Rocky Hillside Transformed Into Wildlife Oasis

Using Drought Resistant and Native Plants To Attract Birds and Butterflies: A Habitat Hero Success Story In Evergreen, CO

With Louise H. - 2015 Outstanding Habitat Hero Residential Garden

What motivated you to create a wildscape garden?

My yard in Chicago backed up to a forest preserve and was registered as a National Wildlife Habitat. I loved all the birds and pollinators there and had a beautiful butterfly garden. But when we first moved to Evergreen in July of 2009, with the exception of a small failing Aspen grove and a beautiful Douglas fir on the north side, our new home sat in the middle of a 4-acre dry, barren clearing; nothing but weeds, rocks and dust--without even a bird in sight, only voles--which we still have!

My husband had a fence installed around a manageable area in the back, and we started planting. Since we had no trees, my first attempt to attract birds was by putting out multiple water features and feeders on our deck. (We can only offer the bird feeders in the winter when the bears are hibernating.) One of the few things I like about living in a clearing are the bluebirds. We put up several bluebird houses shortly after we moved in. They have since been occupied every spring. Usually, one bluebird family and one swallow family. This summer, we had a Mountain Bluebird family and an Eastern Bluebird family. They love bird baths. The hummingbirds saved me! They arrive by the dozens and we all enjoy their entertaining antics.

Over the course of five very short, very challenging high altitude (8,700 feet) growing seasons, and the completion of Colorado State University’s Master Gardener program, the once barren back yard is now like an oasis with quite a wide variety of birds.

There is also a garden now, full of pollinators, a snake, a lizard and even a mud puddle for the butterflies. The garden is left untouched over the winter to feed the birds, and there are heat coils in the bird baths. The arid Colorado climate and the completion of CSU’s Master Gardener program helped me to understand the importance of planting natives and xeric selections whenever possible. Outside the fence has been left to its natural, chaotic state, sustaining the wildlife that the fence keeps out!

What makes your wildscape special? For example, the story of creating it? The plants you use? Birds and other pollinators it attracts?

This garden is special to me because it is a fighter! It has survived and thrived what I call "combat gardening"--short growing seasons, frosts in early September, snow in May and late frosts again in June. It has survived cold summer nights, drying winds, little precipitation and every rodent imaginable under the hot sun!

It’s special because of the story of creating it, yes, but mostly because of all the birds and pollinators it has since attracted. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine having butterflies again--not with the strong winds we get up here at 8,700 feet! Starting out as nothing but a barren clearing, with many mistakes and much learned, its evolved over the last five growing seasons into a yard full of birds of every feather, bees, hawk moths and butterflies has been and will continue to be a labor of love.

Interview by Wendy Hatoum, Marketing Brand Manager, High Country Gardens

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