Backyard Habitat Tour
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The Backyard Habitat Tour will be held on June 18th from
9 to 4 p.m. Tour
features yards demonstrating excellent wildlife habitat plantings.
Includes two nationally certified wildlife gardens; Park and East
Avenue neighborhoods, Brighton, Irondequoit, the Children’s
Garden and a woodland habitat nestled within a Genesee Land Trust
conservation easement. Tour is self-guided and self-paced. Gardeners
are available for questions. Tickets are $15 for non-members and
$12 for GLT members and will be available this spring at GLT and
Wegmans. Volunteer Garden Greetersneeded! Please call Margaret Potter
at 256-2130
Backyard Habitat Tips:
- Include natural features such as: dead trees,
hedgerows, or shrubby areas into your design. You can under-plant
treed areas with shrubs, groundcovers, and wildflowers; grow a
vine up a dead tree and woodpeckers will still be able to use
it; or clear a small section in the shrubby area and plant a few
trees that will eventually become the canopy layer.
- Provide food: This doesn’t have to be
bird feeders, although they work well too! Learn what trees and
shrubs provide food for animals and birds and plant them in small
groupings. Crabs, serviceberry, hawthorns, viburnums, and dogwoods
provide nutritious fruit. Oak, beech, and hickories provide mast
for squirrels, turkeys, and other wildlife. Grasses and perennials
left to go to seed provides critical food for small birds.
- Provide water: Supply water in anything from
a simple birdbath to an elaborate pond and waterfall feature.
Keep it clean! A small pond on the ground provides better access
for toads, frogs, and small mammals.
- Provide cover: Densely branched trees and shrubs
under-planted with ferns or wildflowers provide the best cover.
Build a small brush pile and include a pile of rocks in your landscape
for the toads and garter snakes.
- Provide places to raise young: Dead trees or
snags provide important habitat for numerous cavity dwelling birds
such as woodpeckers, chickadees, tufted titmouse, screech owl,
and nuthatches. Unless you have an exceptionally large meadow,
skip the bluebird box and, instead, erect a house wren box near
dense cover and you are likely to be rewarded with a beautifully
singing wren all summer long.
- Reduce your lawn size by 50%. Plant wild areas
along the edge and continue to add to them over time. Before you
know it you’ll have a great hedgerow for habitat and privacy!
- Don’t be too neat! Many birds require
pieces of dead grass or stems, shredded bark, moss, and animal
fur for their nests. Don’t forget a little mud puddle for
the robins to use fir nest construction.
- Butterflies need specific plants to lay their eggs on (their
caterpillars often only eat a particular plant species), in addition
to nectar plants. You can find lists of these plants in a good
butterfly book or on the internet.
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