wildflowers

Wildlife habitat brings nature to your doorstep

Slightly cooler temperatures have many Texans venturing back outside to embrace nature in their favorite outdoor spaces.

Supporting wildlife in your garden can help maintain the balance of nature in an urban setting.  Watching or photographing the antics of wildlife creatures can provide hours of enjoyment for children and grown-ups alike.  And listening to the songs and chirps of birds, toads, frogs and others will be music to your ears. It can be like having the National Geographic channel in your own back yard.

Many people hang bird feeders or houses in their yards, but with a little garden habitat planning, you can bring a whole new variety of wildlife to your landscape.  Birds, bats, toads, frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and many other small creatures can bring you hours of enjoyment. While some people might not care to invite all of these animals into their yards, most of them are harmless.  Many even eat destructive insects or rodents.

How do you go about creating a friendly and successful habitat for wildlife?  There are four primary elements necessary to help wildlife survive in your garden.

  • Shelter
  • Food
  • Water
  • Places to raise young

Shelter

For wildlife to thrive, animals need shelter from predators and weather extremes – the blazing summer heat, winter’s cold and rain, and our central Texas droughts.

Many garden plants can provide both food and shelter. Trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, groundcovers and vines can all provide protection.

For example, some birds thrive in the underbrush and like small, dense shrubs for shelter, while others prefer wide-open spaces in which they can keep an eye out for predators.

Frogs, toads and lizards like rocks, piles of leaves, stumps and logs.  If you don’t have an area in your yard to leave wild or natural, you can pile some leaves and rocks in shady parts of a flowerbed to welcome these creatures.

Food

Native plants can provide food for all kinds of wildlife with their nuts, berries, foliage, fruits, sap, and seeds.

Different species like different sources of food. Most native and adapted flowers are nectar sources for hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Beautyberry, coral berry, holly, juniper, sumac, wax myrtle, viburnum, native Texas persimmon, oak, pyracantha, nandina, yaupon holly and fruit trees are just some of the things you can plant in your garden to support wildlife.

In addition to seed from native wildflowers, birds also eat insects, worms, fruits, nuts and berries.  While many birds eat sunflowers placed in feeders, there are other kinds of seeds you can provide to entice many new species of birds into your back yard.

Some birds, including titmice, nuthatches, woodpeckers and mockingbirds will eat bits of fruit like oranges, apples and raisins.  Woodpeckers and chickadees also like suet blocks, which is birdseed in a block of rendered fat and provides extra energy – an excellent source of winter food. Nyjer seed – also commonly known as thistle seed – is popular with many backyard bird species, particularly finches.

Small frogs and toads eat insects, worms and snails.  Lizards, like our native Anoles and Spiny lizards, eat crickets, spiders, roaches and grubs.  We know squirrels eat nuts, but they also like seeds, grains and fruit. Rabbits will eat many different plants, so while you want to keep them out of your vegetable garden, they will also eat berries, flowers shrubs and grasses.

Water

We all need water to survive, and animals in central Texas have greater needs than some because of our frequent and severe drought conditions.

In addition to ponds and standing birdbaths, shallow birdbaths or saucers on the ground can help provide water to many other species.  Logs, rocks and other shallow structures are good water sources for turtles, frogs, toads, lizards and even butterflies.

Change the water frequently, though, to keep it fresh and clean and prevent mosquito breeding.

Places to raise young

Most habitats that provide adequate cover also provide animals with the right conditions for raising their young.

Small mammals will burrow in areas ranging from wildflower beds to basic garden undergrowth.  Frogs, toads and lizards need groundcover and moisture. They like a carpet of leaves and groundcover to shield the.  And the nesting preferences of birds are as varied as the species themselves, including dense shrubs, trees, birdhouses and even potted plants.  Because birds use many different materials to build their nests, you can help by hanging a mesh net or something similar with fiber scraps, wool, or lint in a tree, and then watch them draw from it to craft their homes.

To provide a safe habitat for wildlife in your yard, it is important not to use insecticides, pesticides, and other chemical products like lawn weed & feeds or weed killers, as these can kill both the animals and the food sources on which they depend in the wild.

As temperatures begin to drop and perennials and wildflowers lose their leaves and go dormant, resist the urge to prune everything bare for the sake of neatness.  Your woodland friends will thank you when winter arrives and they have sheltered habitat areas in which to weather the winter.

By |2019-01-08T17:17:18-06:00October 22nd, 2016|Articles|0 Comments

Spring wildflowers make for a beautiful garden…

Happy Wildflower Wednesday.  Spring is in full force here in Central Texas.  In fact, we’ve even had summer-like days already, getting up to 94 once or twice.  We love our wildflowers, especially our Texas Bluebonnets.

I wanted to bring some of my pretty flowers – wildflowers, perennials and others, into the house to enjoy today, so I made a little bouquet for my small bluebonnet creamer pitcher.

Now, they aren’t all wildflowers — can you name everything in the vase?  Give it your best shot!

Thanks to Gail, of Clay and Limestone ,who brings us our Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month.

Happy spring!

By |2017-11-29T23:26:56-06:00March 23rd, 2016|Blog, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

October is perfect time to sow wildflower seeds

coreopsisTexas transforms into a beautiful floral painting each year as spring ushers in. Wildflowers don’t just dot the landscape, they envelop it. Vibrant colors billow in the breeze, changing from month to month as different wildflower blooms open up, each in its own time.

If wildflowers can survive in the harsh conditions along Texas highways, you can grow them in your garden, too.

Wildflowers are easy to grow in the home garden. A little soil contact and a little water and you’re ready to go. Frankly, the most common problem for home gardeners is that they baby them too much.

Getting started

Wildflowers need a lot of sun and direct soil contact. Seeds don’t like mulch – it prevents the ground contact they require to germinate. And even if one does germinate under some mulch, that scrawny little seedling doesn’t have a chance against that chunk of wood. If you’re not starting on a bare patch of soil and are sowing in an existing meadow area, you’ll have less immediate contact, but over time wind and weather will also help some seeds find their way down to the ground, just like Mother Nature does every year. You can help that along by raking the seeds into the soil or sprinkling a light covering of soil over them.

Seedlings need water to germinate and should be kept moist until they come up and are stronger, taller seedlings. Once they’re up, you should water them very lightly about twice a week for 2-3 weeks. Then you can water occasionally, depending on whether or not we get the rain we’re predicted to have this fall. But don’t overwater them once they’re up and going. Most wildflowers also prefer well-drained soil, so if you garden in heavy clay, you might want to amend the planting area with something like a little decomposed granite.

Remember, when those spring bloomers germinate in the fall, they start developing a little foliage to carry them through the winter. And though they aren’t growing much or blooming, they will spend the cold season growing roots and getting ready for spring. If we’re not getting any rain at all, you’ll have a much better crop of flowers if you give them a drink now and then. But don’t fertilize them once they’re growing – that will encourage lush, healthy foliage, but not blooms.

Which wildflowers to start with

You’ll have more success with native Texas wildflowers, because they are accustomed to our different soil types. Bluebonnets do particularly well in the alkaline soil and limestone here in Central Texas.

John Thomas, founder and president of Wildseed Farms in Frederickburg, recommends that gardeners plant collections of mixed Texas Wildflowers when they are starting out.

“For the typical homeowner, I recommend a wildflower mix, a blend of seed that works well throughout Texas,” said Thomas. “This increases their chance of success, and you learn what grows best in your soil. Then you can buy more of those the next time you plant.”

With 37 years of experience in farming and ranching, Thomas started in the turf seeding business and began to focus on native grasses. When asked about growing wildflowers, he discovered that they were difficult to find and decided that he could fill that void.

“Someone needed to be growing native wildflowers,” he said.

So he changed his focus and started Wildseed Farms, the largest working wildflower farm in the U.S. It has 200 plus cultivated acres at its Hill Country headquarters and another 800 acres at its growing, packing and distribution center in Eagle Lake.

Thomas pioneered the practice of planting wildflowers in rows on large acreage and produced specialized planting machinery able to handle tiny wildflower seeds.

Between the two farms, Wildseed produces 88 varieties of wildflower seeds, which are available individually and as regional mixes, specialty mixes or custom blends.

According to Thomas, October is “prime time” for wildflower seed planting in the Austin area.

If you’re looking for ideas about which seeds to plant or you are trying to remember the name of that beautiful bloom you enjoyed seeing along the highway in April, check out the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s website at www.wildflower.org. They have an online library of more than 7,200 native plants and detailed information about what to grow and how to grow it. And the beautiful grounds of the Wildflower Center are open year-round to inspire and educate visitors.

By |2017-11-29T23:27:15-06:00October 6th, 2012|Articles|0 Comments

October Tip: October is perfect time to plant wildflower seeds

You can plant your own beautiful patch of wildflowers. They’ll need a lot of sun and a patch of earth where they can get direct soil contact. Seeds don’t like mulch – it prevents the ground contact they require to germinate. Once you have a spot, sprinkle the ground, sprinkle the seeds and you’re on your way.  Just be sure to water them delicately and keep them  moist until they come up and the seedlings grow a little. Then you can cut back to watering periodically, depending on how much rain we get.

By |2012-11-09T17:16:31-06:00October 6th, 2012|Tips|0 Comments
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