Gardening to provide Habitat for Birds, Butterflies and other Wildlife
Getting Started...
Whether it was our love of gardening that led us to discover the enjoyment of watching the visiting wildlife or the appreciation of wildlife that led us to planting things that are not only beautiful, but beneficial to our visitors is no longer important as both have given us such pleasure and satisfaction that we urge everyone to make a greater effort to create an environment which can be shared and, indeed, enhanced by wildflife. Here we have tried to chronical our journey.
We bought the house located in Jackson, NJ on two acres of property in 1992. The site was completely devoid of landscaping except for a five mature silver maples, a dogwood, and a few insect infected shrubs which had to be removed--not much for a two acre lot. But we decided this might be a good thing as we had a virtually blank canvas with which to work...and work we did. Here's a before ('92) and after (99'), although we've learned there IS no "after" when it comes to landscaping as no gardener I know is ever done.
Being relatively inexperienced at that point, we felt it best to start the landscaping process armed with lot of research and a very responsive landscape architect. With the wildlife habitat concept in mind, we came up with an overall plan for the original two acres. We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase an additional five wooded acres which improved our habitat by leaps and bounds instantly.
We were pleasantly surprised to find the Internet provided a wealth of information. There are some wonderful websites which we've tried to share with you here. We were also directed to the National Wildlife Federation as well as Windstar Wildlife Institute. Each of them has a Backyard Habitat Certification Program which, after completing much of the landscape, we applied for and, we're proud to say, received. We are Habitat #25672 with NWF and Registry #200050 with Windstar. Doing this was an educational and rewarding process. Be sure to check them out on our links pages.
Most of the websites I mentioned discuss the four components necessary to create a habitat~food, water, cover and space~and many will go into these in great depth. Rather than simply restate the information which has been presented far better than we could hope to, we'll focus on what we did to provide these important components as implementation is as individual as each of us.
Through the links we've provided below, we've tried to share with you some of the insights we've gained through our varied experiences (and our mistakes). It is our sincere hope that we can inspire others to create a habitat of their own and, in turn, to inspire others to do the same.
Okay, now just give me a moment to climb up on my soapbox while I take this opportunity to say that we've destroyed so much natural habitat through residential and industrial development, not to mention polluting much of what habitat remains, that it's only through a concerted effort that we can begin to restore some of what has been lost. And, since habitat can be recreated to some extent in an area as small as an apartment balcony to a country farm, you, yes, each and every one of you, can make a difference. Please try...
