Garden Trees and Birds

When we first built this place, 5 years ago, it was a field of weeds and soybeans. Even the next spring, the farmer planted soybeans right up to where the builder was building my house. When it came time to grade, the builder said to wait until the farmer took down the beans. Well, he didn't take down the beans until mid December. I was furious! It was the driest, hottest and most uncomfortable summer there was and I had approximately 200 plants that needed (and I mean NEEDED) to be planted and the grading wasn't done!!!! We finally forced the builder to at least grade the front to the road so we had somewhere to start. However, he did refuse to plant grass -- too hot; too dry.

We planted eight trees. Three of them a good size and the rest very tiny. All but two were shade trees. I wanted native shade trees because that would draw in the birds and wildlife. Or, hybrid varieties of native shade trees. I planted a beech, red oak, Norway maple (OK this one isn't native but I liked the color), spruce, locust, poplar and two dogwood. That year we had chipping sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, ravens, bluebirds. The only squirrel I saw that summer was a dead one that somehow got into the soybean field that encroached all the way up to the beech and poplar trees that were planted 70 feet from the back of the house. I wanted those beans GONE!!! I saw a couple of field thrushes and our very friendly tree swallows. We learned quickly to keep the garage door shut after getting a couple of the swallows in the house, driving the cat absolutely nuts. We shouldn't forget the Hummingbirds either. They started coming around almost immediately, so for the first time I actually put out a feeder for them and could watch them. I got at least three a day.

That was 5 years ago. Today, I have exactly 55 trees in the garden, the soybeans are gone and the grass has been planted. I'm still keeping the big shade trees as close to native as possible. The woods around me have a good number of American Elm that seem to be doing OK. But the threat of Dutch Elm disease is still a very big threat. I wanted an elm, so I planted a Chinese elm -- not as pretty or majestic, but with a root system that suited the area better; deeper and more narrow than the American elm, and is much more resistant to Dutch Elm disease. I now have two nice sized red maples and I just planted a white ash, both of which are also strong trees in the woods around me.

The birds have also increased in numbers. I still have the chipping sparrows and tree swallows, blue birds and red-winged blackbirds. But this year I've seen a red-bellied woodpecker frequently checking out the oak and beech. There have been over a dozen hummingbirds that visit the feeder, house sparrows have moved in, purple finches have visited enough in large numbers to make me wonder if they are considering nesting in the garden, gold finches are nesting in the garden, Robbins and cardinals are becoming frequent visitors. A pair of mud swallows have a nest above the front door. If I leave the nest there, they will raise their young without making to much of a mess of my porch. And this morning, orioles visited, playing in the forsythia and in one of the largest of my rose bushes.

I have room for one more shade tree. I haven't decided which tree I want there so I may spend a couple of years thinking about it. But I am now working on the shrubbery, trying to plant natives that would add to the garden as well as draw in the wildlife, especially butterflies and birds. One of the plants I've found by accident is the native milkweed. It's a weed (or a wildflower since I really like this plant) with a fragrance that is heavenly. It is the only plant that the monarch butterfly will lay it's eggs on, and it's also quite pretty and tall. Two seeds ended up in a garden patch last year and I let them grow. This year, yes, they spread and I now have a patch of milkweed. Of course, I have hybrid varieties of milkweed throughout the garden as well as some native varieties that are somewhat different from the one that just grew. But the hybrids don't seem to be visited quite as much. The wild one is covered with butterflies and bees and is intensely more fragrant than the hybrids. I'm sure I'm going to have to weed it out eventually or it'll overtake the entire garden, but it is a plant that has won a place in my garden and I will keep some. I had quite a number of generations of monarch butterflies in the garden last year with just two plants. I hope I have more this year with more plants.

As my garden grows and the trees start maturing, I'm seeing more and more different varieties of birds here. I still haven't seen the larger woodpeckers that I can see in the woods, or the bluejays. But they will come, I'm sure. I have rabbits now, though I think I'd rather eat them than let them eat my plants and they will draw in foxes and other predators such as hawks. The squirrels will eventually come when the acorns and beechnuts become more plentiful. Right now I'm just enjoying the growing number of bird species and of course all the babies that are learning to fly in my back yard.