Dave
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Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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I lost a couple of mature trees in my backyard last summer in a heavy storm. That opened up a bare spot in my otherwise heavily shaded backyard and the invasives have moved in very aggressively. I want to focus on that area and try to get native ground cover and fast-growing perennials in there.
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I think I've done a pretty good job of implementing the keys. I do need to work a bit hard at providing year round abundance, however. There are gaps in my blooming calendar that I need to address in my pollinator garden and I would like more diversity in bloom colors and shapes. I've removed most of the major invasives but they continually pop up and it is practically a daily task to identify and remove them. I still have a large portion of my backyard that is covered in English ivy and I need to develop a strategy for its removal and immediate replacement with a native ground cover so I don't just have other invasives immediately popping up. I would like to have more berry and fruit producing plants. I'm finding that I can only afford to plant young plants and must wait several years for them to develop fruit. Also, many species, such as spicebush, holly and paw paw, are monecious and you have to plant at least three in close proximity to have the best chance of producing fruit.
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I live in Southeast Tennessee and I have a bluebird box that typically hatches three separate broods per season and I have another nest box with a smaller diameter hole that typically hatches one brood of Carolina chickadees per season. I also have a couple of hanging house wren boxes and typically at least one of them is used as a nest. Additionally, over the years I've also observed the following species nesting somewhere on my property: Carolina wren, northern cardinal, Eastern kingbird. I put out hummingbird feeders every spring and have frequent visitors. I suspect hummingbirds are nesting on my property or nearby. At certain times of year, when working on my garden, robins will hang around and take advantage of any worms that I dig up. I've seen snails and slugs on my property and often observe Eastern towhees scratching around the leaf litter in my yard. At various times, I've observed cedar waxwings, tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, Northern mockingbirds and Blue Jays feeding on insects and or trees on my property such as dogwoods and black cherry. I've observed American goldfinches feeding on coneflower heads in my pollinator garden. I've observed Eastern bluebirds hunting in my front yard. They will perch on my mailbox and occasionally swoop down to the lawn to grab an insect or worm. I've observed a yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling wells on one of my hickory trees. I've observed Northern mockingbird feeding on a chokeberry shrub. I've observed Ruby throated hummingbirds feeding on coral honeysuckle and garden phlox. I've observed gray catbirds eating the fruit from American pokeweed. My birdbaths have attracted at least a couple of dozen species including Ruby crowned kinglet, rose breasted grosbeak, wood thrush and various warblers.
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During the COVID lockdown, for the first time in the 15 years I had lived in my home, I started to pay attention to my yard and its role in attracting birds and other wildlife. I decided to buy and install some bird feeders, bought a bird guide and began to educate myself about the birds that came to my feeders. It was so enlightening and delightful and very exciting whenever I saw a species for the first time. As I read more and more about attracting wildlife, I began to pay more and more attention to what was growing on my property and learned of the importance of native plants. I soon realized, my first priority was to properly identify and remove invasives which sadly had overtaken most of my backyard. My front yard was mostly lawn. I soon joined my local Wild Ones chapter, enrolled in the Tennessee Master Naturalist Program and my local Master Gardeners program. All of these resources have made me much better educated about the ecosystems in my area and how to manage them. I slowly developed a plan to populate certain areas of my property with native plant installations and have been implementing it very slowly every since. I've transformed bits of my front yard to pollinator habitat and continue to remove invasives in my backyard and replace them with native perennials and trees. It's a slow process, but I'm making progress and gradually transforming my property to how it may have looked 60 years ago before my subdivision was developed. I'm taking this course to find ways to attract even more wildlife. I'd especially like to add a water feature and attract frogs and other amphibians. I'd also like to develop a strategy for having multiple natural food sources available year round for birds and have something blooming for three full seasons for pollinators.
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