Winterizing your Landscape for Wildlife 🐦

Considered by many as nuisance animals, squirrels are miniature forest regenerators. A single squirrel can bury upwards of 10,000 acorns annually. The original canopy conservationist… 

Many practices within traditional landscaping can ignore or deter our friendly critters searching for food and shelter. Birds, insects, mammals, and more are all prepping and priming for the cold months. There are a few simple (and fascinating!) things you can do to help them along the way…

Seedheads

Typical garden litter comes in many forms and can almost always be considered wildlife habitat in one way or another. One version of garden litter is seedheads which are often pruned for aesthetic purposes or to prevent unwanted propagation. However, as the growing season winds down, these dried flowers and seedheads become a vital food and shelter source for wildlife.

• Feeding the Birds: Many seed-eating birds, like goldfinches, chickadees, and sparrows, rely on the seeds from plants such as coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), and sunflowers for their winter meals.
• Shelter for Insects: Tiny nooks in dried flower stalks and seedheads are perfect overwintering spots for beneficial insects, including ladybugs and native bees.
• Self-Seeding Potential: By leaving seedheads intact, you allow plants to self-seed, ensuring new growth and even more habitat next season.
• Pro Tip: If you want a particular look in certain areas, consider cutting seedheads and bundling them into “insect hotels” in an out-of-the-way corner of your garden.

Leaf Litter

Leaf litter and other scattered dead plant material is another gift to the ecosystem. Try these wildlife-friendly strategies instead of bagging or blowing your leaves:

• Natural Mulch: Spread leaves around your trees, shrubs, and garden beds. They mimic the natural forest floor, suppress weeds, conserve moisture, and provide excellent insulation for plant roots.
• Prime Garden Beds: If you’re planning new garden spaces, layer leaf litter over the area to build valuable organic matter while creating habitat for critters like beetles, frogs, and ground-nesting pollinators.
• Erosion Control: On slopes or bare patches, fallen leaves can slow water runoff, reducing soil erosion while supporting insects and small mammals through the winter.
• Winter Wildlife Habitat: Piles of leaves and twigs create cozy homes for salamanders, toads, and overwintering insects. Birds like sparrows will also forage through the leaf litter, searching for insects to eat. Try a Bug Snug! That “litter” that accrues in the yard is perfect for some simple, DIY garden architecture. A “bug snug” puts that material to use for the sole purpose of habitat creation. Stacked dead plant material like this beautiful bug snug provide shelter, protection from the cold, food sources, and safe spaces for nesting and overwintering. 

Plant Diversity in the Winter

Promoting plant diversity in your landscape is a great way to serve a wider variety of wildlife. For example, berries left on native shrubs become a vital food source for birds like cedar waxwings, robins, and mockingbirds. These berries provide much-needed energy when other food is scarce. Planting a variety of native shrubs offers a steady supply of fresh fruit.

Here are some native shrubs that produce berries in the winter:

• Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
• Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria)
• American Holly (Ilex opaca)
• Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
• Possumhaw (Ilex decidua)
• Sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)

Another consideration is year-round evergreen foliage which not only adds visual interest but also provides continuous shelter and protection for critters escaping predators and freezing winds. 

Did you know… Berries left on trees and shrubs can undergo fermentation. Birds like cedar waxwings (shown above), robins, and starlings will sometimes eat the overripe fruit and, believe it or not, get a little tipsy!

The “idle” season is not just a planning season! Build a bug snug, plant a shrub or tree (winter is an ideal time!), prime your garden beds… there’s plenty to dream up for both your landscape and your local ecosystem.