The Number 1 Way to Attract Wildlife to Your Backyard
The best way to attract wildlife to your Backyard is with a Water Feature. One of the wonderful and surprising benefits of having a water feature as part of your landscape is the way it can attract wildlife to your yard. Water is a crucial ingredient in the ecosystem. By adding it into your backyard, you are greatly increasing its attractiveness to wildlife.
Creating an Ecosystem
Water, in addition to supporting a wide range of wildlife comes with a whole host of life that calls it home. Even a small water feature, such as a bubbling rock or fountain provides water for birds to drink, wash and play in. It is also a source of drinking water for everything from squirrels to deer. When you add a pond or other large water feature, you provide habitat for fish, insects, frogs, dragonflies, snails and much more. It becomes the hub of a whole backyard ecosystem.
Concerns
You might be asking why you would want to provide habitat for insects or a water source for raccoons that might eat your pond fish. While these might be concerns, they can be overcome by properly designing the pond. Provide fish caves to hide in and steeper sides that the raccoons won’t use to get at the fish. As for insects, the frogs and birds that come (and they will come) will be happy to take care of those for you. Any inconvenience the wildlife might present will be outweighed by the entertainment of watching life happen on a much greater scale right in your own backyard. Birds playing and chasing insects, beautiful koi swimming and waiting to be fed, and frogs sunning themselves on the rocks.
The Payoff
You can also increase the attractiveness of a pond by planting in and around it. Aquatic plants in a pond provide habitat and protection for insects and fish. By planting around the margins of the pond you also provide cover for smaller animals, frogs and insects to approach. Incorporating the water feature into a landscape featuring trees, shrubs and perennials that provide shelter and food for wildlife will complete the setting. A paradise and refuge for wildlife and for you.
If you already have a water feature, watch this video on doing a Spring Cleanout
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