What makes a garden wildlife-friendly?
From the NWF Website:
- Food: Native plants provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen and insects eaten by an exciting variety of wildlife. Feeders can supplement natural food sources.
- Water: All animals need water to survive and some need it for bathing or breeding as well.
- Cover: Wildlife needs places to find shelter from bad weather and places to hide from predators or to stalk prey.
- Places to Raise Young: Wildlife needs resources to reproduce and keep their species going. Some species have totally different habitat needs in their juvenile phase than they do as adults.
- Sustainable Practices: How you manage your garden can have an effect on the health of the soil, air, water and habitat for native wildlife as well as the human community.
About the Program
by Stephen Coan
Collingswood, NJ is registered with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to become a Certified Community Wildlife Habitat which will require a number of properties in town to be certified for the program, private homes, schools, places of worship, businesses, parks, and town properties. There are already a number of homes certified with new ones being certified every month.
The NWF’s Garden for Wildlife program has a new formal partnership with the New Jersey Audubon Society with co-certification of each habitat created. Together they are recognizing the efforts of those in each of the select states who commit to creating wildlife habitats with a co-certification of the Certified Wildlife Habitats. New Jersey is one of them.
This page will post updates as we move forward.
I’m Stephen Coan, an ecological landscape designer and horticulturist located in Collingswood, NJ and is the team leader that is organizing the project. My property and its extensive low-maintenance gardens that we have named Ferret Hollow Gardens has been certified since 2006 as a Wildlife Habitat and a certified Pollinator Habitat through the Xerces Society.
If you love gardening and connecting with people in your community, the National Wildlife Federation can help us certify our community as a Community Wildlife Habitat.
A Community Wildlife Habitat is a community that provides habitat for wildlife throughout the community – in individual backyards, on school grounds, in public areas such as parks, community gardens, places of worship and business properties in the form of gardens.
It is a place where the residents make it a priority to provide habitat for wildlife by providing the four basic elements that all wildlife need: food, water, cover and places to raise young. Plus using sustainable practices in the different gardens creating a healthy environment.
The community also educates its residents about sustainable gardening practices such as reducing or eliminating chemical fertilizers and pesticides, conserving water, planting native plants, removing invasive plants and composting.
Community Wildlife Habitats are organized by a team of people, who not only help create habitat, but also hold workshops about gardening for wildlife and organize community events such as stream or trail cleanups.
A Community Habitat project creates a place where people, flora and fauna can all flourish!
The National Wildlife Federation’s Community Habitat Program now has more than 95 communities across the country either certified or in the process and they range in size from small towns of a few thousand to larger communities of close to million residents.
For more information click here: NWF Community Wildlife Habitats
The community habitat program involves having multiple gardens developed or installed throughout the community that include different plants and water sources or rain gardens that are beneficial to pollinators – butterflies, bees, birds, etc. which will provide the different life services for them. It can be simple to complex; you decide how much you are able to do.
In order to acquire the designation a garden/property/landscape needs to have the following five basic requirements: (with some explanation)
- Food: Native plants provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen and insects eaten by an exciting variety of wildlife. Feeders can supplement natural food sources.
- Water: All animals need water to survive and some need it for bathing or breeding as well. Bird baths, fountains, ponds, rain gardens.
- Cover: Wildlife needs places to find shelter from bad weather and places to hide from predators or to stalk prey. Dense shrubs, evergreen trees, etc.
- Places to Raise Young: Wildlife needs resources to reproduce and keep their species going. Some species have totally different habitat needs in their juvenile phase than they do as adults. Trees to nest in, host plants for caterpillars, nesting box/bird houses, etc.
- Sustainable Practices: How you manage your garden can have an effect on the health of the soil, air, water and habitat for native wildlife as well as the human community. Remove/don’t use invasive species of plants, eliminate Chemical pesticides and fertilizers, use compost, leaf mulch, keep rainwater on your property – rain gardens, etc.
For instance by putting in milkweed in gardens, my favorite is Butterfly Plant – Asclepias tuberosa, it has orange flowers from June to August, you can help support Monarch Butterflies with a food source. By putting in different types of Oak Trees you are supporting over 500 different species of Lepidoptera (butterflies & moths) and the list can go on and on.
The process can be simple. The homeowner or community has the opportunity to make the process either simple or complex by each participant deciding how far they want to go with their own gardens from simply adding a few beneficial plants to a complex planting scheme. A water source or rain garden is needed in each case. Simple – Birdbath, bird feeder, birdhouse, some perennials, shrubs, no chemicals. More complex – the above plus a larger diversity of native plants and beneficial ornamental plants to benefit the local fauna – butterflies, bees, beneficial insects, birds, etc.
The use of chemicals and pesticides is greatly discouraged in favor of more natural and beneficial means. The best alternatives, which are actually better working than chemicals, are the use of leaf mulch, leaf mold, compost, compost tea, and beneficial insects. A garden is all about the soil. It is necessary to have a large diversity of biological, bacterial, and fungal organisms in the soil to break down the nutrients that are then fed to the plants through the roots which are just “sponges” and be able to support the different beneficial soil invertebrates.
Through my own research I have found that the best mulch to use in the garden is leaf mulch that can be produced in the fall by grinding up your leaves and branches and placing the mixture in the garden beds about 3″ – 4” thick. It will compact down during the winter. This should be all that you need for the year. I usually keep a trash can full to fill in spots that might need touch-ups.
Think about it, fallen leaf debris is what nature has used for millions of years to great effect without our help, interference, or use of added chemicals of fertilizers.
You can also make leaf mold by letting the leaves sit in a compost bin to somewhat break down during the composting to destroy any harmful organisms or unwanted weed seeds. This method is used by Longwood Gardens. The leaf deterioration will increase the food necessary to feed and increase the biological content in the soil. Additionally I have found that the use of leaf compost, placed under the leaf mulch, and the use of compost tea, which is sprayed, poured either onto the plant leaves or onto the soil is really all you need to control pest and disease in addition to a well balanced community of native insects. A healthy plant in the proper well-balanced healthy environment is much better able to fight off diseases and pests. This also applies to lawns of turf grass that I really don’t recommend having too much of. A recent study has found that a lawn treated with a good compost tea instead of chemicals will develop roots 8” to 12” deep and is much healthier due to the proper biological content of the soil as opposed to 2” to 4” with the use of chemicals. This would help the turf grass survive drier periods by allowing access to moisture content deeper in the soil.
The plants – perennials, shrubs, and trees, are the foundation to support and feed wildlife – butterflies, bees, birds, etc. The loss of their native habitat – plants, due to development has decreased their number. This is especially demonstrated by the large decrease in population of Monarch Butterflies and their loss of habitat food sources along streams particularly the different milkweeds. If we design our gardens to include beneficial plants we would then attract them back to our gardens. A very good resource book to understand what is going on and what can be done on our own properties and towns is Professor Douglas Tallamy’s book “Bringing Nature Home”. http://www.bringingnaturehome.net
Also, he has provided data that was used by the National Wildlife Federation as the basis for the NWF’s Native Plant and Butterfly Finder. < click there
Most birds raise their young on caterpillars and insects feeding their young hundreds per week. So the more plants that attract beneficial insects the more birds in the area. The more birds in the area the more that can eat the bugs that we consider bad including mosquitos.
One thing that I also do is raising and managing native bees, Mason Bees in the spring, and Bumble Bees in the summer. They are pretty much harmless. They pollinate the flowers of the perennials, shrubs, and trees that in turn produce more fruit, which in turn feed the birds and other wildlife and of course, us. I have never been bit by either of them.
I also have a frog pond that supplies water to the different insects and birds plus it harbors frogs. Having some sort of water feature in your garden is necessary for the designation. It could be as simple as a birdbath, to a pond, or stream running through your property, or a rain garden.
For additional information please see the projects Facebook page, Collingswood, NJ Community Wildlife Habitat Gardens Project but especially go through the NWF’s
Garden for Wildlife Website < click there
If you would like to participate in the project but have questions or would like to see one of our showcase gardens for inspiration please free to contact me.
Stephen Coan
267-251-5855
habitat@scoandesign.com or use the Contact link. < click there