{"id":3647,"date":"2012-09-09T12:35:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/?p=3647"},"modified":"2012-09-09T12:41:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:41:53","slug":"planning-the-natural-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/2012\/09\/planning-the-natural-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning the Natural Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, this posting is going to be a not-so-quick recap of stuff I want to keep track of for my yard work, and I&#8217;ll keep adding to it as I learn more stuff to do. I&#8217;ll work more on the compost idea later; for now, some very useful URLs: the National Wildlife Federation&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwf.org\/Get-Outside\/Outdoor-Activities\/Garden-for-Wildlife\/Create-a-Habitat.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Garden for Wildlife: Making Wildlife Habitat at Home<\/a> pages, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yerbabuenanursery.com\/Cal_Native_Garden_Design.php\" target=\"_blank\">Yerba Buena Nursery<\/a> site, with excellent advice on how to integrate native plants into one&#8217;s yard.<\/p>\n<p>Now: things to remember while planning a more natural front yard that welcomes wildlife. First: avoid insecticides. Second, as much as possible I want to:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Provide food for wildlife:\n<ul>\n<li>Set out a birdseed feeder and a hummingbird feeder\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Find the right native plants to add in order to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwf.org\/~\/media\/Content\/Specialty%20Programs\/Garden%20for%20Wildlife\/Gardening%20Tips\/Butterfly_TipSheet_5-10.ashx\" target=\"_blank\">attract butterflies<\/a>, dragonflies, bees, and other beneficial insects; hummingbirds; and birds that eat berries, seeds, and bugs. If most all the plants are natives, that may attract some native mammals as well?\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Supply water for wildlife:<br \/>\nPut in several types of water containers to attract different creatures, e.g.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A low, shallow pan set on or into the ground for birds, butterflies, toads, etc., placed about 10&#8242; from dense shrubs or other cover predators might use.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Keep wet mud or coarse sand on one side of the shallow pan for butterflies to &#8220;puddle&#8221; or drink water and extract minerals.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Add birdbaths up high as well as low. Use a variety of containers: plastic\/clay plant saucers with a rock in the middle, hanging in the trees, with water running across rocks &#8212; try hard to have running water somewhere!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Really ambitious: a dragonfly pool! It should vary in depth: shallow edges &#038; at least 2&#8242; deep in the center, to accommodate a variety of water plants. Add a few perching sticks in the middle of the pond &#8212; ordinary bamboo stakes (like for tomato plants) will do. Have shrubs (e.g. buttonbush and seedbox) within a few feet of the pond. Put a few flat, light colored rocks in the sun near the pond&#8217;s edge.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Create cover for wildlife, and\n<ul>\n<li>Leave any dead branches in the little thicket\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Flat, light colored rocks for butterflies and dragonflies to rest and sun their wings.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Build a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwf.org\/Get-Outside\/Outdoor-Activities\/Garden-for-Wildlife\/Gardening-Tips\/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">bat house<\/a>. It will need lots of sun, to be at least 15&#8242; up, and to have a water source nearby.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Build a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwf.org\/news-and-magazines\/national-wildlife\/gardening\/archives\/2006\/backyard-houses-for-toads.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">toad abode<\/a>! ;)\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Give wildlife a place to raise their young. Also, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/nestwatch.org\/\" target=\"_target\">NestWatch<\/a>! ;)\n<ul>\n<li>Put out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwf.org\/Get-Outside\/Outdoor-Activities\/Garden-for-Wildlife\/Gardening-Tips\/Attracting-Nesting-Birds.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">bird nesting boxes<\/a> with ventilation holes at top and drainage holes below &#8212; no perches! Winter is the best time to do this. Monitor boxes for invasive animal species, &#038; clear out nests after the young are grown and have departed.\n<ol>\n<li>American robins: three-sided birdhouse. <i>requirements<\/i>: 6&#8243; x 6&#8243; x 8&#8243; high, open front; color: earth tone; placement: on side of building, arbor or tree. <i>Habitat<\/i>: The shelter should be mounted in a location surrounded by natural habitat, including mature trees and grassy lawns for hunting earthworms.\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>Screech-owls: <i>requirements<\/i>: 10&#8243; x 10&#8243; x 24&#8243; high; hole: 4&#8243; wide x 3&#8243; high (elliptical), centered 20&#8243; above the floor; color: earth tone; placement: on a post 3 &#8211; 5&#8242; feet above open water or on a tree 12 &#8211; 40&#8242; high near water; nesting material: 3 &#8211; 4&#8243; of wood shavings on the floor of the house. Roosting owls will sit in entrance hole at dusk. <i>Habitat<\/i>: Birdhouses mounted on the trunk of a tree in a woodland of mature trees will bring owl occupancy either for nesting in early spring or for roosting in winter.\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>House &#038; Carolina wrens: <i>Requirements<\/i>: 4&#8243; x 4&#8243; or 4&#8243; x 6&#8243; base, 8&#8243; high; hole: 1-1\/8&#8243;, centered 6&#8243; above the floor; color: earth tone; placement: 5 &#8211; 10&#8242; high on post or hanging in a tree. <i>Habitat<\/i>: House wrens prefer their houses hanging from a small tree in the middle of a yard, or along the border of an open yard. Carolina wrens will go into a birdhouse that is well hidden in natural habitat (near trees or tall shrubs).\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>All species of chickadees and titmice will use birdhouses. <i>Requirements<\/i>: 4&#8243; x 4&#8243; or 5&#8243; x 5&#8243; base x 8&#8243; high; hole: 1-1\/4&#8243;, centered 6&#8243; above the floor; color: earth tone; placement: 4 &#8211; 8&#8242; high in small tree thicket. <i>Habitat<\/i>: These birds nest in dense natural habitat, such as thickets or stands of small trees.\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>For robins, phoebes &#038; house finches: put up a nest shelf?\n\t<\/li>\n<li>See if I can find a dead, hollow log\n\t<\/li>\n<li>Build a little brush pile, maybe?\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I should create an order-of-go list first. Next I need to work out what sorts of creature houses the yard can accommodate, and build those. If I&#8217;m going to do a brush pile and\/or a compost pile, I have to figure out where and then how to protect it so the yard folks don&#8217;t just clear it away. More later!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, this posting is going to be a not-so-quick recap of stuff I want to keep track of for my yard work, and I&#8217;ll keep&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,28,33,32,6,23,1,20,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-firestarter","category-craftiness","category-ecofeminism","category-education","category-environmental-thoughts","category-ma-phd-programs","category-uncategorized","category-techstuff","category-year-of-50-new-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3647"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3654,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions\/3654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stormtiger.com\/collie\/bestiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}