What is a habitat garden?

A habitat garden provides the same kinds of things for birds, butterflies, and other creatures that people need in their own "habitat": food, water, cover, and a place to raise young in a healthy environment. These requirements can be met even in small spaces with careful planning.

In different parts of the country, these needs will be met somewhat differently; in any given place, they will be met differently in different seasons of the year. In Central New York, winter is an especially challenging time.

To learn more about Habitat Gardening in Central New York, visit Stewardship Garden.

Why are backyard habitats important?

Traditional habitat used by wildlife for millennia are rapidly disappearing due to suburban sprawl and loss of farmlands to development. This leads to two problems.

First, there is much less habitat for resident birds, butterflies and other creatures to use in their traditional home areas.

Second, much of the land along established migration routes do not provide the food, water, and cover that birds and butterflies need as they stopover  during their long migration journey. Without adequate "refueling" opportunities, many of these creatures will die.

Providing native trees, bushes, and other plants in our backyards can be an important way to help make up for the loss of these traditional habitats and stopover places.

Not a gardening enthusiast? Here's the bottom line

You can provide a healthy, interesting habitat just by following a few basic principles:

The basics (even if you're not a gardener!)

• Reduce, or preferably eliminate, your use of pesticides, herbicides, and all the other "cide"s. (Remember "-cide" is a Latin suffix meaning "kill.") Accept some less-than-perfect flowers and leaves. Is perfection worth risking our health and poisoning our planet? This is especially important for households with kids or pets, or for households next to people with kids or pets, or for households who invite people with kids or pets to their house, or . . . In other words, for everyone who cares about having a healthy planet now and for future generations!
• Plant some native trees, bushes and other plants. Replace some of your lawn and all of your non-native invasive plants with native trees and native bushes. They'll provide food (berries, seeds, nuts, nectar), cover, and a place to raise young.
• Provide some source of water, equally important in winter.

Doing a little more

• Cut your lawn - in half! Lawn has almost no habitat value. It's just one step above blacktop. It offers no food, shelter, or places to raise young - and it requires water that could better be used for something else! Besides, people in their quest for the perfect lawn often apply harmful pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. What's more, power lawnmowers are much more polluting than cars. You can also replace part of the lawn with trees, bushes, other plants, or even just ground cover. Even groundcover is better than a neatly trimmed lawn. Besides, it's much more interesting to look at, and some types have beautiful flowers as a bonus. Use natural lawn care methods to care for the lawn you have left.
• Compost your lawn clippings and kitchen (non-meat) food scraps. These will not only prevent these from being dumped in a landfill, but they'll also help further enrich your soil. You can compost the traditional way in your backyard, or - believe it or not - with worms in buckets!
• Instead of "neat and tidy," go for "controlled wildness" which has much more habitat value. A neat border around the edges goes a long way toward making your yard attractive. And if neighborhood sensibilities aren't an issue, just go for wild!

Note: Many organizations promote backyard habitats. Some resources are The National Wildlife Federation and the Wild Ones Natural Landscaping organization.