Designing a Habitat Garden

Supporting wildlife with diverse landscapes

Home landscape with layers of plants and hardscape. Mulch at the bottom, then low plants, then shrubs, and even a tree. — From the mulch to the palm, vertical layers offer a range of cover and food opportunities for insects, birds, and other wildlife.

You don’t have to work in conservation to help wildlife; your own yard can play a vital role in the surrounding ecosystem. Certain landscape design strategies can create habitat for birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, and other wild creatures. Using methods like “habitat layering” can help you design a landscape that’s visually appealing and wildlife-friendly.

To successfully build a habitat garden, gardeners need to recreate features and plant arrangements that occur naturally in the wild. This means diversifying the landscape so that many different types of wildlife can thrive. Below are some tips for supporting wildlife by creating various layers and design elements.

Use Vertical Habitat Layers

Plants and natural features can be layered in such a way that their structure resembles the complexity and functionality of natural ecosystems. Vertical layering uses plants that vary in height and size to support wildlife species at different stages of development.

One option is mimicking a forest. The first layer is the mulch layer, which is a collection of leaf litter and woody debris. This material decomposes and provides habitat for many insects that become food for wildlife such as toads, lizards, turtles, small mammals, and birds. As the mulch layer is broken down by insects, fungi, and bacteria, the soil becomes rich in nutrients that can be taken up by the plants. When establishing a habitat garden, retaining leaf litter in the landscape can create healthy soil and support a rich collection of organisms.

The second layer is the herbaceous or ground layer, which occurs at 3 feet and below. It consists of plants with soft, green, flexible stems (mostly non-woody). This layer includes groundcover plants that provide a protective covering of the mulch. Examples of plants found in the herbaceous layer include ferns, wildflowers, vines, grasses, and sedges.

Above the herbaceous layer lies the shrub layer, which includes woody vegetation between 3 and 12 feet tall. The next layer is the understory layer, which includes smaller flowering trees and saplings of canopy tree species. This layer ranges from 12 to 30 feet tall. The tallest plants occur in the canopy layer, with mature trees ranging from 30 feet to over 100 feet.

By adding some or all of these layers into your yard you can mimic natural areas suitable for nesting, feeding, and resting. Vertical structure can be added anywhere, including along property lines, walkways, creek edges, or driveways. Other types of vertical habitat structure besides a forest can be replicated, depending on your preference and current garden design.

Plant Groups or Islands of Plants

An island of caladiums in the lawn — An island of caladiums.

Grouping plants in clusters, rather than installing a single row of plants, can maximize the depth and structure of the bed, adding plenty of cover opportunities. Adding islands of vegetation adds visual appeal to the landscape and can provide intermittent cover. If planted near to each other, animals are likely to cross from one island to the next. Walking through open spaces puts wildlife at risk of becoming prey, so islands provide patches of safety zones. Small, ground-dwelling wildlife species benefit the most from islands of vegetation, but islands also provide cover to birds while foraging.

Replace Some Turfgrass with Groundcover Plants

Limiting the amount of turfgrass you have and adding alternative plants will diversify the landscape and provide additional refuge and food for wildlife. You can replace some parts of your lawn with native wildflowers or groundcover plants that are adapted to the conditions in that part of your yard (sunny, shady, wet, dry, etc.). Inviting more diversity into the landscape in turn invites more insects and other wildlife. Turfgrass requires more maintenance than groundcover plants (mowing, watering, fertilizing), so switching to groundcover options can save on time and money. Groundcover plants can be visually appealing along fences, under trees and bushes, or along the home.

Consider Plant Needs and Production

A gray moth perches on a budding blanket flower.

When structuring your habitat garden, it’s important to select the right plants for the right place. This means assessing your landscape to understand the various conditions present and catering your choices to match the needs of the plant (i.e. range, hardiness zones, light, drainage, and soil requirements, heat and cold tolerance, etc.) The productivity and bloom time is also an important consideration. Make sure your plants offer a diverse array of seeds, fruits, nuts, flowers, foliage, and structure throughout the year. Plants bloom at different times, so choosing plants with a variety of blooming periods can prolong and diversify the feeding options.

Don’t forget “hardscape” elements, like dead trees, brush piles, water sources, and more. Diversifying your landscape with plants and other features provides layers of cover and food for a wide ranges of wildlife species, and there are benefits for you as well. It not only adds dimension and texture to the landscape, it creates excellent viewing opportunities for birds, butterflies, and more.