Bug Magnets: A Good Thing?

Recently, the garden club members of Jardin du Lac were invited to visit Leslie Limberg's bird sanctuary located near New Melle, Mo.

A Missouri Master Naturalist who takes her bird sanctuary very seriously, Leslie also has a wonderful sense of humor. She likes to create bird habitat gardens. She only grows plants that attract bugs and birds.

Leslie showed us a plants she called “bug magnets” which for her is fantastic. Any plant that attracts as many bugs as possible is her (and the birds') favorite.

Leslie doesn’t care about how things look, only that they function to feed the birds. In her woodland garden, she creates brush piles about six or more feet wide and two feet tall. These are perfect protection for grouse, wrens, titmice and nuthatches. To create such a pile, lay large logs in an X pattern to create tall openings at the base then pile smaller branches and twigs on top leaving natural open areas for the birds to move in and out.

There were many, many plants that I have removed from my customers' yards that Leslie intentionally plants because of the seed or berry it produces or the bee or bug that it attracts.

Unfortunately too many times I hear people say they don’t want a plant that attracts bugs and bees. It made me realize how very sterile our gardens have become from spraying every time we see a bug on our plants. Maybe we need to find out what bug it is and if there is a natural predator that we could be feeding if we leave it there.

Some of the plants that Leslie grows in her sanctuary are: aromatic aster, aromatic sumac, slender mountain mint, gentian, marsh mallow, smart weed, willow trees, heath aster, native boneset, native marigold and phlox, prairie coreopsis, lead plant, goldenrod, buttonbush, prairie drop seed grass, royal catch-fly, trumpet vine, penstemmon, blue star amsonia, golden current, pink turtlehead, big blue stem and little blue stem grasses, bergamont, prairie dock, common milkweed and sneezewort.

Leslie has many bird baths. Some are above ground and some are set into the ground. The ground baths are good for ground animals such as fence swift lizards and rabbits. Place shrubs or structures near a bath so birds can have protection from hawks. For winter time, add a heater designed specifically for bird baths so that the animals have water to drink.

For the butterflies, create a puddler, a shallow well that holds rocks, sand or rock salt along with a little water. When the water evaporates, butterflies are attracted to the minerals left behind from the hard water and sand or salt. Once butterflies know where they can find these minerals, they return regularly.

Bird feeders are set up at the edge of the woods so they get early morning sun to help the seed warm up and usually contain white millet and black oil sunflower.

Bird houses are important for certain birds. The blue bird house needs to be placed at least 20 feet from surrounding shrubs and trees and about 100 feet apart from each other. They need to be monitored and cleaned out before blue birds begin to nest. I have noticed that after I brush my dogs and leave the fur in piles on my deck, the birds use it to soften their nests.

Now I realize that most home owners are not going to go to this extent to create a perfect habitat for birds and wild life. Maybe you can take a small corner of your yard and create a natural habitat, a place that doesn’t have to be groomed and cut perfectly, an area under the tree canopy where the grass doesn’t grow. You can throw your downed branches and leaves there so that birds have a retreat when danger lurks or protection from cold winter winds.   

If you are interested in gardening, learning about gardening or joining a garden club, stop by the Community Association Clubhouse, the second Monday morning of each month and sit in on a meeting of the Jardin du Lac Garden Club.  Meetings start at 9:30 a.m.

 If you have a beautifully landscaped yard or have unique garden ornaments that you are proud of and would like to see featured on Patch.com, or have any gardening questions, contact Peggy at Bahrmasel@msn.com.