Consider Fall

Whether you’re designing your first native (Pollinator Paradise) garden adding more plants or making changes to an existing native garden, consider fall. Migrating and overwintering birds, and insects like lady bird beetles, butterflies and bees will be glad you did. And you’ll happily enjoy their presence along with the beauty of your autumn garden.

Fall is a season of transitions: Flowers are setting seed, producing fewer blooms. Birds are plentiful, and we’re seeing many we have not seen since spring as they migrate southward. Insects are decreasing their public commitments, searching for and finding burrows and bolt holes for hibernation.

How do we design for and support the natural processes that are happening in this season?

Dark-eyed Junco

Think of the birds:

Migrating birds need food to support their long journey south. Those who overwinter need to bulk up for the cold months ahead. I plant native sunflowers and asters, hazelnuts, bur oaks, choke cherries, high bush cranberries and mountain ash to help feed them. And I supplement these resources with grocery store bird food. As soon as I see juncos, I put out a general bird seed mix on the ground, since juncos tend to be ground-feeders. There are no cats in my back yard, so the back yard is where I scatter the seed for them. Juncos are wary and will eat from feeders, so you can also put seed in a feeder with a large deck on it.

The goldfinches will migrate through and often land on native sunflowers. If the flowers are still showy, it can be hard to see the goldfinches.

Blue jays and magpies snatch the hazelnuts and acorns as soon as they can. I don’t count on harvesting any for myself. Since these birds stay all winter, and my yard does not produce enough to last them, I supplement with peanuts in the shell.

The woodpeckers stay all winter, too, and they like to fatten up on suet. Some suet mixes come with insects, some with nuts, some with berries. I put out a variety. Which do they prefer? I have not done a systematic study, but a general observation is that they all get eaten.

I also put out a columnar feeder of black sunflower seeds, and one of shelled peanuts. These bring nuthatches and chickadees – this year, I have a white breasted nuthatch as a regular visitor. Read more about feeding winter birds here.

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

Think of the insects:

Goldenrods host a number of gall making insects like certain flies that lay eggs on their stems. When the larvae hatch, they burrow into those stems, and their secretions cause a rapid growth in it which swells and forms a gall around the larva. A child once asked me if the gall was cozy for the larva. These galls and their comfortable larvae do no damage at all to the goldenrod. Of course, that comfortable larva could be eaten by a downy woodpecker looking for a high protein snack.

I also look for places where lady bird beetles hang out. They are getting ready for winter hibernation. If there are a bunch of them in one place, that means the food must be good there, and it is likely a place for them to be happy in the spring. Move a pile of leaves close to this area, so the lady bird beetles can nestle in for a cold winter’s nap, and wake up in spring to mate, lay eggs, and then let their larvae get to work. You’ll have fun watching them develop in the spring.

Fallen leaves can also provide a place for new bumble bee queens to overwinter as well for some adult species of butterflies (think Mourning Cloaks) and moths. Larvae of some bee species, butterflies and moths appreciate this habitat too and happily emerge in the spring. So, I leave those leaves. Solitary bees often nest in the broken stems of wild flowers. I leave those stems standing too.

Beauty for All:

I also consider what I want as I design my garden with fall in mind. The large plants will lose their foliage, revealing the architectural wonder of their limbs. Some trees are tall, some short, some bushy, some compact, some spready. Consider how these shapes not only support a diverse winter habitat by arranging them with this ecological purpose in mind, but also how they will create beauty by arranging them artistically. I especially love the highbush cranberries, and their Canadian-flag-red fall leaves, next to hazelnuts with their intense orange fall leaves. The oak changes gradually, with many leaves having three colours, green, yellow, and deep brown, on them. The red osier dogwood displays deep burgundy-red leaves, and the berries, which were baby blue during the summer, change to white and then, magically, disappear (Another systematic study called for. Who is eating these berries?) The wolf willow keeps its silvery green leaves as long as it can, providing a lovely low-growing pop of subtle colour.

Yes, consider fall when you design your garden.

 – Janet McVittie