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What Birds Need in Winter: Creating a Year-Round Habitat Garden
When attracting birds to the garden, we often think of setting out some bird feeders and maybe a bird bath. But like us, wild birds need a variety of things to thrive, and especially in inclement weather. As we lose many of our natural lands to development, supporting local and migrating birds through all of…
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Attracting Birds to the Pacific Northwest Garden
Watching birds swoop and listening to them sing are some of the many joys of gardening. But hanging up a few feeders isn’t enough to create a true backyard habitat for birds; inviting them to come and “stay a spell” takes careful consideration of their needs. So what exactly do you need to do to keep birds hanging…
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DIY Bird Seed Blends for Feeding Wild Birds (and a Guide to the Best Seeds)
Feeding wild birds is a rewarding pastime and a wonderful way to identify different birds in your area, which is good information to have if you are planning to use native plants in your garden to attract specific species. It’s also a great way to share a love of wildlife with children who may be…
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Providing Water for Wildlife: How Not to Screw It up
There’s little that irritates me more than going to the garden center and seeing an array of gorgeous, well-made bird baths that are all completely and utterly useless. It seems that the manufacturers of such things have never really researched or even given the most cursory amount of thought to what qualities a bird might…
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Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Use Less Lawn!
When talking with another designer recently, she said something that stuck in my head: “Lawn? We call that “green concrete”. Sure, sometimes you need a bit of it here or there, but it brings so little to the table that we try to avoid it!” And it’s true! I love sunning myself and playing with…
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Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Using Native Plants Effectively
For most of us, our first thought when designing a landscape is how to make an aesthetic difference. As landscape designers, we want to inspire people and give everyone who spends time in our landscape an opportunity to reflect, feel uplifted, and just enjoy the sheer beauty of the plants that share our world. This…
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Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Focus on Shape
Think native plants and wildlife-attracting gardens look messy? It doesn’t have to be that way. In this series, we’ll talk about the techniques involved in designing a beautiful wildlife garden. Recently, Rachel Matthews wrote a guest post here about what she sees as the most important aspect of landscape design: Shape. I want to follow…
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Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Choose a Simple Color Palette
Think native plants and wildlife-attracting gardens look messy? It doesn’t have to be that way. In this series, we’ll talk about the techniques involved in designing a beautiful wildlife garden. Today’s tip goes well with my last piece of advice, which was to plant native and wildlife-attracting plants in masses: The tip? Choose a simple…
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Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Plant in Masses
Think native plants and wildlife-attracting gardens look messy? It doesn’t have to be that way. In this series, we’ll talk about the techniques involved in designing a beautiful wildlife garden. Many native plant enthusiasts and wildlife gardeners start out by trying to replicate the randomized “design” of nature, by planting a lovingly-curated collection of individual…
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A Designer’s Take on Wildlife Gardening
Though recent polls show that using native plants and attracting wildlife are big priorities for gardeners, these types of landscapes have a terrible reputation for being messy and poorly-designed. It’s gotten to the point that many landscape designers I’ve spoken with shy away from mentioning native plants to their clients, even if they plan on…