeds, and perhaps leaving a tree alone if it sports a nest with eggs in it. You can certainly tend the garden, but keep in mind the effect your actions might have on the creatures living there.

From time to time, you may need to add new plants, particularly if you have short lived annuals. As they die off, consider replacing them with something else that will also encourage the Garden Wildlife.

A well planned landscape can include Plants and Animals, a Butterfly Garden, to birds and everything in between. It's a pleasure to watch Garden Wildlife enjoying your planting and with the right blend of Native Plants, evergreens and flowers, you'll find that Sustainability will keep things humming along, even if you have to focus on other things for a little while.