Susan

I have a small garden area on the edge of my back patio where I have a butterfly bush and plant annuals. This year I am going native with this area as my first attempt at native plant gardening. I still have to pull up the butterfly bush. I am looking for perennials that will attract hummingbirds, butterflies and benefit our birds that also visit our many backyard feeders. I bought my first two native plants yesterday at a native plant society event and realized I have to pay attention to the info about height, one I bought might grow to 5 ft which is taller than I want for the patio area. I may put it in another area of my yard where I also plan to do some native plants, or just plant it at the far end of the patio garden with a replacement native shrub for the butterfly bush can give it some background or support if needed if it grows tall. The native plants are more expensive than non-native as I expected. I am giving myself some slack to live and learn, I will make some "mistakes" but will learn from them. Actually nothing is a mistake, it is all a learning experience.

I have a variety of bird feeders and several sources of water that birds and squirrels love. Use a heater for winter to keep water from freezing. Also have one bird house/nest box that is getting alot of business this spring from sparrows, last year house wrens. Will be re-doing a small patio garden this year to be native plants/perennials. Plan to remove the butterfly bush, want to replace with a shrub that is native as the birds love the shelter of the bush being near the bird feeders and water sources.

Drawing from a photo made me feel a little more secure as the bird was not moving. I did not feel stressed for time. What I noticed by drawing from the photo were the black stripes on the wings and tail and the red striations on the front of the bird, also the talons on the branch.