Water Gardening

Inviting Wildlife to Your Garden Key elements needed to attract a wide variety of wildlife.

NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat • • • • •

Water Food Cover Place to Raise Young Sustainable Gardening

Water Features • • • • • • •

Deep Water Beach Slow-moving Shallow Water Bog/Puddles Splash Drip Misters

Food • Trees/Shrubs: Nuts, Berries, Fruit, Sap, Foliage, Twigs • Plants: Seeds, Nectar, Foliage, Flowers, Pollen • Insects/Invertebrates: Dragonflies, Butterflies, Grubs, Worms • Birds, Small Rodents, Amphibians, Fish

Cover Weather/Predators • • • • • • • •

Woods/Large Trees Evergreens Thickets/Brambles Ground Cover Caves Meadows/Prairies Ponds Burrows

• • • • • •

Roosting Boxes Toad Abodes Brush/Log Piles Rock Piles Water Garden Leaf Litter/Mulch

Place to Raise Young • • • •

Allow for Mating/Courtship Behavior Habitat & Materials for Nest Building Food Sources for Young Encompassed in “Cover” but with variations

Sustainable Gardening • Reduce Water Usage: – Xeriscaping, Rainwater Capture, Drip/Soaker Irrigation

• • • • •

Reduce Erosion Reduce Chemical Pesticides & Fertilizer Reduce Non-native Plants & Turf Area Compost Mulch

Butterflies & Moths Best Website: www.butterfliesandmoths.org

Butterflies & Moths • • • • • •

Protected sunny, non-windy area Low traffic Specific Host Plants for caterpillars* Nectar Plants for adults* Boggy puddles Citrus wedges/nectar feeders

Caterpillar Host Plants • • • • •

Swallowtail: Dill, Parsley, Fennel, Queen Anne’s Lace Monarchs: Milkweeds (asclepias) Silvery Blue: Lupine Zebra Swallowtail: Pawpaw (asmina) Buckeye: Snapdragons (antirrhinum), Monkeyflower (mimulus), linaria • Hummingbird Clearwing Moth: Honeysuckle, Hawthorn, Cherries/Plums • Great Ash Sphinx Moth: Lilac, Aspen, Ash

Butterfly Adult Nectar Sources Perennials

Annuals

• Azaleas/Rhododendron • Bee Balms (monarda) • Butterfly Bush (buddleias) • Honeysuckle • Phlox • Milkweeds • Vibernums

• • • • •

Lantana Snapdragons Verbenas Petunias Nasturtiums

Dragonflies & Damselflies • Still Water (beach to 2 feet deep, 5-10 feet diameter) • Protection from wind • Underwater Vegetation (nymph hiding) • Water’s edge perching plants • Light-colored flat sunny basking rocks • Area free from fish • Feeds on smaller insects (mosquitos)

Amphibians & Reptiles Best Websites: www.herpnet.net/Minnesota-Herpetology/ www.dnr.state.mn.us/reptiles_amphibians

Salamanders & Newts • • • •

Eastern Newt Tiger Salamander Blue-Spotted Salamander Habitat/Food – permanent woodland ponds – leaf & rotting log litter – eat fish & frog eggs, crawfish, water insects, earthworms, snails

Frogs & Toads • • • • • •

Spring Peeper Eastern Gray/Cope’s Gray Tree American Toad Northern Leopard Green Bull

Frogs & Toads • Eat: Insects & Invertebrates • Great for controlling garden pests • Habitat: Permanent or Semi-permanent Ponds • Burrows in cool damp leaf litter and loose soil • More active at night, landscape lighting attracts prey

Snakes • Plains/Eastern/Red-sided Garter Snake – Habitat: Pond edge, animal burrows, Log piles, Damp woods, Tall grass/meadows – Eats: Anything. Earthworms, Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, Mice, Bird Eggs, Fish, Carrion

• Redbelly Snake – Habitat: Flat boards/logs in woods, dry sandy, near marshes – Eats: Slugs, worms, insect larvae

Skinks • Prairie Skink (5-8” long) • Habitat: Burrows under rock piles, boards or logs in sunny prairies, under railroad ties • Eats: Grasshoppers, Crickets, Beetles, Caterpillars

Hummingbirds • • • • • • •

Multiple feeders, 4:1 water:sugar Bright Ribbon in Trees/Shrubs (mid-march) Year-round blooming plants* Snags within 50 feet of feeders Water misters & drippers Encourage spiderwebs Large tree with horizontal/downward branches facing open area

Hummingbird Plant Favorites • Annuals in baskets (plant extra early!) – Petunias, Verbena

• Tubular Perennials – Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, Bee Balm, Cardinal Flower, Red Columbine

• Native Annuals – Spotted jewelweed

• Other favorite annuals – Nicotiana, Snapdragons, Nasturtium, Zinnia, Cleome

General Songbirds • Feeders that include both hanging and platform, away from windows • Feed within 5-15 feet of dense shrub or evergreen • Black sunflower, white millet, peanuts • Add variety such as suet, mealworms & fruit • Slow-moving water 2-3 inches deep with rough surface

Suet Recipe • • • • • •

1 cup Lard/Suet 1 cup Peanut Butter (crunchy or smooth) 1 cup cornmeal 3 cups oats 1 cup sugar Dried fruit (optional)

Cardinals • Feed: – Prefer platform, but will do perch – Seeds: sunflower, safflower – Peanuts, raisins, meal worms, grape jelly

• Nest 4-6 feet above ground in dense low-traffic shrubs edging open areas • Stake territory from tallest structure in neighborhood • Attracted to shallow moving water year-round

Baltimore Orioles • April 15-May1st put out food: – oranges halved on spikes in trees – grape jelly on platforms – Hummingbird feeders with perches

• June 1st and beyond: – Add insects (mealworms) and suet

• Nesting material = string pieces 8-12” in length

Bluebirds • Feed: insects in a protected feeder • Fall: add berries, shelled seeds and suet (love raisins, dried cranberries and cherries) • Nest boxes: hole 1 ½ ” no perch, mounted on predator-proof pole within 5-10 feet of woods overlooking mowed grass/meadow, paired boxes for each bluebird • Remove twiggy dummy wren nests from one box • Monitor box weekly for blowfly larvae

Rodents • Mice & Voles • Chipmunks • Red Squirrels

Native Mice & Voles • • • • • • •

Northern Grasshopper Mouse Deer Mouse (Prairie & Woodland) Western Harvest Mouse Meadow Vole Southern Red-Backed Vole Meadow Jumping Mouse* Plains Pocket Mouse*

Native Mice • Northern Grasshopper Mouse • Grasshoppers, beetles, moths, flies, wasps, spiders • Hunt in packs, defend against intruders, “howl”

• Deer Mouse (Prairie & Woodland) • Seeds (bush clover), keep stashes • Burrows, under logs, hollow stumps

• Western Harvest Mouse • Weed & grass seeds, caterpillars, hide for later • Grass nests at base of dense shrub or tall grass

Native Voles • Meadow Vole • Greens & seeds, garden produce • Create tunnels in grass

• Southern Red-Backed Vole • cache food: seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves, bark, roots, fungi, and insects • Forest dwellers, territorial, favorite source of food for predators

Other Rodents • Chipmunks • Black-oil sunflower seeds, berries, other plant seeds • Burrows, natural boulder walls, log piles (firewood) • Solitary, fight over food, semi-hibernate, leave territory where born

• Red Squirrels • insects, seeds, bark, nuts, fruits, mushrooms and pine seeds or cones. Young birds & mice. • Forests, hollows of trees, solitary, vocal

General Predatory Birds • Attract both nest habitat and food source • Place the prey’s food source open travel distance from it’s habitat • Provide a vantage point for the predatory bird to wait it out

MN Suburban Predatory Birds • Birds that feed primarily on smaller birds – Cooper’s Hawk – Sharp Shinned Hawk

• Birds that feed on rodents, amphibians, reptiles & small birds – American Kestral – Barred Owl – Broad-winged Hawk

Fish-eating Predators • • • • • •

Great Blue Heron Snowy Egret Green Heron Kingfisher Raccoons Mink

Location, Location, Location Best Laid Plans…

Put bluebird houses here

612-865-0440

www.happyponds.net