Kelly

I live in a suburb northwest of Edmonton, AB, Canada.  My front yard faces North and  my bird feeder there brings in chickadees, nuthatches and downy, and pileated woodpeckers as well as the occasional flicker. My yard has no trees, but the neighbours’ trees which are tall spruce, ash and elm seem to bring the birds to the area.  I would love to remove our front lawn and replace it with mainly low maintenance evergreen species, complementary native plants and shrubs to provide cover, nesting habitat and natural sources of food.  My backyard, facing south, is where we spend all our time enjoying our deck, watching the birds at the feeders and bird baths and playing with the dogs.  We recently put in some raised vegetable beds at the back of the yard where I also have a small very productive Evans cherry tree, a couple grapevines growing along the chainlink fence and a couple haskap bushes that the birds eat all the berries off before I manage to harvest any.  The rest of the yard is lawn except for the entire east side along the fence which previously had a garden of perennials I had planted including a beautiful dropmore honeysuckle which attracted hummingbirds. Unfortunately, this farden has been overun by quack grass and so most of plants I put in have been strangled out.  Ideally, I would love to get rid of the quack grass ( without chemical intervention) and fill the garden with hardy native plant species including some trees for shade as well as food and cover for wildlife as I only have the cherry tree and a lilac bush with any height or density in the area. I would also love to see a variety of colours in the plants and flowers throughout the year. Because of the dog, I will need to maintain some lawn, but I am okay with reducing the amount we have. Overall, there is a lot of potential given the southern exposure and lack of trees right now and I would just love to increase the biodiversity in my yard.