We Made Our Farm a Garden for Wildlife
(Page 2 of 4)
June/July 2009
By Ellen Sousa
Birds, Bats & Butterflies
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During our first summer here, we watched ruby-throated hummingbirds visit the flowers of the bee balm, trumpet honeysuckle, verbena and scarlet runner beans I had planted to attract these feisty, flying characters. We added a bat house to the side of our barn, and our horses were grateful to the bats, which gorged on horse-flies and mosquitoes. Butterflies visited the salvia, aster, sunflower, zinnia and cosmos, and caterpillars of the monarch butterfly hatched on the scarlet milkweed I grew in a pot on the patio.
The first winter, we put up bird feeders and nesting boxes to encourage birds to nest in our yard. Sure enough, that spring, a pair of tree swallows nested in the birdhouse at the edge of our pasture, and our barn hosted a family of Eastern phoebes. Both birds are insect-eating machines, so we were happy to have them on the farm. Since then, they have returned every spring, like old friends.
We also left an area next to our riding ring unmowed, allowing native grasses such as little bluestem to grow, and we saw fireflies for the first time during our second summer here. We seeded white Dutch clover into bare areas of the lawn, and encouraged wild violets and bluets to grow into a low-maintenance lawn that stays green without irrigation, even through the hot, dry periods of August. Our lovely spring-flowering “lawn” is a valuable nectar source for early-season butterflies and pollinators, in turn attracting birds hunting for insects to feed their nestlings.
Naturally Clean Water
Our farm has water flowing through it, so keeping manure and excess nutrients from our barn and composting areas from leaching into the water is a challenge. But when we moved the horse fences away from the pond’s edge, we ended up with some great planting areas — full sun with constant moisture! We planted beautiful native bird- and pollinator-friendly shrubs and perennials, such as bee balm, great blue lobelia, swamp milkweed, New England aster, blue flag iris, Joe Pye weed, Turk’s cap lily, summersweet, ninebark, cranberry viburnum, elderberry and winterberry holly. This area now thrives with no irrigation and little fuss, and provides a smorgasbord of food and cover for many winged visitors throughout the year. The vegetation acts as a natural buffer to the pond, filtering pollutants and absorbing runoff from the barn. The water from the pond leads into the town’s water supply, so we’re keeping our water clean while providing valuable wildlife habitat.
We left part of the pond’s edge as a rocky shoreline, which gives snakes, turtles and butterflies warm places to bask on sunny days. The rocks also invite kids to net a frog or sweaty gardeners to dip their bare feet in the water on hot summer days. Our pond is a magnet for nature-starved children, and we leave nets and buckets out for them to try catching a tadpole, shiner or, hardest of all, a catfish.
