Wildlife Gardening

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Wildlife in the garden

Eastern Spadefoot Toad

My garden is alive - and so is your garden - with countless insects, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. These creatures may be just passing through, or they may call your garden home.

Make a habit of walking through your garden in the morning and late afternoon - quiet times for creatures big and small. You will see wonderful things.

If you garden with Nature rather than against Her, you will NEVER have to resort to chemical pesticides or herbicides. My garden is alive with bees and dragonflies, frogs and hummingbirds. Chemicals don't discriminate. NEVER use them.

If you have to resort to such drastic life support methods to maintain your garden, you are missing out. The birds and the bugs don't ask for much, and a chewed leaf or spoiled flower is a small price to pay to watch butterflies safely meander through your garden in the fading late afternoon light, or to be surprised by a leopard frog, quietly enjoying the moist soil in a pot of rain lilies.

The insect and animal life in your garden makes it come alive with motion and color that plants alone can't provide. It's not a backdrop or a stage set, but a living, breathing collection of living things.

These are some of the creatures that find safe haven in my garden. Or should I say their garden:

Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta), the larva of the Carolina Sphinx Moth, feeding on American Beauty Berry (Callicarpa americana), in my garden. Photo taken 07/27/05.

Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala), hanging out in a nursery flat of rain lilies (Zephyranthes sp.), just outside my front door. Photo taken 07/27/05.

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Eastern Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus holbrookii)