Wildlife

Hummingbirds Add Grace to the Garden

Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

In a few weeks, they will return; flashes of emerald green winging their way through our gardens. The hummingbirds will be back.

Around April 15, hummingbirds return from their winter digs.  Weighing about the same as a dime, they pack plenty of power in that petite package.   Their wings beat 50 times a second and their aerial acrobatics are second to none. 

Our local hummingbird is the ruby-throated hummingbird.  The males sport a jaunty red handkerchief of feathers they flash to attract females and warn off aggressors.  Hey, baby.  Whoa, bud. 

As they dip their bills into flowers, hummingbirds pick up pollen on their feathers which they transfer to other flowers.  Bees and butterflies get all the press, but hummingbirds also are good pollinators.

Hummingbirds’ powerhouse metabolism needs constant fuel.  One hummingbird needs the nectar from about 1,000 blossoms a day to survive.  As gardeners, there is much we can do to help these flying jewels.

To attract hummingbirds to your garden, plan blooms from April to October to provide them with a steady source of nectar.  They supplement their diet with tiny insects and spiders, but it’s nectar they need most.

A perfect addition to your garden is the native columbine, Aquilegia canadensis.  It blooms in concert with the hummingbirds’ arrival in April when few flowers are blooming. Plus, it has the tubular form that’s custom-made for a hummingbird’s long, slender beak.

The rumors are true:  hummingbirds favor red and orange flowers.  If they also have a tubular shape, your hummingbirds will be ecstatic.  Think coral honeysuckle, salvia, and bee balm. 

Some plants fool you by having a hidden tubular base.  Look at a petunia, morning glory, lantana, or phlox to see what I mean. 

Nectar-heavy flowers without tubular shapes score big with hummingbirds, too.  Lupines, hollyhocks, and foxglove are all favorites.

Plants provide wonderful natural food sources for hummingbirds, but many people – myself included – like to put up hummingbird feeders.  The best feeders are sturdy, easy to clean and hang, and have multiple ports and perches. 

Skip the pre-made hummingbird food mixes and make your own.  Simply dissolve 1 part sugar in 4 parts water.  I boil a cup of water and add a quarter cup of sugar.  Clean and refill your feeders weekly. 

Hummingbirds prefer showers to baths, so you can make them oh-so-happy by adding a water dripper or mister to your garden.  They will delight you by dancing in the spray.

If you’d like to help your hummingbirds even more, avoid using chemicals in your garden.  Their fast metabolism and tiny size make them especially vulnerable to insecticides and herbicides.  So, use kinder, gentler controls.

I hope you will welcome hummingbirds into your garden this year.  There are few sights more joyful, few birds more charming.   

Dead Trees “Snag” Lofty Praise as Habitat

Maryland GrowsLeave a comment
snag
A snag at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, North Tract. Photo: N. Allred

Chad Hanson, a University of California-Davis researcher and Sierra Club board member observes, “We are trapped by an outdated cultural idea that a healthy forest is one with nothing but green trees. An ecologically healthy forest has dead trees, broken tops, and down logs.”

Over the last several years, you may have noticed an increase in dead and dying trees in our watershed, particularly oaks. There are a number of factors at play, including soil compaction from development, old trunk wounds, storm damage, environmental stressors such as heat and drought, opportunistic diseases and insects, and just plain old age. If you think the only response to a dead tree is to cut it down, think again!

chickadee explores a tree cavity
Insect-feeding songbirds like chickadees find food and shelter in snags. Photo: Christa R.

It has been estimated that dead trees, called snags when they are still upright, and trees with decaying wood provide important habitat for about 25 percent of the forest wildlife species in the northeastern United States. Add aquatic species and that number climbs even higher.

Did you know that more than eighty birds in North America are cavity-nesters, including 10 species of owls, 7 ducks, 2 falcons, all 21 woodpeckers, and about 40 songbirds? They raise their young in hollowed-out sections of dead and dying trees. In addition to providing a place for birds to nest, cavities also protect birds from predators and offer shelter from the elements. Dead branches serve as a perch from which birds can survey their surroundings, hunt, eat, and dry their wings and rest. If that weren’t enough, a dead tree offers a smorgasbord to insect-eating birds and other animals, with holes, depressions, and cracks that double as places to store seeds, nuts, and other food.

red-bellied woodpecker in a dead tree
Red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). Photo: Lip Kee

Logs on the ground also provide a bounty of food and shelter for a range of critters. Hollow logs provide cover and protection for small mammals like foxes, rabbits, skunks, and raccoons. The wood itself may be home to ants, beetles, and carpenter bees that tunnel into it, while bark beetles build extensive chambers under the bark. These insect residents are, in turn, a good source of protein for turtles, toads, and lizards. No walk in the woods is complete without flipping over a log to see what lies beneath –
beetles, worms, centipedes, and, if you’re lucky, a salamander. Don’t forget to roll the log back over gently, lest you destroy someone’s happy home.

Continue reading →

Deer: Stay Out of My Garden!

Maryland Grows2 Comments

white tailed deer
White-tailed deer. Photo: Pixabay

Q: I had great plans for my vegetable garden last year, but it was overrun with deer. They nibbled my seedlings down to the ground and ate my tomatoes. What can I plant this year that these varmints won’t eat?

A: Unfortunately, the answer to your question is “nothing.” Although there are ways to make your garden less attractive, none are truly foolproof. Here are a few ways to deter deer looking for a free lunch.

Deer-resistant plants. There are many lists of plants less appetizing to deer. Remember, though, that a plant’s lack of appeal is a function of weather, availability of preferred foods, and the need to compete with other foraging deer. A deer eats seven to 12 pounds of food per day; competition with many other hungry deer leads them to consume even the least palatable plants available. Continue reading →

Black-eyed Susans attract pollinators and other beneficial insects

Maryland Grows17 Comments

Black-eyed Susans are easy to grow and will attract many pollinators to your garden. The dark center or eye of the flower head holds 250 to 500 individual flowers, and to pollinators, each one of these is a shallow nectar cup. These are shallow enough that even small wasps and flies can drink from them, and many small wasps and flies are predators or parasitoids of pest insects. These tiny, dark flowers bloom from the outer rim of the eye and progress inwards with time. It’s a buffet that attracts a wide variety of small to medium-sized pollinators, including many species of insects beneficial for pest control. This blog provides a few examples of the wonderful insects you can attract to the home garden by planting Black-eyed Susans.

Black-eyed susan

A Black-eyed Susan isn’t a single flower, it’s actually hundreds. Notice the individual corollas of the “eye”, and the yellow pollen along the outer ring which indicates those flowers are in bloom. Watch a pollinator visit, and you’ll notice that they rotate around, drinking nectar from each one of the tiny blooms in this ring. The Metallic Green Bee, shown here, is a good example of the small bees that enjoy Black-eyed Susan’s big, soft, landing pad and shallow flowers. Notice the pollen packed onto the bee’s hind legs. Continue reading →

Cardinal Flower Is for Hummingbirds

Maryland Grows2 Comments

Cardinal flower
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Photo: C. Carignan

I gave up on my hummingbird feeder years ago. It was more than I wanted to do to keep up with changing the sugar solution every two to three days, as recommended to keep the food free of spoilage that could be harmful to the birds. I saw that hummingbirds would visit some of my garden flowers just as much as the feeder, so I decided just to provide flowers for them. More flowers for me, more natural nectar for them. A win-win.

In my garden, ruby-throated hummingbirds most often fed at my scarlet bee balm, blue salvias, brilliantly colored zinnias, and orange butterfly weed. This year they have an additional choice that appears to be their new favorite. It is the flower whose color resembles that of a different bird, cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

This Maryland native plant produces 2-4′ tall spikes of bright, cardinal-red flowers that are irresistible to hummingbirds in mid to late summer. In fact, hummingbirds are an essential pollinator of these plants.

Cardinal flower was easy for me to grow from seeds sown directly outside. In the fall of 2016, I scattered seeds in a low area of my yard where water frequently would puddle after heavy rain. They sprouted and grew low foliage and a few small flower spikes the following season. This year I have plants that are well established and the flower spikes are tall and brilliant. Cardinal flower grows best in moist to wet soils, so this has been a fabulous year for it!

If you have a shady or partially shaded area that tends to stay moist in your yard, cardinal flower might be a great choice for you. Allow these plants to reseed naturally so you’ll have flowers — and a natural hummingbird feeding station — year after year.

Additional Resources

By Christa K. Carignan, Coordinator, University of Maryland Extension Home & Garden Information Center

Q&A: Try These Groundcovers That Will Keep Deer Away

Maryland Grows4 Comments

Alleghany pachysadra
Allegheny Spurge (Pachysandra procumbens). Photo by E. Nibali

Q: What groundcovers can you recommend for shade? I’ve removed all the English ivy and need something before erosion starts. I like evergreen ones, and I also have deer problems.

A: Many of the following are deer resistant, if not completely deer proof. Allegheny pachysandra, for example, is a four-season actor in the garden with quirky spring flowers and attractive mottled leaves that deer don’t touch. Other evergreen choices include Christmas ferns, wood ferns (semi-evergreen), moss, and golden groundsel (yellow spring flowers about 1-inch tall).

Continue reading →

Plant for pollinators: 9 ways to attract and help pollinators in your garden and yard

Maryland Grows7 Comments
monarch butterfly

Pollinators of all types – insects, birds, and bats – are in decline due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and diseases. Insects – including Maryland’s 400 species of native bees – provide valuable pollination and a food source for wildlife. Insect pollination is essential for the production of about one-third of our food crops. And some pollinators, such as butterflies and hummingbirds, are simply a delight to see!

You can make a difference for pollinators by incorporating these practices in your garden or yard.

Continue reading →