Wildlife doesn’t look at our yards and care whether the lawn has perfect stripes or whether the mulch matches the house.
Animals are looking for the things they need to survive: food, water, shelter and safe places to raise their young.
Unfortunately, when those things disappear from a landscape, wildlife has to keep moving to find them. However, when we put some of those resources back, even an ordinary backyard can become part of the solution.
Fortunately, you don’t have to transform everything overnight.
A birdbath here, a native shrub there, a patch of flowers instead of grass, or a corner where fallen leaves are allowed to remain can start changing what happens in your yard.
Start by Growing Something Wildlife Can Use
One of the biggest changes we can make is also one of the prettiest: grow more plants.
Better yet, grow plants that naturally belong in your region.
Native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers have relationships with the insects and wildlife that developed alongside them. As a result, they can provide nectar, pollen, seeds, berries, insects, nesting materials and protection throughout the landscape.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notes that native plants can provide food, shelter and other resources for wildlife throughout the year. They also support insects, which are themselves an important food source for birds.
That means a coneflower isn’t just a flower.
A bee may visit it for food, while a butterfly stops for nectar. Later, a bird may eat its seeds. Meanwhile, insects living among the plants may become food for a hungry nestling.
Suddenly that flower bed isn’t simply landscaping.
It’s 
habitat.
What a Living Landscape Looks Like
A wildlife-friendly garden doesn’t have to look wild or neglected. Flowers, layered vegetation and a simple source of water can turn a beautiful garden into a place where birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife find what they need.
This is exactly the kind of image I’d like people to study for a moment.
Notice that creating habitat doesn’t mean giving up beauty.
There are flowers of different heights, dense vegetation and places where an insect can disappear from sight. There’s also water nearby. Therefore, instead of designing a landscape only for humans, we can create one that is beautiful and useful at the same time.
That’s the goal.
Water Changes a Yard Surprisingly Fast
If you want to find out how much wildlife is already living around you, add water.
It doesn’t have to be a pond. A birdbath or shallow basin can make a meaningful difference. Penn State Extension points out that backyard water sources can serve not only birds but other wildlife as well.
Birds need water for drinking and bathing. Bees and other insects need safe places to drink. During periods of extreme heat and drought, reliable water becomes even more important. I use bird baths as well as hanging drinking stations. Amazon has a lot of options. I tend to like the bird baths because I can put water in it with a rock, cooper plate to keep it clean longer, and a Packs Bee which keeps bees from drowning.
The important part is making the water accessible and keeping it clean.
A shallow birdbath works, and so does a fountain. Even a simple shallow container can help when it’s set up safely for the animals using it.
You don’t need an elaborate backyard pond before your yard “counts” as habitat.
Start with what you can provide.
And Then There’s the Part We’re Usually Told to Clean Up
Here’s where wildlife gardening can feel a little strange at first.
Some of the things we’ve spent years removing from our yards are exactly the things wildlife needs.
- Leaves
- Logs
- Stems
- Branches
- Seed heads
- A little bare ground
- Dense shrubs
For example, a pile of sticks in a corner may not look important to us.
To a small animal searching for protection, however, it can be an entirely different story.
Sometimes “Messy” Is Habitat
A brush pile, fallen branches, leaves and dense plants aren’t necessarily yard waste. In the right location, these natural materials can provide shelter, feeding areas and hiding places for wildlife.
Look closely at this kind of habitat and you’ll notice something important: there are places to hide.
That’s something a wide-open lawn doesn’t provide.
A small bird escaping a predator needs cover. A box turtle needs vegetation and leaf litter at ground level. Insects overwinter in natural materials that we frequently haul away. Frogs and salamanders benefit from moist ground cover and fallen logs. State wildlife guidance specifically recommends natural leaf cover and fallen logs for ground-dwelling wildlife such as frogs, salamanders, turtles and snakes.
So maybe we don’t need to clean up quite so much.
That doesn’t mean letting the entire property become an uncontrolled mess. It can simply mean choosing a corner…
A Lawn Isn’t Bad. But It Can’t Do Everything.
You don’t have to declare war on grass.
Keep an area where the kids play, a path you enjoy walking and the spot where the dogs run. There is nothing wrong with keeping lawn that serves a purpose in your life.
The question is whether all of it needs to be lawn. I feel it doesn’t. I have added a healthy clover that blooms for the pollinators and adds nitrogen into the soil. All I use to keep the grass and clover healthy is one bag of Ironite once in the Spring, a bag of pelleted lime a couple of times every other month, and finally the clover. My lawn looks better than anyone hiring a service!
A section of turf can become native flowers, while a property line can become shrubs. An awkward corner can hold a brush pile, and a tree can replace an area that once required mowing.
Little by little, a landscape that was primarily decorative begins doing something else.
It starts supporting life.
When people hear “wildlife habitat,” they often picture deer, rabbits and birds. Don’t Forget the Smallest Residents.
However, some of the most important residents may be tiny.
Bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and countless other insects are part of the system we’re trying to rebuild. Some need flowers, while others need host plants. Certain native bees need bare ground for nesting, while others use hollow stems or cavities.
That’s another reason habitat shouldn’t look exactly the same everywhere.
A healthy yard has layers and differences—sun and shade, flowers and shrubs, damp places and dry places, open areas and protected ones.
We’re not decorating a room. We’re creating an ecosystem.
You Don’t Need a Big Property
This may be the most important part.
You do not need acres of land to help wildlife.
A suburban backyard can help, and so can a townhouse garden. Containers filled with useful plants can provide valuable resources. Even a balcony can offer flowers visited by pollinators.
One small habitat won’t replace everything wildlife has lost.
But imagine one habitat next to another, followed by another down the street and another around the corner.
Those individual spaces begin creating something larger—a patchwork of places where wildlife can find food, water and shelter while moving through a human-dominated landscape.
That’s when an ordinary yard becomes much more than landscaping.
Your Yard Can Be Part of Their World, Too
We spend a lot of time thinking about what we want from our yards.
Maybe we want a place to relax, somewhere for the dogs to play, flowers we enjoy and a beautiful view from the kitchen window.
None of that has to disappear.
We can simply make room for somebody else.
Plant something that feeds a pollinator. Put out clean water. Leave some leaves beneath the shrubs. Grow a native plant. Skip the pesticides. Let one corner stay a little wild.
Then watch what happens.
You may start noticing bees you never noticed before. A bird gathering nesting material. A butterfly returning to the same flowers. A frog near the water. Maybe even a box turtle slowly making its way through the plants.
They were looking for a place to live.
Your yard can become one.
A Yard Is More Than a Lawn.
It can be a habitat.
A YARD IS MORE THAN A LAWN
It Can Be a Habitat. Click here to our Redbubble store
