A bee pollinates a purple coneflower. Illustrates GREENSCENE (category l), by Joel M. Lerner, special to The Washington Post. Moved Monday, Feb. 16, 2009. (MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Sandra Leavitt Lerner.)
WASHINGTON " A natural garden can create a home for birds, butterflies, bees, chipmunks, rabbits, turtles, frogs, snakes, bats and more " all while requiring less pruning and preening. But it takes the right flora to get the fauna to appear.
When creating a natural garden, keep in mind the three requirements for all animals: food, water and shelter. A shrub or tree can provide shelter for offspring. A pool with a shallow area is good for toads and turtles, while puddles on flat rocks give butterflies a chance to relax and have a drink. Chipmunks like tunnels, birds like safe nesting places, snakes like rocks (remember that as you lift one), and a host of wildlife will live in hollow logs and brush piles.
Design plants that are native and produce berries, and you've added an incentive for birds. Several native bird-attracting shrubs and trees are serviceberries; inkberry hollies; viburnums; blueberries; blackberries; chokeberries (Aronia arbutifolia); and dogwoods, which attract 86 aviary species.
It is better to attract birds with plants than feeders because spilled seeds attract rodents.
Hummingbirds are nectar feeders and love tubular flowers like honeysuckles, trumpet vines and bee-balms (Monarda). They're fond of bright colors, especially red and yellow, and will come to hummingbird feeders containing nectar-like liquids. Butterflies are attracted to many of the same nectar plants, and butterfly weed is good for attracting monarchs, while sassafras can lure spicebush swallowtails.
Along with the birds come the bees, the world's most beneficial insect pollinators. One-third of the world's food crops depend on them, and gardens with them are healthy, happy spots. Bees like the same nectar-producing plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Herb gardens are a haven for them. Avoid insecticides in gardens that are home to pollinators.
Some creatures are desirable because they prey on undesirables, like mosquitoes. Bats, for example, eat at least half their weight in flying insects, mostly moths and mosquitoes daily. They come out beginning at sunset when people are indoors, and live in trees, caves or rock crevices, though they adapt to urban settings and will nest in buildings. If one gets into your house, do not swat it with a tennis racket; try to confine it to a room and open the window so it can leave on its own.
Water can attract other desirable predators, such as dragonflies and frogs, which are voracious mosquito eaters. Frogs' mating calls and a little fog can give your garden the aura of a movie set.
Toads and turtles are voracious slug and insect eaters. The American toad, for example, will eat about 200 insects a night. They need clean in-ground water, thick grasses and boggy areas. Turtles must have shallow water with gradually sloping rocks and a soft forest floor or beach for burying eggs, with cover plants for foraging and shelter.
Beneficial snakes eat insects and rodents. They like areas of moist woods or grassy areas with hollow logs and rocks.
- Lerner is president of Environmental Design in Capitol View Park, Md., and author of "Anyone Can Landscape"(Ball 2001).
Contact him through his Web site, www.gardenlerner.com.