LIFE IN LANDSCAPE PART 4 – BRINGING WILDLIFE TO YOUR BACKYARD GARDEN
If you’re creating a lovely sanctuary for yourself in your garden area, why not design a lovely sanctuary for nearby wildlife to boost the area and attract added peacefulness? Wildlife enhancing your garden offers a feeling of delight that you are able to contribute to their sustainability and you get to appreciate observing them enjoy what you’ve produced. You can purposely design your backyard landscape to bring in (wanted) desert animals! Butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, insects, rabbits, squirrels and additional wildlife find safety in backyard landscapes. Some look for shade, others search for food, most look for water, and a few species take up residency and make flower gardens their homes.
There is something truly soothing and peaceful about watching butterflies drift through your garden or watching the humming birds hover over nectar generating blooms. It’s additionally incredibly fulfilling to know that you created a gift of nature for the fellow critters who share your area.
Growing a blend of blooming plants, native grasses and leafy shrubs you can produce a wonderful garden with color and harmony that is satisfying to the human eye, and also irresistible to butterflies and hummingbirds. It is necessary to create a host habitat in your residential landscape for larvae and caterpillars also, which in turn eventually transform into those butterflies. Excellent host plants are leafed and are able to give protection and food for larvae and caterpillars.
Butterflies are interested in colorful, sweet smelling blossoms that are shallow and quick and easy to sit on. Food such as nectar, or sometimes decomposing fruit, sap, or maybe animal waste can tempt butterflies to plants. Nectar is the main attractor; it provides for both butterflies and hummingbirds. This not only incorporates the wildlife on its own, but it also adds a bit of color to your backyard too!
Birds enjoy water in broad, shallow pools that rise off the ground roughly 3 feet or more. A bird bath, pond, re-circulating fountain or various other water aspect incorporates dimension and activity to every garden. It is peaceful and playful to view little birds romp and splash in a birdbath or fountain that your garden provides. By placing some old fruit in some water you can lure in colorful butterflies too. And by employing these water features you are also incorporating tranquil sounds in your garden landscape!
Bring your Sedona sanctuary garden alive with every one of the senses!
When bringing wildlife to your backyard garden you also incorporate the other elements we discussed earlier in our Life in Landscape Series, such as color and sound. Can you just picture sitting on your back porch with a wind chime over head blowing in a light breeze, beautifully vibrant flower beds with butterflies bouncing from bloom to bloom, little birds singing and splashing in a garden birdbath, and the smell of fresh jasmine wafting through the air? That sounds like a garden oasis that dreams are made of!
As we wrap up our Life in Landscape Series keep in mind that from fragrant blooms to dashes of color, wind chimes, and the birds at play there certainly are numerous ways to bring nature out in its greatest expression and this ends up being much more personal and significant when it’s literally in your personal back yard!
Contact Joshua Tree and Landscape Company for any questions or suggestions on making your very own backyard garden sanctuary!!
