Chickadees only eat 25% of their diet from feeders, the remaining 75% comes from natural food sources. You can help the birds during the winter by designing into your landscape plants that will provide food and shelter when it’s cold outside. The first step in design is to inventory the plants that you already have. If you're not sure what they are, bring photos into your local garden center for help identifying your existing plants, as well as for design inspiration. Having a variety of plants in your landscape offers a greater choice of food and shelter for our feathered friends and your efforts will be rewarded with the chirps of new baby birds and the songs of their happy parents in the spring.
Evergreen trees or shrubs provided wonderful shelter for the birds. Adding plants like viburnum, holly, red loropetalum, azalea, and golden cypress to your yard provides not only winter interest and color to your landscape but also provides a place for birds to take cover and build nests. To entice a variety of birds, its best to layer your landscape from evergreen ground cover, grasses and shrubs, to mature trees and well as planting broad-leaf shrubs and needled evergreens. Also, restrict your hedge pruning to late winter, when all remaining fruits and berries have fallen and before the birds start to make nests.
As far as edible plants go, hollies, dogwoods, wax myrtles and oaks provide berries and nuts for the wildlife. Perennial flowers such as black-eyed susans, asters, and crepe myrtles provide seeds during the late fall and early winter. Instead of dead-heading your flowers in the fall, let the last bloom cycle go to seed for the birds and you’ll be amazed by the many thankful birds that will enjoy it. I particularly love the dark yellow goldfinches atop my black-eyed susans. They blend in so well, it’s like the flowers take flight when the birds are startled while feeding. When possible, pick plants that are native to the Charlotte area are. Native plants support more wildlife than non-native species. They are also low maintenance and require less water in the summer once they’re established.
Don’t forget to provide a water source, too. Fountains add a harmony to your garden while providing fresh water for the birds. Heaters will help keep them running when temperatures fall below freezing. Bird baths, of course, also work well and can provide a colorful accent to your garden.
Watching and listening to birds visit and enjoy your garden and landscape as much as you do is truly rewarding. It’s snowing today, and I for one am enjoying a hot cup of coffee inside while watching the birds fluttering around my peaceful landscape outside. Once they finish their breakfast, I’m sure they’ll enjoy taking shelter in the evergreens until the storm passes.
sources: Audubon Society, Clemson Extension, Organic Gardening
Evergreen trees or shrubs provided wonderful shelter for the birds. Adding plants like viburnum, holly, red loropetalum, azalea, and golden cypress to your yard provides not only winter interest and color to your landscape but also provides a place for birds to take cover and build nests. To entice a variety of birds, its best to layer your landscape from evergreen ground cover, grasses and shrubs, to mature trees and well as planting broad-leaf shrubs and needled evergreens. Also, restrict your hedge pruning to late winter, when all remaining fruits and berries have fallen and before the birds start to make nests.
As far as edible plants go, hollies, dogwoods, wax myrtles and oaks provide berries and nuts for the wildlife. Perennial flowers such as black-eyed susans, asters, and crepe myrtles provide seeds during the late fall and early winter. Instead of dead-heading your flowers in the fall, let the last bloom cycle go to seed for the birds and you’ll be amazed by the many thankful birds that will enjoy it. I particularly love the dark yellow goldfinches atop my black-eyed susans. They blend in so well, it’s like the flowers take flight when the birds are startled while feeding. When possible, pick plants that are native to the Charlotte area are. Native plants support more wildlife than non-native species. They are also low maintenance and require less water in the summer once they’re established.
Don’t forget to provide a water source, too. Fountains add a harmony to your garden while providing fresh water for the birds. Heaters will help keep them running when temperatures fall below freezing. Bird baths, of course, also work well and can provide a colorful accent to your garden.
Watching and listening to birds visit and enjoy your garden and landscape as much as you do is truly rewarding. It’s snowing today, and I for one am enjoying a hot cup of coffee inside while watching the birds fluttering around my peaceful landscape outside. Once they finish their breakfast, I’m sure they’ll enjoy taking shelter in the evergreens until the storm passes.
sources: Audubon Society, Clemson Extension, Organic Gardening
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