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Bio-what?
First let’s look at what Scott says. The simple mix of trees and shrubs that accompanies many backyards caters to the needs of a handful of birds, but that’s where the list of needs ends. Scott wants to eliminate the monoculture of backyards and plan for biodiversity. This means you increase the odds of attracting many other species that call your piece of property home. Now the word “biodiversity” showed up in one of the articles written by the Texas Parks and Wildlife called “Eye on Nature,” a publication of the Wildlife Diversity Program. In that article on which I first laid eyes on the word “biodiversity,” the term was used in reference to bugs. Ugh. But listen to these statistics. Howell and Webb in 1995 list nearly 1,000 species of birds for Mexico. Correll and Johnson in 1970 list nearly 5,000 species of plants for Texas. By contrast, we don’t even know to the nearest thousand how many species of insect reside in Texas. Drees and Jackman in 1998 estimated around 30,000 species of Texas insects! I will talk more about insects in another blog post.You don’t want mono-
Back to Scott’s book. A “monoculture” is biased towards one type of grass, tree or shrub (I wonder if that is politically incorrect?). This doesn’t promote “biodiversity,” which is one of the key concepts of a successful backyard habitat. Biodiversity means that the needs of the birds are as varied as the species of birds that populate the world, each one fitting into a niche in its ecosystem. The more variety you provide in your habitat, in terms of trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses the more variety of birds and other wildlife, including bugs, you will attract. And that is a good thing, even with the bugs. So the first step is to look at your property and its existing features. That’s what the Backyard Wildlife Habitat called step one. Texas Wildscapes assumes you have done this and goes on to the next step, which is to learn about the plants native to our area. You need to know this after you learn what is in your yard so you know whether what you have is native or is introduced.Read this as “native and adapted”
Texas Wildscapes says that introduced plants are not good substitutes for native plants used by wildlife. Furthermore, some of the introduced plants require higher maintenance than those that are use to growing under our strange conditions. High maintenance includes lots of watering, fertilizers and pesticides. Some of these maintenance items are hard on us and all of them are hard on our environment. As you check your backyard, note your birdfeeders, bird baths, dead and dying trees, brush piles, wood piles, areas of standing or flowing water, soaker watering system, bird houses, compost pile, rock piles or rock walls and the percentage of St. Augustine grass in your yard. All the above, except the St. Augustine, are good things you might already have going for your wildlife habitat. Birds and animals need food, water, cover and places to raise their young. If you have some of the things in that list, except the grass, you have much of what you need already. And if you see that you are missing some of these elements, they are easy to add.New info
I know that most of you probably already have much of the makings for a backyard habitat in your backyards besides the plants. But you also have to know which plants are native or have adapted so well to our area that there is some question about whether they are native or not and which are introduced. To qualify for the Texas Wildscapes, you have to have 50% native plants in your backyard. That’s quite a lot. On the other hand, I can see getting rid of some of the St. Augustine grass. Weeds are doing that to me on their own. I need to find out if the stuff taking it over is native or not. But in any case, maybe I should allow these lower maintenance weeds to have its way with some of the yard.What do you still need?
Scott says that once you have a clear idea of what there is to work with, make a list of any elements of habitat that might be missing or in need of enhancement. When it comes to plants, an idea I’ve mentioned before is creating a multilayered effect. Offering tall, medium and short plants grouped together in a tiered arrangement are very appealing to wildlife. To do this you have to know the plant’s height at maturity. A four-inch potted plant can turn into a ten-foot shrub. If you know how a plant is going to grow to, you can avoid planting it in the wrong location. Scott adds that when you think about the future, remember that you want to have a good view of what your wildlife is doing. So plan your plantings accordingly. Put the low shrubs, vines and ground cover close to where you will be looking and slowly build your way to the tallest trees. A good book to acquaint yourself with some of the native plants that grow in our area is Texas Wildscapes: Gardening for Wildlife by Noreen Damude and Kelly Conrad Bender.Related articles
- Building A Back Yard Wildlife Habitat (glenns-garden.com)
- Creating a Wildlife Bird Garden (brighthub.com)
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