March 2005

I joined the National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program and started to landscape my yard to provide Food, Water, places for birds to nest and cover for them to raise young. Since I didn’t have trees for nesting I installed a Bluebird house and it was immediately occupied. This pleasantly surprised me because I thought my yard was so unwelcoming to wildlife! I continued to plant, adding Caroline Jessamine in front of the garden shed. I also started planting hydrangeas hoping to someday have some as gorgeous as my grandmother’s. While shopping at Home Depot one weekend in March my husband said, “Let’s build a pond!” I didn’t argue because I had wanted one for each of the last two yards. I’d heard the sound of water would attract more birds so was happy to add this to the yard. Actually it was in my original plan for the backyard that was submitted to the homeowners association before we even moved in but didn’t know then it would ever get built.