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BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU PLANT TRUMPET CREEPER
One of my favorite native vines is the trumpet creeper. The problem is experience has taught me you have got to be careful where you plant it.
Trumpet creeper is a great wildlife plant. Its thick foliage provides nesting and escape cover for birds and other wildlife. In addition, the vine’s large showy blossoms are a great source of food for a variety of pollinators ranging from bumble bees, moths, and butterflies to orchard orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds. It sounds like this is a plant that all wildlife gardeners would like to see growing in their yards; unfortunately, this is not the case.
The problem is that the trumpet creeper aggressively spreads for the spot where it is planted. In fact, it is not uncommon for trumpet creeper to spread 35 feet or more. Consequently, I would recommend that you never plant trumpet creeper close to your home, barn or other structures. If trumpet creeper reaches a building, it will quickly attach itself and potentially cause damage to the structure. It matters not whether the exterior is covered with brick, wood or siding, trumpet creeper will attach itself to the material.
That being said, it does well growing along fences, arbors, and the like. I have even seen it grown beside poles to create a trumpet creeper tree.
CONTAINER GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE MADE EASIER
Gardening for wildlife is being adopted by an increasing number of gardeners each year. One form of wildlife gardening that is growing by leaps and bounds is gardening in containers.
While container gardening is nothing new, growing plants that are of value to wildlife is. Container gardening for wildlife allows gardeners to attract wildlife to small places. In addition, is allows people that are physically unable to engage in traditional gardening to continue their hobby.
One of the problems that plagues container gardening is moving large pots from one spot to another. A large container full of soil is very heavy and difficult to move about. In addition, it can be quite expensive to buy enough soil to fill a large pot.
An excellent way to solve this problem is to fill third to half of the pot with a lightweight filler. Innovative gardeners are using variety fillers such as plastic bottles, bags and nursery pots as fillers Some even employ large chunks of Styrofoam. Others are using organic fillers such as pinecones, and wood chips.
If you want to make container gardening for wildlife less expensive and easier, you should consider using lightweight materials as fillers.
If you have used this technique, I would appreciate it if would let me know if your efforts proved to be successful.
WILDLIFE LOVE BLACKBERRIES
I have a seemingly endless fight with blackberries. Our wildlife neighbors spread blackberry seeds throughout our yard. Consequently, I have to pull up new plants that pop up in our lawn, gardens, and shrubs. That being said I do not try to eradicate them when those plants that grow in the edge of property. I do this because blackberries rank near the top of the list of foods favored by both mammals and birds. More than 100 species of wildlife consume blackberries. Juicy blackberries are just beginning to ripen in my neck of the woods, and birds are already feasting on them.
The list of critters that eat wild blackberries includes the raccoon, chipmunk, and gray squirrel. Some of the numerous birds that dine on blackberries includes the northern bobwhite, wild turkey, great crested flycatcher, American and fish crows, Baltimore and orchard orioles, indigo bunting, cardinal, gray catbird, Eastern bluebird, yellow-breasted chat, eastern towhee, cedar waxing, and woodpeckers such as the red-bellied and red-headed, brown thrasher, and white-throated sparrow.
If we are lucky, my wife and I try to grab few blackberries before the birds gobble them up.
I should also mention that rabbits and deer eat the plants’ tender stems and leaves.
In addition to being a great source of food, many birds and other animals use blackberry patches as nesting and escape cover.
Wild blackberries are indeed an important part of the diverse wildlife habitat that exists just outside our backdoor.
BACKYARD SECRET – PLANTING GROUPS OF PLANTS BENEFIT HUMMINGBIRDS AND OTHER POLLINATORS
If you are looking for a simple way to benefit hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators, plant nectar plants in groups of the kind. You will find that mass plantings enhance the beauty of your yard and makes it easier for these valuable backyard neighbors to locate plants bearing nectar.
With that in mind, plant no less than 3-5 of the same variety together. If have enough room for larger plantings, masses of plants measuring two to three are even better.
I hope you will try this simple technique this year. I suspect that, if you take this advice, the pollinators will love it and you will wonder why you have not adopted this gardening trip before.
BACKYARD SECRET – BIRDS NEED WATER IN FREEZING WEATHER
Those Georgians that feed birds have been busy during the past few days keeping their feeders stocked with suet, seeds, cornbread and other bird favorites. However, I suspect many folks have not offered their bird neighbors water. The truth of the matter is that birds need water in winter as much as they do in summer.
The problem is that when the temperature drops below freezing our birdbaths freeze. Nothing is sadder that watching birds fly up to a frozen birdbath vainly looking for water.
With that in mind, if the water in your birdbath does freeze, there are a few things that you can do. One is to pour water onto the ice. If it is not extremely cold, birds will be able to drink and bathe before it freezes.
Another thing that you can do is to place a shallow pan such as those placed beneath potted plants atop the frozen ice. If you do take this approach, fill the pan so that it is only 1.5 inches or so deep.
You can also purchase devices that heat birdbath water. My wife and I received one for Christmas. The problem is it is still in the box!
BACKYARD SECRET – TWO SEEDS WILL ATTRACT ALL OF THE SEED-EATING BIRDS THAT VISIT YOUR FEEDERS
For all practical purposes, white millet and black oil sunflower seeds will attract all of the seed-eating birds that you are likely to see at your feeders. Birds such as sparrows (chipping, white-throated, fox, field, white-crowned, and song) dark-eyed juncos, mourning doves and eastern towhees all relish white millet. Even cardinals devour their fair share of these seeds.
The long list of birds that prefer to dine on black oil sunflower seeds includes cardinals, house and purple finches, Carolina chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, red-headed and red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers, American goldfinches, and pine siskins.
In order to attract these and other seedeaters offer seeds placed on or near the ground as well as elevated feeders.
BACKYARD SECRET – MOST EXOTIC PLANTS IN OUR YARDS HAVE LITTLE OR NO FOOD VALUE FOR NATIVE WILDLIFE
Some experts say that at least 80 percent of the plants growing in our yards are exotics that have little or no food value for native wildlife. This has contributed to the decline in native plant and animal populations in suburban settings.
Just one example of this is studies have shown there is 35 times more caterpillar biomass in native woody vegetation than is found in exotic woody plants. This is important because caterpillars are a key source of food for many wild animals. For example, 96 percent of terrestrial birds eat caterpillars.
With this in mind, if you are interested in increasing the variety and numbers of native animals in your yard, expand the number and diversity of native woody plants that grow on your property.
FLOWERING DOGWOOD
DON’T FORGET TO FILL BIRDBATHS
With the number of hummingbirds swelling at our hummingbird feeders, it is easy to forget to keep the water in our birdbaths from drying up. Don’t let this happen! With daily temperatures soaring in the nineties and feel like temperatures reaching well above one hundred, our avian neighbors have a tremendous need for water.
It goes without question that birds require water to drink, bathe, regulate their body temperature, and maintain their feathers.
With that in mind, check your birdbaths daily. In the kind of weather we are facing right now, it is not uncommon that the water in birdbaths needs to replenish daily. What the birds do not use simply evaporates. Keep in mind, the water should always be clean and fresh.
Indeed, providing your backyard birds with water is one of the most important things you can do for them at this time of the year.
DO NOT PLANT THIS MILKWEED IN YOUR GARDEN
With each passing year, more Georgia gardeners are planting milkweeds in hopes their efforts will bolster the dwindling monarch butterfly population. The University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Program recommends we do not plant the common milkweed in our gardens (Asclepias syriaca) in the state.
