Relentless Gardener: Small Changes, Big Impacts

When considering renovations of your garden, small changes can make a big impact, whether focusing on design or the type of birds, insects, or animals you attract. If you are interested in attracting more birds, such as hummingbirds, understanding the color and forms of the flowers they visit is essential. Adding a vine such as honeysuckle near the hummingbird feeders is a small change. Adding an annual flower in a hanging basket that fits the overall design theme of the garden can make a big impact. Having other shrubs or trees for hummingbirds to perch on close by the feeder allows them to sit for twenty minutes and digest their food or sleep. They spend 80% of their time perched. Any red flower or plant with a long tubular form, such as Agastache or Four O’clock, will bring a hummingbird to your garden. Once hummingbirds visit your garden, being the pollinators, they will do just that for you. You will attract the type of birds, butterflies, insects, or animals if you choose to renovate with some native plant additions. I added sunflowers to the back of my vegetable garden. Once they went to seed in early fall, winter doves, meadowlarks, and other birds began visiting. There were no changes other than adding a few sunflowers. Be cognizant of what you want to change and research it before you do. Simple things such as adding more organic matter or mulch to the garden can bring about less watering over time and healthier plants. Healthier soil will bring beneficial microbes and other insects. Leaving the tree leaves in the garden beds over winter can help mitigate the freezing and thawing of the soil. Leaves can be good shelter for helping some beneficial insects over winter. Everything is connected in your garden as in life. When you fertilize a shrub and have flowers planted remarkably close to that shrub, the flowers will benefit. Just be sure the fertilizer you use is good for the flowers nearby. The shrub may even shade the roots of the flowers and lessen the need for watering. Linda Langelo is a Colorado State University Extension Horticulture Specialist, a member of Garden Communicators International, and a regular contributor to MarthaStewart.com gardening articles. She also produces The Relentless Gardener Podcast. She is a guest blogger for AARP Colorado and AARP Maryland.

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