This photograph shows an area to the rear of my yard in which I plan to create a wildlife garden. It is also the place where I found the "terrific weeds" that I mentioned in a previous post.
This past summer I used round-up to eliminate some of those "terrific weeds" so that my planting beds would be nice and neat. I planted some young trees, and recently have been accumulating a list of plants, in my mind, for various types of wildlife. It wasn't until I wrote the post about those "terrific weeds" that I realized this area already is a wildlife haven. And, if I proceed with my plan to remove what's there and plant "my favorites," they may not be the "favorites" of the wildlife in the area.
This thought caused me to pause and reconsider my original plan. Mother Nature is a much more experienced gardener than I, and while I may add some additional food and nectar sources, I will leave all of those "terrific weeds" that the butterflies, bees and grasshoppers like so much. In my attempt to "beautify" this area to my own liking, I was eliminating what is beautiful and beneficial to those there before me. That was a real eye opener!
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4 comments:
Good on ya! It is a beautiful area already! I'd love to see what it looks like 6 months from now. 8-]
Sophiemae...I'll keep you posted. Thanks.
Maybe all you neeed is a path through this area.
You could read a butterfly guide for FL and see what they recommend for the larva of the beautiful butterflies of your area. They are almost always weeds and since you have an area you could devote to them it would be wonderful. There are threatened species of butterflies that would love a "resort" just for them. :)
What other wildlife do you want to attract? What do you get now?
It is great that you realized what a diamond in the rough you had in the first place. Now you can enhance it.
I will look forward to seeing what you do and what you attract.
Lisa...I'm hoping to attract a variety of birds,butterflies, moths and hummers. Some bunnies would be fun, too. It's hard to retrain your thinking. I'm so used to eliminating weeds and making beds look nice and neat. But I'm going to learn to LOVE my weeds!
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