Gardening

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Category: Yards

Creating a backyard refuge for birds takes just a little planning

Although there is still much to do in the garden, the season is starting to wind down, leaving more time to pursue old and new interests. I've always loved watching and feeding the birds but I never really got serious about it until last week, when I decided I would love to be able to take pictures of them. I found that one of the ways to attract more birds to your yard is make it a refuge.

I didn't quite know what a backyard refuge is and wondered how much it would cost to create one. After reading the list on National Wildlife Federation's Web site I realized I already had most of the requirements to have a certified backyard refuge and the ones I lacked were inexpensive to obtain.

The lists includes:

• Food for the birds or wildlife: It can be a mixture of natural vegetation or feeders.
• Water supply: including ponds, lakes, birdbaths, etc.
• Cover for wildlife: Shrubs and brush piles are good.
• A place for wildlife to raise their young: nesting boxes, plants that moths or butterflies can lay their eggs in, etc.
• Let your garden grow green: by going green you can conserve natural resources and by planting native plants you stop using as much fertilizer.

I do have a bird feeder and see evidence that birds have used it, but they haven't stayed too long. I think it sits too close to the house (the other side of the post has our house number) and they probably don't like the activity. So I'll be looking for more birdhouses in the future.

We already have many trees with fruit and bushes for wildlife to find shelter. but I think it would be neat to have a butterfly bush so I'll be staking out a place in our backyard to plant one next spring.

One more inexpensive easy way to provide shelter is a brush pile - maybe in the far corner of our backyard there is room. I'll get started tomorrow with leftover grape vines. Hope Bat won't mind too much.

I think it will be awhile before birds come back to my backyard, so to encourage them I've put another bird feeder out and yesterday I also bought suet and a holder to put it in. I found a web site with a easy to make suet recipe at Organic Garden Buzz so next time I need to replace the suet it will be homemade.

If you are interested in making your backyard a wildlife refuge, most of these things are easy and inexpensive to get us on your way.

You can catch up with my garden at Gardening in Lower MI.

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Category: Yards

The grass isn't greener, the sequel

Part two of the anti-grass campaign at our home is well under way as the grass disappears from our courtyard.

We're back to the digging method, since we started planting a chamomile lawn last year. We did a small trial area and the chamomile is already happily spreading its feet, so we continued to dig, plant and mulch this summer. It's taking shape and the chamomile is flowering, much to the bees' great joy. (Bare feet are probably a bad idea in our yard right now.)

We chose Roman chamomile, a variety that grows up to about 6 inches. True lawn chamomile is much shorter, but it doesn't flower, so we chose a different variety. We plan to mow it a few times over the summer to keep it under control, but the clumps planted last year are already forming mats and choking out weeds.

It's a lot of work at the outset, but I think it will pay off. When you step on or brush by it, it releases a nice herbal smell that is a real bonus.

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Category: Yards

Getting past grass with lots of hard work

There's much talk about the decline of newspapers, but believe one thing to be true: You can't smother weeds with a computer screen.

You can, however, cover your weed-infested lawn with layers of newspaper, wet them down and cover them with a thick layer of mulch and hope for a garden bed a year down the road. That's what Bob and I have done with stacks and stacks of newspapers snatched from recycling bins.

After two years, many yards of mulch and many more aching back muscles, the lawn has been eradicated from our front yard. We decided to eliminate all of the grass because lawn is nothing but a big mowing-fertilizing-weeding chore. Of course, removing it was nothing but a big weeding-digging-mulching chore, but that's neither here nor there.

My first inclination was to dig up the west side of our front yard. It sounds so easy. I started that confidently the summer before last, telling Bob, "This will be my spring project."

"Did I say spring?" I said a few weeks later. "I meant summer."

"Well, what I really meant," I said a few months after that, "was that I'd wrap up in the fall."

Snow fell. Snow piled up. Snow melted. Replay that conversation and you get the gist for 2007 and 2008.

It's really, really hard to dig up sod, grass and weeds. It's heavy, hard work, and sometimes the kayak called too loudly to resist. Meanwhile, my like-minded gardening nut husband was busy building a back patio by hand so he didn't have spare energy or time for my insane project.

But this year, we threw ourselves into the job, taking a two-pronged approach: He finished digging up the west side (by hand!) and I laboriously covered the east side with newspapers and mulch, deciding to try the smothering approach.

We finished Sunday afternoon and then collapsed in exhaustion. Hours later, after much reviving water and showers, we peered over the edge of our balcony. It looks fantastic.

Time will ultimately measure our success. There already are random weeks poking up through the newspaper, but a quick shot of Roundup seems to do the trick. (Sorry, all truly green gardeners, but desperate times, desperate measures.) The hand-dug side still gets weeds, but they're manageable and easy to pull up. The thyme and perennials we've planted are growing and spreading, and that will help cover the ground and crowd out weeds.

We hope to be able to plant the east side next year and turn the front yard into a butterfly haven that we'll be able to observe from the shady front porch, cool drink in hand.

As idyllic as that scene is, it's also largely a fairy tale. Next weekend, we attack the courtyard. Our new goal: a totally grass-free yard.