Consider feeding migrating animals with your garden

So, what’s on the menu?

Not recipes and dishes for warming us as autumn chills move in, but food for our feathered friends, fuzzy bumbles and tiny creatures who need it to sustain them. Many have long journeys ahead of them. Some will just be storing up for the long cold winter that the Farmer’s Almanac says we can expect.

In walking around my own garden, I spotted so many inviting seeds, berries and fruits to fill this need. Although I admit it wasn’t always on my mind to do this, I have managed to plant so many useful plants to fill this bill. Perhaps you, too, have some in your garden?

I have been watching for many weeks now as the viburnum shrubs and trees have been slowly ripening their berries. And then on some morning in late summer, I spot the tree vibrating with the energy of hungry birds who have been waiting also. In a matter of days, they strip the tree bare of delicious fruits.

The Cornelian cherry tree has also ripened its oval jewels. I tasted one and it’s tart but in a refreshing sort of way. I love the way the sun shines through as if made of glass.

The hollies, including the winterberries, are still mainly green but will soon color up. These firmer berries will stay all winter, and then on a spring morning, a flock of robins will dive in, and in a matter of hours, devour every last red berry. A sign of spring coming on fast.

Elderberries and rose hips offer food as well. And if you have ever walked barefoot anywhere near an oak you know the squirrels are well nourished. I have watched chipmunks downing maple seeds, chewing away the wings and storing up the round seed. They also love to snuggle up in the yew shrubs for red berries.

There have been rabbits in residence here as long as we’ve been living here. Not only do rabbits enjoy the clover in our “lawn” but in winter will gnaw on shrub stems emerging from snow pack. You can tell by their diagonal crisp cut.

In my perennial borders, rudbeckias of a few kinds leave behind seeds that are adored by finches. The energy they will produce assures a good journey to the south of us.

Coneflower seed heads are also left to overwinter and the evidence that they have been enjoyed is the bare stem with a button and all seeds gone by spring. The yellow trumpet of the Kirensgeshoma and red blossoms of cardinal flower attract hummingbirds near my windows. The late blooming Japanese anemones attract bees by the hundreds.

Ushering in August are the sweet smelling clethra blooms, a native shrub, which feeds myriad pollinators of the winged variety with nectar. The monarch butterflies can be seen enjoying aster blooms and making their chrysalis incubators on milkweed plants. The larva feed on the leaves before cocooning.

Natives are important in the garden because their shape, color and aroma are all vital to being offered as a host for dinner. The umbelliferous plants such as dill, Queen Anne’s lace and others provide food for swallowtail butterflies.

An important nutrient for all life is water. I have a small fountain, bird bath and pool. I know a frog has lived here each summer and I’ve even seen garter snakes swimming in the pool. Birds and even wasps and bees stop for a drink. It’s important to make a platform nearby for the small creatures to capture a drink. Put a rock in your birdbath.

Humans are not neglected in my gardens either. A MacIntosh apple tree provides fruit mostly on alternate years. A recent guest collected my crop and the windfalls and made a big pot of applesauce to enjoy all winter. The apples not gathered for people will provide for rodents and deer (though we don’t often see them here). My kind neighbor left their Dolgo crab apple tree near our property line for me to make delicious jelly.

If you’ve been following along with me on my garden tour, perhaps you recognize that you, too, are doing your part to nourish wildlife. Each creature is important to the circle of life. If one is taken out or lacking food and water sources, the whole system can collapse. Perhaps you’ll add something new next season with the end to nurturing one or more creatures that share our gardens.