NATURAL HABITAT GARDENING IN WEST VIRGINIA

THE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE OF KANAWHA GARDEN CLUB

WHAT IS NATURAL HABITAT GARDENING?  Natural habitat gardening is restoring habitat through gardening choices.  We all want birds and butterflies in our garden, but these wonderful creatures (and some of the less appealing creatures like gnats, grubs, beetles, bats and snakes) depend on both diverse plant and insect populations (biodiversity) for sustenance. 

WHY WAS HABITAT LOST?   Extensive lawns, suburban development, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and the introduction of invasive plants (e.g.. ivy and kudzu) are all contributors to loss of habitat and threaten the survival of many species of birds and animals.

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF NATURAL HABITAT GARDENING?  To restore natural plant diversity in your yards by attempting to put together the components of  natural landscape. This means gardening with combinations of plants that have coexisted for eons in native plant “communities”.  When we plant native plant communities, we attract native insects, which attract native birds and animals.

WHO CAN CREAT THE HABITAT GARDENS?  Any individual or group who gardens - this means you!!

FROM THE GROUND UP - HOW TO CREATE A NATURAL HABITAT GARDEN

Grasses and groundcovers:

· Change from a lawn that uses quantities of oil, gas, water and pesticides to a lawn that provides food and haven.

· Decrease the size of the mowed lawn - turning a portion over to habitat-friendly uses.

· Use the right kind of grass for your area that is drought and insect tolerant so that pesticides and water are unnecessary.

· Use a mulching lawnmower:  grass clippings are returned to the lawn for nutrients and sustenance if the earthworms and microorganisms that help keep the lawn healthy.

· Leave those “weeds” which are beneficial: Clover adds nitrogen to the lawn.   Violets and bluets are attractive and provide nectar for beneficial insects.  These will coexist with healthy grasses.

· Use native plants as groundcovers such as wild ginger, foam flower, and alumroot.

Shrubs:  The Understory Layer

· Shrubs are less fussy, grow faster, provide food, cover, and reproductive sites for a wildlife that lives on or near the ground.

· Don’t prune lower branches.

· Encourage herbaceous plants and ground covers to ill the gaps between shrub.

· Plant grasses, shrubs and trees around open areas crating “the edge effect”, which attracts the greatest variety of wildlife to the smallest pieces of plants.

· Choose shrubs which fruit at different times of the year to provide the greatest variety of food such as serviceberry, viburnum and witchhazel.

Trees: The Overhead canopy

· Trees provide both shade and overhead protection for the plants and animals that share its space.

· Use native trees which support native wildlife and coexist with other native plant material, supporting and reinforcing the important understory layer.

· White pine, hemlock, native holly and wild cherry are suited to West Virginia woodlands.

· Hawthorne or serviceberry provide food and nesting sites for songbirds, but are less dense than evergreens and have roots that do not compete with native groundcovers.

            WHAT TO ATTRACT TO YOUR GARDEN

Butterflies

· Vary the color, height and blooming periods of the plants in your garden.  Container plants add variety.

· Watch butterflies in your area to see which plants they prefer.

· Shelter preferred plants from the wind.

· Grow preferred plants in large clumps in a sunny area.

· Plant the larval plants for your butterflies and leave some undisturbed corners for those sometimes weedy plants: violets, clover, weedy grasses, milkweed, sumac and wild cherry,.  Need ex of nectar plants.

· Provide a mud puddle in a sunny spot  (Tell why_

· Avoid or limit pesticides,; butterflies are extremely susceptible.

Beneficial Insects

· Keep the pollinator insects in your garden as they prey on garden pests, keeping them under control.  Natures ’response to pests is to increase the predators and a healthy garden will supply food sources for pest and predators.

· Avoid using pesticides - they are toxic to beneficial insects as well.

· Ass mulch and a water source for all insects.

· Groundcover nurtures spider and ladybugs; they feast on aphids and white fly.

· Bees and hover flies are attracted by aromatic herbs.

· Raised beds attract ground beetles which come out at night and eat slugs, snails and caterpillars.

· Plant as many native shrubs as possible.

· Have bloom in your garden all season: this attracts beneficial by color, blossom shape and scent.

· Beneficial lacewings (they eat aphids and white fly) are attracted to angelica, red cosmos, goldenrod and queen Anne’s lace.

· Hover flies like cosmos, glorious daisies and marigolds.

· Ladybugs like butterfly week, marigold, tansy and yarrow.

· praying mantis like cosmos, raspberries and other brambles.

Songbirds

· Provide a source of water: puddle, birdbath or better yet running water.

· Beneficial insects will attract songbirds.

· Don’t deadhead flowers that have gone to seed - leave the spent flowers for the birds to feed on in late fall.

· Grow flowers that are full of seeds: sunflowers, cornflowers, rudbeckias.

· Songbirds love mealworms.  Place old cornmeal, grits or dog food on your compost pile to encourage the worms growth - they prefer loose soils with a high organic content.

· Leafy trees and shrubs provide nesting places.

· Add feeders an nestboxes to enhance the population.

Mammals

· Four basics: food, water, cover and nesting areas.

· Don’t use pesticide - this will increase the supply of insects for food.

· Leave dead trees standing - providing food and sanctuary.

· Bats eat 600 mosquitoes and hour. Provide “houses or dead trees.

· Red, gray, fox and flying squirrels all live in different areas of the canopy, storing nuts and seeds everywhere, some of which sprout?

· Woodchucks eat grubs, slugs and insects: and they aerate the soil.

· Moles can be a nuisance but they aerate the soil, providing underground “storm drains” as well as giving rots oxygen.  They eat Japanese beetle and gypsy moth grubs and well as other insects.