The landscape around your home can be one of the best places for birdwatching when you garden with plants that let birds know they’ve found a home. Plants provide food, such as nectar for hummers and seeds and berries for songbirds, but they also provide nesting sites and shelter so birds feel safe enough to stick around.

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…Here’s a garden design that will attract Monarch butterflies and it only uses three perennials groupings. It’s pretty, too!

The Ruby-throated hummingbird is the only hummingbird that visits our area. Hummers start to arrive in our area around May 1. One tip for attracting hummingbirds is to offer a sugar water mixture during hot, dry weather that is one-quarter cup of sugar per cup of water.

Have you been seeing bees and other pollinators around your flowering plants? Though pollinators may seem like pests that are bothering your flowers and buzzing around your outdoor living space, they are essential to the health of your plants, and for your health as well.

Butterfly gardens provide food and sanctuary for many vibrant species of Lepidoptera. This type of garden can be planted in even the busiest urban location. Offering even a small habitat can help support the butterfly population in your area.

Native plants play a special role for pollinators in providing habitat for their own life cycle. We are all familiar with the necessity of having milkweed available to support the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly.