7 Ways You Can Attract Wildlife to Your Backyard

7 Ways You Can Attract Wildlife to Your Backyard

South Florida is home to a wide variety of wildlife you can attract to your backyard if you know what to plant. Different animals are attracted to different types of foliage; therefore, you can pick and choose what types of animals you want to attract. Most people don’t want to attract gators to their yard, but some sweet little bunnies or hummingbirds might be nice.

As a landscape design and installation company, we are fully qualified to help you create wildlife-friendly landscaping that’ll bring all the cute critters to your yard. Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks for attracting more wildlife to your backyard.

#1. Add Native Grasses to Your Landscaping

Native grasses provide all-year shelter and food for animals. Smaller animals enjoy seeking refuge in grasses to hide from predators. They also use grasses to build nests. Additionally, native grasses provide seeds and foraging materials for a variety of wildlife. Planting smaller sections of grass, as opposed to large fields of grass, can help keep maintenance and water bills to a minimum.

#2. Add Evergreen Trees to Your Landscaping

Evergreens are very attractive to wildlife. They maintain their foliage all year long, providing year-round protection against predators, a shelter or nesting place during breeding season, and food in the form of needles, seeds, cones, sap and buds.

#3. Add Plants that Provide Food 

Trees and plants that produce berries, seeds, pollen, or fruit will always attract wildlife. By doing a little research, you can uncover what native plants in your area attract different animals.

#4. Plant Plenty of Flowers

Flowers are a staple food for animals of varying species. Plus, their pollen attracts hummingbirds, bees, and so many other glorious insects.

#5. Plant for every season of the year

Plant a wide variety of vegetation so that something is green and in season all year long. That’s easy to do when you live somewhere with year-round sunshine, like South Florida!

#6. Create a Compost Pile

This option isn’t for the faint of heart, and you’re going to need a large enough yard to get away it. If you’re up for it, a composting pile is a great way to “go green,” and attract wildlife. Plus, it’ll give you some serious gardening power when added to soils. It provides a source of food for wildlife, big and small, which means it’ll attract animals to your backyard all year long.

Compost piles are only permitted in certain neighborhoods and should be kept far away from your house or any areas you plan to entertain outdoors. After all, it smells just as you imagine a big heap of old food would. 

#7. Add Bird Feeders

Bird feeders come in all shapes and sizes, and many can be made from household materials for a fun DIY project. Hang bird feeders near the windows of your home and you can enjoy watching the birds come and go no matter if you are inside or out.

Add a bird bath so that birds have a place to drink and clean up after enjoying their meal. Additionally, adding a birdhouse to your yard could result in birds moving in and staying permanently. Now that’s the best kind of pet, one you don’t even have to take care of.

It’s always fun to take inventory of the birds you see most frequently. Many look the same, but there’s always one or two birds with unique traits that make them identifiable. If you have kids, this is a great way to teach them about birds and an appreciation for wildlife.

How to Keep Wildlife Out of Certain Parts of Your Yard

Many of our clients want to attract wildlife to certain parts of their yard, but they’d like their vegetable garden and window flower boxes left alone. So how do you get the best of both worlds? We can help you design the perfect solution, in which part of your yard is wildlife-friendly, and the other half is invite-only.

We offer landscape design and implementation, from start to finish we create the yard of your dreams. Just tell us your vision and budget, and together we can create the perfect landscaping for many years to come.