Make your family garden eco-friendly

Gardens aren’t just about petunias, they can also help animals and encourage native plants.

This year when you are planning the family garden patch, you can make a sustainable wildlife garden.

Animals, birds, bees, and butterflies need food, water, cover and a place to rear young. Your garden can be a place where they thrive.

First, plant at least three native flowering plants. Some typical choices, according to nwf.org: Buffalo grass, Prairie Dropseed, Black-eyed Susan, and Common Ninebark.

Install a water feature. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Wet rocks are good for butterflies. Hummingbirds like to take showers in a gentle mist. And all birds need a drink in the summer.

Put up nesting boxes. The sparrows will move in quickly, but you might one day be surprised to find nesting bluebirds, too.

To encourage butterflies, especially monarchs, find a place for nectar plants and milkweed. Milkweed has a bad reputation because it becomes pretty shabby looking by late summer. But it has some things going for it. In late spring and early summer, milkweed delights with a delicious fragrance as the big pink flower clusters bloom. Even when it is looking shabby, that’s an important time for butterflies who use it as a host plant.

Take the long-view of your garden site. Trees are essential for a good wildlife area. Even a small yard can host a dwarf evergreen or deciduous tree.