Register Your Garden as a Wildlife Habitat — Like Serendipity Gardens!

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May — coming soon — is Garden for Wildlife Month. It is a great month to register your garden as a Wildlife Habitat. For that month only this year, the National Wildlife Federation will plant a tree for each new certification.

It’s a double whammy, benefiting both you and the environment. Read this list to see what additional benefits will accrue to you.

It’s an easy process, too.  All you do is follow these steps:

  • Visit the National Wildlife Federation page (click here or on the icon on the lower right side of the Serendipity Gardens home page)
  • Complete the forms to ascertain that you have certain items in your garden.
  • Submit with a small fee of $20, which goes to support the Federation’s work

Habitat signIn a few weeks, you’ll receive a sign like this one (or you can specify and pay more for a more elegant-looking sign) that identifies your garden as a wildlife haven to those who visit. No one will come to check your garden.

While you wait, you can start or continue to enjoy the wildlife that come to your garden by trying to identify the various birds and butterflies and listening to the frogs croak. In this case, it’s really true that “if you build it, they will come.”

See who lives in Serendipity Gardens besides the humans.

My Story

I first came across the idea of registering a garden when I visited a garden designated as a wildlife habitat on a garden tour, years before Serendipity Gardens was born. I was intrigued but had no garden to certify.

Later, when I did have a garden, I realized that, while I enjoyed the flowers and beauty that the garden provided, my greatest garden pleasure came from watching the birds, butterflies, and frogs that had come to live there. The raccoons and possums were less fun to watch, but part of the ecosystem that had developed, so I enjoyed them, too. I struggled to like the rabbits (who ate my flowers) and the snakes (who ate my frogs) … but I pretty much left them alone. Again, I recognized that they were part of the ecosystem and had a valuable role to play.

Having decided that I wanted to certify my garden like that garden I had visited so long before, I did some research and followed the process above. My garden has been National-Wildlife-Federation certified since 2006.

What Are the Requirements?

You must provide four things for creatures to be comfortable in your garden:

  • Water
  • Food
  • Shelter
  • Places to raise young

Here’s how those things look in Serendipity Gardens:

Pond 1Water

We have two ponds, a stream connecting them (in which goldfinches love to play in the hot summer, dropping from a wire that runs above the stream to splash about), and two pots of water. The ponds support at least a dozen frogs, probably several more, as well as dragonflies, pond skaters, and other pond bugs.

Food

While not all my plants are native, many of them are. My service berry tree is a favorite of robins and cedar waxwings. Many other birds love the seedheads of various coneflowers, and the bees practically swarm the bee balm and the blue hyssop in midsummer.

Swamp milkweedThis year in particular, with the need to help the pollinators so obvious, I am glad that I planted a swamp milkweed a few years ago. It’s beautiful in bloom, and it feeds the monarchs.

Most of the shrubs we have planted are native, though not all. (You don’t know what you don’t know!) They include ninebark, clethra, hydrangea, Fothergilla, and viburnum, all of which have visibly supported various caterpillars and insects.

ShelterShelter

We have several vines that birds have built nests in. Our neighbors have a long row of tall conifers, and just on our side of the fence next to them are several shrubs, which together provide excellent hiding places. And the field behind our house, surrounded by hedgerows and filled with tall grasses, provides more.

Places to raise young

We have a few birdhouses, most of which are occupied every year. We also have the above-mentioned vines that the birds often find attractive for a nest.

TrumpetsOther birds have been more creative. Every year, black-capped chickadees build a nest inside the T of an old metal clothesline pole (invisible in this photo) that also supports a hefty trumpet vine. It’s warm there, protected from the elements, and pretty darned safe as well. Clever birds!

Why Bother When the Requirements Are So Easy?

I can only speak from my own experience. From that vantage point, the act of certifying made me more aware of wildlife and the roles creatures play in the garden. That greater awareness, in turn, led me and will lead me to make other decisions in favor of wildlife. That has been reason enough.

Once again, certifying your garden as a wildlife habitat is a very easy process. Click here or on the icon on the lower right side of the Serendipity Gardens home page and follow the simple instructions. Who knows where it might lead you?

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