Greener Gardens: Create a home for bees and birds

I first got the plant bug when I was in college. In an out-of-nowhere impulse, I bought a pack of seeds, planted and watered them and … nothing happened.

Undeterred, I moved on to mini-gardens comprised of annuals and then became entranced by daylilies, which provided a summer-long cavalcade of color in a border along my parent’s driveway.

By the time I started my current garden more than 20 years ago on land next door to my former home, I had become a native plant enthusiast, a passion initially sparked by Sara Stein’s “Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards.”

Through trial and error, I’ve created a natural landscape that surrounds our house. Oak and hickory trees on the northern slope in front of the house, which were several feet high when I was a boy, now tower over the roof.

A struggling lawn and tangles of invasive vines have been replaced by a thriving matrix of predominantly native shrubs, trees, grasses, and flowering perennials. This layered landscape has areas of sun and shade, allowing for a variety of plant life.

Aside from the pleasures of its textures, colors, and fragrances, this fecund environment was conceived to attract and feed beneficial insects such as bees, butterflies, and moths. And with the insects come the birds —  Grey Catbirds, Baltimore Orioles, Prairie Warblers, and many year-round species. (Box turtles are a bonus.)

Another benefit of this type of landscape is its sustainability. It requires no gas-powered machines, fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, and most of my selections are drought tolerant and deer resistant.

Admittedly, a landscape that lacks a lawn isn’t for everyone, but homeowners can consider tucking natives in between or adjacent to existing shrubs and other plants.

Better, think about an ignored area that could be transformed into a native bed. Even better, replace a portion of under-utilized lawn with a mini-meadow. If a meadow isn’t your thing, natives work fine in a formal border.

One might think that our East End preserves are more than sufficient to meet the needs of fauna and flora challenged by climate change and invasive species. However, as invaluable as they are, these areas are increasingly becoming bio-diverse islands isolated by development.

The threats to the non-native honeybee have been widely reported, but our native bees are also in trouble.

According to a 2019 report, the populations of wild birds in North America have declined by almost 30% since 1970. Stated another way, we’ve lost 2.9 billion breeding adult birds, including 93 million White-throated Sparrows, a familiar backyard species.

We can help reverse these trends by transforming our home and neighborhood gardens and landscapes into habitats that can also provide life-supporting corridors between our preserves. 

Several years ago, I was giving a tour to a friend and her young daughter. As I described my garden’s main function to provide sustenance for insects, the girl remarked, “It’s like a farm.” Precisely! It’s a farm and an oasis, and it’s an easy concept for homeowners to duplicate in small or big ways.

And, you don’t need to be an expert. As a self-taught gardener, I’ve relied upon books and professionals for guidance and visits to numerous preserves for inspiration — a favorite coastal spot in Maine, Florida’s rich pinelands, Mashomack’s big field, and the cedar-dominant areas along the first causeway.

In future articles, I’ll share what I’ve learned, touching upon topics such as why natives are better for insects than many non-natives, plant recommendations, and more. Stay tuned.

Tim Purtell is president of Shelter Island Friends of Trees. He can be contacted at sifriendsoftrees.com