How to Create a Wildlife Sanctuary In Your Garden

Welcome A Safe Enviroment

Whether you have a large backyard or a tiny balcony. You can make a big difference toward helping the wildlife around you survive and thrive. By creating a wildlife garden it restores some of the human-caused habitat destruction that is hurting wildlife. A successful garden for wildlife is built on four provisions, shelter and protection, food sources, water sources, and nesting areas.

Embrace Mother Nature

Spending time outdoors can make you feel at ease, reduce stress, and give you time to clear your mind. When you create your own wildlife sanctuary, you will get to enjoy the sights and sounds of mother nature in your own backyard. From singing birds to buzzing bees and scampering squirrels, wildlife is fun to watch and also brings about feelings of harmony and calm. By making a few changes to your backyard, you can become a part of the nature that surrounds you.

Six Steps To Creating A Butterfly Garden

  1. Plant a combination of nectar flowering annuals and perennials that are different shapes, sizes and colors.
  2. Plant flowers in the sun, butterflies are cold-blooded, and they need sun to warm up and get going in the morning.
  3. Like all critters, butterflies need water. So leave out some water or a water feature that gently splashes.
  4. Adult butterflies lay their eggs on or near the host plants.Where possible, don’t clean up in the fall and winter.
  5. Avoid using pesticides, insects are particularly sensitive to toxins. 
  6. Have a willingness to learn about plants and butterfly species.

Butterflies Are Beautiful & Interesting Creatures

One of the most astounding natural events occurs each year in North America is the migration of the delicate monarch butterfly. Every November, millions of them set flight on a remarkable 2,500-mile journey from the northeastern United States and Canada to their ancestral wintering grounds in the volcanic mountains of central Mexico. A butterfly garden is an easy way to see more butterflies and to help these gentle creatures. Since many natural butterfly habitats have been lost to human activities like building homes, roads and farms.

Hummingbirds Are Dazzling Jewels In Any Landscape

You might not know it, but hummingbirds, live only in North, Central and South America. Few hummingbirds stay all year in the warmer parts of the state, most hummingbird species arrive in April or May and leave by early October. You'll find the most spectacular diversity of hummingbirds during the late summer rainy season, when local nesters overlap with Mexican species. It's possible to find up to 15 species of hummingbirds in late summer months, more than you'll find in any other part of the United States.

Hummers

One good way to enjoy the company of hummingbirds is planting a hummingbird garden. In addition to providing them a natural diet, a hummer garden is an excellent way to attract birds to your nearby feeder.

Bees Are The World's Most Important Pollinator

Bees pollinate flowers and plants and the reason we see flowers and plants in bloom. While bees may be a nuisance sometimes, we can’t bee without them. Bees, along with birds, bats, beetles, and butterflies all contribute with cross-pollination. They transfer pollen and seeds from one plant or flower to another. The biggest challenge we have in Arizona is that many of our hives have been overtaken by Africanized bees.

Pollinators

Every garden needs pollinators and bees are among the best. Without them, there would be limited flowers and even fewer fruits and vegetables. Since bees add more than a soothing buzzing sound, it's worth putting some thought into making your garden inviting for them.
A garden for wildlife doesn’t have to be a jungle of unkempt plant life and rodent & snake attracting eyesores. It can and should be a quiet refuge for you, the birds and animals. You don’t need a great deal of space to create a wildlife garden. A larger space only increases the diversity of creatures you attract.