Six months after Hurricane Andrew, I was fortunate to find a piece of property, just under half an acre with a small house and very little vegetation. I had a nearly blank slate to start my own garden on the first property I had ever owned.
I took a while to consider what kind of garden I wanted. I am a nature lover; birds, butterflies, even squirrels and lizards always delight me with their presence. So I decided to create natural habitats in my yard to attract wildlife. That is the least one can do to help our wild creatures cope with ever-decreasing natural habitats and places for them to live, sing and call home.
I did plant exotic palms along my driveway, but the rest of my land is re-creations of habitats found in South Florida.
Among the palms I planted native shrubs with flowers or fruit that attract birds. The shrubs include Jamaica caper, firebush and porterweed. Doves love to nest on the leaf stems of my foxtail palms while butterflies visit the firebush and porterweed flowers. Birds love the fruit of the Jamaica caper. Hummingbirds sip the nectar of the firebush flowers.
On the east side of my front yard I planted a live oak less than a month after I moved into my house. Oak trees are magnets to wildlife, providing food, shelter and habitats for birds, butterflies and lizards, as well as niches for epiphytic plants like bromeliads and orchids.
In my backyard, I planted a palm and grass Savannah with native thatch palms, silver palms, native grasses (Tripsacum, Sorghastrum, Muhlenbergia), Tetrazygia, wildflowers such as Aster dumosus, rattlebox (Crotalaria pumila) and one of my favorite natives, wild basil (Ocimum campechianum).
To the south of this area, I planted Bahama swampbush (Pavonia bahamensis) and firebush (Hamelia patens) to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Every year, from late August into April, hummingbirds visit the flowers and rest on the branches of my plants.
In the back, northeast corner of my yard, I planted a rockland hammock. According to the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, a rockland hammock is characterized as a hardwood forest on upland sites in regions where limestone is very near the surface and is often exposed. These forests have high species diversity.
I planted two wild tamarind trees (Lysiloma latisiliquum) and white stoppers, Simpson’s stoppers, wild cherry, torchwood, white ironwood, black ironwood, gumbo limbo, torchwood and a satinleaf tree. Now this area is dense with seedlings sprouting and filling in the area. Birds love this habitat and squirrels are nesting here.
I placed a bird feeder on the outside edge of this area so that I can observe what birds come to eat. Birds that I have seen nesting include cardinals, mockingbirds, red-winged blackbirds, thrashers and several kinds of doves.
The great thing about my yard is that absolutely no irrigation is needed. I do water new plantings by hand until they show new growth and are established, but after that, rainfall is my irrigation system.
If you have trouble finding native plants in retail nurseries, speak to the manager of your local nursery and request specific native plants. Good nursery managers, once they know of a demand for specific plants, should be able to procure them from wholesale growers.
There are also many plant sales at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden throughout the year (www.fairchildgarden.org), Tropical Audubon Society (http://tropicalaudubon.org/), and the Miami-Dade Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society (www.dade.fnpschapters.org/).
And, remember, no matter how large or small your yard may be, it is possible to create your own wildlife habitats. By Mary Collins, The Miami Herald
