We live on a partially wooded acre outside of Portland, Oregon.  Doug fir, big leaf maple, Western red cedar, hazelnut trees, and a mix of native smaller bushes and shrubs underneath mixed with invasive blackberry, which we battle constantly.  We are working to convert areas of existing non-native landscaping to natives, but little by little.  We hope to convert at least parts of grass lawn to... something else, but still deciding. We have a variety of bird visitors that vary throughout the year: juncos, spotted towhees, Steller's jays, Canada jays, woodpeckers, rufus and Anna's hummingbirds, varied thrush, robins, mourning doves, California quail, band tailed pigeons... We are still learning about seasonal patterns of our avian visitors and what brings them.  We also get deer regularly, which limits which plants are successful (outside a small area with deer fencing around raised beds).  Wishing we had a way to keep away neighborhood cats.  I love small projects to improve our space for birds and sustainability, but can get overwhelmed sometimes when it feels like there is so much more we could do.

Our yard is a work in progress, 40 years worth, from a almost treeless 2 acres in the country to the present, with maturing trees, spruce, indigenous shrubs, a half acre of wild flowers and grasses, a few dead trees for the downy woodpecker family, chickadees last year. Yes, it is messy, but encouraging when visitors remark on the natural beauty of our yard. Robins, blue jays, catbirds, gold finches, cardinals, Eastern Kingbirds, tree swallows, barn swallows nesting in our old barn, song sparrows, juncos, yellow warblers, warbling vireo to name some of the species we see in our yard during the changing seasons .  The most dramatic change we have experienced over the years is a shift in our priorities in what gives us a feeling of accomplishment.  We started out with a  typical mowed, weed free, formal looking yard with little bird or wild life activity  to  today, allowing for spaces where shrubs, trees and wild flowers are attracting birds and wildlife. It feels good to be out in our yard and to think we are making a small contribution towards making a place for birds to live and thrive.  

I live in a Little House in the Woods.  I am currently redesigning my yard to adapt to the dense shade and to support the various wildlife that live in the woods behind my home and in my yard. My yard has changed SO MUCH since I was a child growing up in the vary house and yard.  It used to be a grassy lawn, and some simple gardens that my busy parents planted with he help of the grandparents circa 1962. A lawn, a bird feeder (1), a peony bed, a sunny garden with Brown Eyed Susan and Daisies, Hare Bells and Queen Anne's Lace took over during busy times. In the back up by the Woods, there was Myrtle kind of holding up the hill from sliding down, violets of every color grew in the shade of the Big Old Mother Oak. There were Trillium, Ferns, and phlox growing in that woodsy space by our childhood sandbox and old  bright yellow  hand me down swing set. As time went by ( around 50+ years or so), the trees grew taller, fuller, and the shade denser.  The Red Bud in memory of the Grandparents grew into a huge explosion of Pink in the Spring. The White Dog Wood that was supposed to be pink in memory of the Other Grandparents grew large and shaded the deck , full of white flowers in spring and full of berries that fed Blue Birds who passed through in early Spring. Now, the yard that had my dear Father exclaiming at age 89 and 1/2  that he "would never want to be dragged away from his beautiful forest view to some dreary facility for old people " ...Well since Dad passed in 2018, this yard is fully  in a tree tunnel. The grass long gone due to zero sunlight coming through, the volunteer Red Bud trees having reached mature tree size creating a tunnel of pink in Spring and cool dense shade all summer.  It is truly beautiful. Now it is my turn to say, never will I ever want to be dragged away from the beauty of this wooded yard and the many birds, deer, and wildlife that visit. But also, I wonder how can I get a little sunlight in here so the ground is not a mud bog! Tree trimming might actually be a good thing!  I have 2 Thistle seed feeders, a suet feeder, 3 Seed feeders.  So many birds come as well as every type of squirrel imaginable. The front garden is sunny and filled with Native and favorite plants.  The back yard is in process of being re planted with ferns, Hosta, Dead Nettle, Cone Flower, Phlox and WHATEVER will grow in the dense dark shade. One half of Old Mother Oak has fallen.  It has become habitat for lichen, chipmunks, and moss.  The other Trunk has withstood ice storms, wind storms, heavy snow, torrential rains and last year after the twin trunk fell, Old Mother Oak dropped acorns like a rain storm to the delight of my collection of squirrels.  Each season I have the same collection of Back Yard Birds visiting.  My favorite, a pair of Cardinals who live, nest and take cover in the neighbor's big old Apple tree. The Chickadees and Wrens fight over the "favorite" bird house.  Ultimately, neither end up actually raising their young there.  I am eager to expand my gardens to include more Bird Friendly Native plants.  I am looking forward to another year of doing Bird Counts and gathering inspiration from others who have developed a Native Plant yard with Birds in mind.  By Ann Marie

My home sits on 5 acres in Northern New England. It is mostly wooded and very sloped. There is “open” space but much of the border of this lawn is shaded by large white pine, red oak, paper birch and hemlock.  My current feathered visitors that I know about are barred owl, nuthatch, robins, an occasional wood thrush. The phoebe family unfortunately did not return this year to their nest atop my floodlight. But for the first time I heard a broad wing hawk in the woods. Hummingbirds frequent my 3 feeders. I have a naturally occurring milkweed patch that I refuse to mow despite its taking up space in the sunniest part of my lawn. I have just built 2 raised beds in sunny warm spots near the house and hope to fill them with colorful native plants and flowers that help birds and pollinators thrive. I have a few other garden spaces but in order to get enough sunlight, I would have to take down more trees which I am not willing to do. One section of lawn I would like to designate as “meadow” but again, I am not sure if it receives enough sun to be of much use.

I have a small yard in the city of Seattle. Many different birds (black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, var. sparrows, flickers, red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits, juncos, downy woodpeckers, hummingbirds) visit my feeders.  But, I decided to renovate my small back yard last Fall, removing turf, installing pathways, some native plants, and a small bird bath, even a snag!, working my way toward a yard that supports diverse life as much as possible. I had to "cage" many (15) of the new plants when I discovered the new shoots being eaten. We've had an influx of bunnies this season. This Fall, I want to supplement the native plants that have survived with others. I am looking to learn more about West coast native pants in this course. Having beauty, fragrance, lots of insects, pollinators, butterflies a diversity of birds, that's my goal.

A few years ago, we bought a house with a pool here in North Carolina. Our property is in the woods with mostly pines but also crepe myrtles, oaks, and one struggling magnolia. We keep our pool chemicals as low as possible since wildlife likes to drink from the pool, especially dragonflies. We have bird baths and bee cups for birds and insects. To keep down mosquitoes, I built a dragonfly habitat and added a mosquito dunk that only hurts the mosquitoes and nothing else. It worked! We've had three times as many dragonflies this year and they've feasted on mosquitoes and more! We also have many butterflies and moths, some bees, and about 15 types of birds that I've recorded on my Merlin app so far. We're planning to replace the many non-native plants we inherited with native plants, but this will take time. Our next goal is to replace our butterfly bush with a native plant that is equally appealing to pollinators. We don't use pesticides, so Japanese Stiltgrass (?) has taken over this year. We've started removing it by hand. We're also trying to figure out what to do with our drainage field. (We're on well water plus septic). We can't build anything on it, but perhaps we could turn it into a wildflower meadow? Again, the 'how' is what we're trying to figure out. And we worry about creating more places for copperheads to hide. My friend and my dog were both bitten by them, so we'd like to keep them at bay. Open to any suggestions. :)

We are so lucky because we bought a property 10 years ago that bird lovers had owned.  Our gardens are filled with native plants and we have something blooming from early spring to late fall that birds and p0llinators love.  We have so many insects that i have never seen anywhere else.  But I am not great at id so of course they are probably common! :) I have Picture Insect Id, probably have the wrong name for it, but it is fun!  It Ids caterpillars, flies, and so many other insects.  It helps me know if an insect is beneficial or not.  I was listening to an organic gardener podcast and she said she rarely treats her garden for pests but tries to work around them.   Plant at different times that cofound the pest life cycle, plant a little later or earlier than people usually put them in, so the pests that eat them  won't be active.  Also, she doesn't ever try to control aphids because so many beneficial insects come to eat them.  The positive outcome of this is that you leave the creatures we share our world with,  more in balance.  I hope! The podcast I am talking about is The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy.  She is a sweet person to listen to.   I am not religious and her religion does creep in a little bit but it still seems kind and loving.  I love her podcast!

I live on the Southern Gulf Islands in a coastal douglas fir ecosystem, and many birds nest and spend the summer nearby. This year an Anna’s hummingbird is raising two chicks in a cedar tree just outside my window! There are spotted towhees scratching under the salal in my yard and chickadees perched in the arbutus trees. Juncos and robins forage in the veggie garden and nuthatches race up and down the fir tree trunks. We often hear and see pileated, hairy and downy woodpeckers in our back yard forest, and flickers abound.  And the list goes on and on. The edge of the forest supports so many birds I guess I don't need a fancy garden!

I would like to create safe and attractive landscaping to attract pollinating birds such as hummingbirds, as well as migratory and regional birds. I have a century-old southern live oak tree (Quercus virginiana) that provides coverage and partial shade with the advantage of sunlight entering at different times of the day. My landscaping project revolves around this long-lived oak tree (+120 years old). I would like to select flowering plants from my region with trumpet-shaped or tubular flowers to generate nectar and seeds for food, as well as hanging plants to provide cover, protection and reproduction for different species of birds.

I have a lot of birds visiting my space. I live near Myakka River State Park, and my backyard faces a man-made pond. This attracts various birds throughout the year. Some common birds I see include: Great Egret White Ibis Osprey Red-shouldered Hawk Anhinga Wood Stork Northern Cardinal Blue Jay Mourning Dove Eastern Bluebird These birds often focus on the water and surrounding vegetation, engaging in activities like fishing, foraging, perching, and preening. However, due to non-native vegetation, turf grass, and pesticide use in my HOA community, I don't see many pollinators. I want to create a garden to provide a safe haven for birds and pollinators, with native plants and no pesticides.

I love my backyard where I have places to sit and watch the birds as well as bird baths and feeders to attract them. This time of year when we are going through our seasonal dry spell in Florida, the bird baths especially bring in birds that I usually only hear, such as great crested flycatchers and carolina wrens. I am lucky to be more or less surrounded by large, old live oaks and laurel oaks courtesy of my neighbors which seem to house an unending number of birds. In my backyard, I've planted quite a few firebushes and bougainvillea, both of which seem to be popular hangouts for the cardinals, chickadees, and carolina wrens. The main thing I'd like to change in the backyard is to get rid of the grass and replace it with native groundcover plus wildflowers to get a mini meadow effect that can withstand some foot traffic.     In the front yard, the change list is much longer. The grass there covers a large part of it and once the rainy season starts, it requires constant mowing. It's also very, very hot without any of the trees that give so much shade in the backyard. I'd like to replace the grass entirely with bushes and flowering trees (under 40' since I have power lines to contend with.) My dream would be to have a water feature of some kind to attract birds and butterflies to that side. My kitchen table looks out over the front yard and I would much rather see that than the current view of grass and the cars driving past.

I live on the prairies in Western Canada and while our pond allows us a lot of bird viewing during migration seasons (and usually a Canada Goose pair and Bufflehead nest), our yard needs a bit more work. Our feeders are on the deck so not in the best spot, but mostly I see the White-Breasted Nuthatch, a lot of Black-Capped Chickadees, two Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds and the American Goldfinch on them during the day. We used to have Baltimore Orioles but I never see them anymore since our older aspens were taken down. But we see a lot of bird species otherwise as part of our property we don't really tend to (we have a few steep hills and mature pines on the east side we leave be). In the fall our Mountain Ash tree is great for attracting waxwings and the crab apple trees always seem to have Ruffed Grouse eating in them. But other than very common species, I don't see many other types of birds like different warblers or sparrows. I definitely think there needs to be more flowers in our yard and away from the house! I know my mum has always wanted a bird bath too but it will be tricky to find a good spot since our place tends to be very dry in the summer. I'd love to try and landscape to get the Orioles back to our yard. I think that would be the best species I would want to attract!

First of all I enjoy wandering around the yard. I can use my imagination, when I make plans, and move and plant new perennials, prune bushes, construct paths and borders. After the dark and cold winter I awake alongside the early saffrons and narcissus. The highlight of the year is the flowering season of more than 100 peonies in my garden. I like that there are different habitats: sunny and hot frontyard, shelted garden, three small groves - very shady spruce forest, dry mixed forest growing on a bedrock and more humid mixed forest. They allure large range of animals. It's satisfying to detect many kinds of spiders and insects (despite my fobia), birds, rabbits, foxes and an occasional lynx visit or live in my garden. I'm excited when I find a flower I didn't bring here. Providing a place to live for a variety of creatures makes me feel I'm part of the nature and my actions mean something. What I'd like to change is the chaos: I need some structure. There's too many projects going on. Also I wish I'll eventually win the battle against six invasive plants. Some water would attract more animals, but I can't find suitable spot for a little pond.

I enjoy sitting on the porch to watch the birds at my feeders and building nests in my nest boxes.  It brings me joy to watch the process from nest building to fledging of the babies.  I enjoy puttering in my flowers and seeing birds sip nectar from my glads or eat seeds from my sunflowers in the summer. I enjoy harvesting herbs from my small herb garden and picking apples from our apple trees in the fall. I'd like to plant a variety of plants that will attract other bird and butterfly species I know are in the area but do not come to my yard.  I want to learn what to put in my feeders  (as well a what to plant) at what time of year for various birds.  I would like tips on how to keep my nest boxes for the blue birds rather than other species that try to take them over. I enjoy photographing birds and flowers and seeing my perennials return each year.  I am looking forward to all this course has to offer.

I have several feeders both in the front yard and the backyard.  I am working on an area at the side of our house where I have planted shasta daisies, daffodils and tulips, a wisteria bush, and a forsythia bush.  It is a good spot for sunflowers when the deer stay away!  I want to learn what ground cover or other plants might work well in this area.

Last summer I found a landscape company that specialized in Native plant gardens and lawn alternatives. They have created 200 square feet of gorgeous native plants all around the house. They were very small plants in June but by August they were so much bigger. I actually saw hummingbirds feeding from the bee balm vs the hanging feeder. Lots of different little wasps, flower flies, bees visited. I saw several species of butterflies that had never been seen here before. Some of the plants aren’t native , like the Ornamental Onion, but they were included because they are popular with pollinators and they were covered with little bees and wasps. It made me so happy to sit and watch. This will be year 2 and I am so looking forward to seeing the plants return. Living in Manitoba Canada we have loooooong winters so having this garden really brightens my spring and summer.

I recently moved into a new home, in a beautiful area in mountain foothills. The views are wonderful, and my neighbors and I are surrounded by 120 acres of woods and meadows teeming with birds and other wildlife. On the negative side, my property is steeply sloped and most of it is covered with turf grass that has been poorly maintained. My goals are to terrace and stabilize the slopes, to add woody and herbaceous plants for the benefit of wildlife and for my own enjoyment, and to greatly reduce the amount of turf grass. A lot of different birds visit my feeders, and I'd like for my gardens to provide additional food for them.

I have a little bit of everything now but I just want to add more cohesiveness to it.   There is too much blank space between plants and my bird area.  My yard is small, surrounded by the standard issue southwest block wall.  I hang planters for flowers and on the wall and pots of flowers along my patio edge that attract hummers.  These are a mixture of natives and typical easy growing annuals.  My neighbor has flowering crabapple trees along the wall and another wall buts up against the subdivision park which is lined with more trees, tall grasses, shrubs, and flowering trees which add privacy and shade.  We have mostly songbirds but live a block from fields full of raptors, crows and ravens, and, with the exception of a couple ravens, have not ventured here for hunting.  I set out sunflower hearts all year round; suet and nyjer seed in the winter; jelly, oranges and sugar water in the summer.  House finches year round (and House sparrows that I discourage); summer I get Black-chinned hummers and Bullocks orioles; fall brings the Rufus hummers stopping during migration (fun to have but glad to see leave - little meanies); winter I get a pair of Flickers, Pine Siskins, American and Lesser goldfinches, White-crowned Sparrows and when a wind or snow storms comes through will get someone new stopping by.  This winter Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Dark-eyed Junco visited a few times.  I'm in the Feeder Watch program so it's always fun to find someone new! I would like to go more native to the front yard but we have to look "consistent" with the neighbors so its a small yard with flowering shrubs.  At least we are all rock/gravel like the other areas.

The National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat sign they sent me, that I posted on the large Red Maple in the front yard in November 2016, works wonders.  My front yard has a very modest effort at conforming to the cultural american expectation.  The back yard is a jungle.  Providing a water source is challenging, though it is not scarce in Ohio.  Native wetlands and  prairie are rare.  There are recreated or created wetlands, a bit of old(er) growth forest, and some old cemeteries.

We live in the Detroit area and have a typical suburban yard. I have been gardening with native plants for about fifteen years, and the garden is always growing and evolving. It is a completely organic garden - no pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers (other than our own compost). This year I hope to add more berry-producing shrubs. While I believe our garden provides a nice habitat for the critters, it tends to look messy.  I do try to make it aesthetically pleasing for the neighbors, but I have never managed to achieve the "showplace" look that my neighbors want. The garden began as a pollinator garden, and we enjoy an abundance of native bees, beetles, moths and butterflies. I especially enjoy seeing great, black wasps. They really are gentle giants. We also have chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels and the occasional possum and skunk. The standard, backyard birds visit the garden. However, by adding more berry bushes this year, I hope to attract a wider variety of birds.  

I just moved into a new place in central Massachusetts with about a quarter acre surrounded by other houses. My favorite thing so far is how many birds we've had come to our bird feeders: tufted titmice, house finches, nuthatches, bluebirds, chickadees, goldfinches, and woodpeckers! Adding a finch feeder and suet feeder to the tray feeder I started with has made a big difference! Our newest visitor is a northern flicker who has been coming to my suet feeder. The thing I'd most like to change is that we don't have much vegetation yet. We have three big trees that our birds gravitate to, and we've embraced our messy/leafy yard, but I'd like to do more planting so we have more natural food sources and plant diversity. I also would love to establish a small pond for wildlife and set up an outdoor seating area for the warmer months so I can sit and enjoy watching our visitors!

My current space is not huge and is located near a city park with mixed evergreens & deciduous trees about a half mile from a river. My back garden borders a steep slope with invasive Himalayan blackberry but that still provides cover for many birds as well as raccoons & cotton tails . As a result there are a number of birds that fly by, over, and thru my garden.  I’m trying to have a mix of native and other bird & pollinator species . I try to garden pesticide free.  Many of the “usual” birds in my garden have become comfortable having me around. I’m working towards a more sustainable and nature friendly mix of plants.

I live in Florida and enjoy the outside temperatures during this time of year.  I have made many mistakes and have learned from them so now I am looking forward to native plants and bird friendly areas. I tried some new plants but also rescued a puppy and let's just say he loves to garden also! So I have to keep him in mind when planning my area this time. Looking forward to just sitting and enjoying what is going on in my yard. I do not live in a development that has restrictions.