3/4 acre in Growing Village; Northumberland, ON
Featured Site Created By lakeeffect18

Lakeeffect18 is an enthusiastic wildlife gardener. In the last nine years she has transformed her less-than-an-acre property into an oasis of native plants. She has impressive stories and wildlife viewings to accompany her hard work. Learn more about the transformations she has made below.
EcoRegion: Lake Erie Lowland
Planting Zone: 6a-5a
What work has been done to improve this site for birds and other wildlife? How long did it take?
The property is about 3/4 of an acre. I work with native plant material and wanted a place to show that you can plant native materials in an urban area and by doing so have impact on wildlife, pollinators, and birds. I focus on being environmentally friendly, ‘make do’ with what you have, recycling materials–including metals–for new purposes,
I experiment with plants and I think about how the plant will be useful for wildlife and birds. I will not water unless we are in drought conditions and then only sparingly. Those are the times your plants need to toughen up. If the leaves are wilting, then I will water enough to flow through the root ball into the soil.
In creating beds, I mark the new bed outline with a garden hose, then edge the bed along the hose line I have created. I do not dig out the grass. Instead, I use the following system–with the grass in place, I use my weed whacker to take the grass down to the soil level. I cover the cleared area with heavy cardboard that I get from an appliance store. Refrigerator boxes are best as they are heavy and thick. I nail down the corners with 10” nails and then cover the cardboard with shredded leaves from the property or a mixture of soil (from the compost bin) and straw from the raspberry bed, or pine mulch received from an arborist.
I have worked in landscaping for over thirty years and have found the less I disturb the soil the better it is for plants and fungi that live there. Having planted over 30 trees here, and probably twice as many shrubs, I have created all of my borders on this site using the method described above. I am one person, over 60, who has done all of this on my own. As I get older, I find creating gardens this way, where I avoid digging-up lawn and instead just smother it with mulch, helps to minimize the toll taken on my body.
What are some successes that you've seen since the improvements were made? (alternatively, "What are you most proud of, or excited to share about this site?")
Another success with the pines are the False Morels that grew under the them last year and this year. I also had two varieties of Stinkhorns growing under them., To me this all signifies a healthy environment for the birds. I am comfortable with them eating grubs and bugs from my soil, as it should be.
I started a veggie garden only to find perennials were reappearing from a long lost perennial border, so I worked with the digitalis, daffodils, and others that appeared. In one area, I planted everbearing raspberries and created a raised bed for blueberries planted in pine mulch. Later, I enlarged the raised bed and added Saskatoon berries. The Saskatoon berries I pluck away at, but the Grey Catbird and Cedar Waxwings enjoy them as well. I freeze the blueberries, I make pies with the raspberries. What I don’t gather the birds eat. I now call this the ‘Berry & Seed Garden’. The leaf litter I place in this bed in the fall is a perfect shelter for ground birds, such as sparrows, Mourning Doves and others. In winter it provides shelter, food, and, with the various forms of adapted metal fencing, a place in which birds can perch.
Are there any tough decisions that had to be made regarding its management? How were they handled?
I have reduced the amount of lawn that needs to be cut, but not nearly enough. I still want to do the meadow, but continuously removing invasives, such as dog strangling vine, is labor intensive.
What's your favorite wildlife sighting?
Now, all feeders except one are out back as there are lots of new areas for the birds to escape to. In the past few years, with the new feeders out back, my bird counts have gone up, especially in Goldfinches. I even get a shrike strike once in awhile that hunts my smaller birds.
In winter, I put the suet feeders on cedar posts for the nuthatches and various woodpeckers. Last winter, for the first time, I had a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Mourning Doves will sit up top of the colonnade in the sun and rest. Last winter, while I was sitting here watching the birds, a large male Northern Harrier flew in and landed on top of one of the posts of the colonnade. I dared not move, as I knew if I ‘looked’ to grab the camera he would be gone.
I took great joy in the first bird landing in my yellowwood and when I saw a squirrel running up the hackberry. I love it when a scolding red squirrel is in a tree I planted. I could sit outside in the summer and watch a fox hunt for crickets in the lawn or, at dusk, watch the brown bats feed in the open low meadow outback. One summer, I even had fishers going through the property at night. I have watched the large female garter snake with a large toad halfway in her mouth in the wild garden on the south side of the house. Both she and the toad watched me watching them. Then finally the snake turned into the deep shrubbery as if to say, “enough is enough, I am finishing this meal alone.” All’s fair in nature.
Nesting birds are cardinals and the catbird. Northern Flickers nest nearby as well. The young ones, when they first fledge, are usually way out back on the lawn learning to forage with their parents. I also have nesting American Robins, Mourning Doves, and Tree Sparrows. I watched a pair of Brown Thrashers gathering their nesting materials this past spring, and I am sure they nested in the hedgerow just to the south of my large silver maple. It’s a perfect mess in there. I don’t know where the chickadees nest yet but they are around. Blue Jays nest nearby and are constantly raiding other nests unless the crows show up. It can be ruthless out there and sound like bloody murder.
Any other fun anecdotes you'd like to share?
I spend my winters with my cat and Michael Dirr, the author of the ten pound book I love and is my woody plant bible. With him comes native plant author Allan Armitage and a few others. I have to know who pollinates what, who eats what, and what are the side benefits to the soil, the air, and life on earth. It’s all a circle and it goes around. I do want to say this has been an excellent exercise for me, plotting out my own piece of heaven and writing about it all.