Start in your own yard

By S cott K irkwood The Washington Post

EVERY DAY, BIRD lovers get to watch tiny wildlife documentaries unfold from their own windows

— the search for food, the predator-prey relationship, even the ways that climate change shifts a species’ typical habitat.

“The great thing about birds is they’re everywhere,” says Nicholas Lund, who leads outreach for Maine Audubon and shares his brand of avian humor as The Birdist. “They aren’t found only in national parks or protected areas — they’ll come to you.”

With the right approach, you can make those visits far more likely: “Think about what you have to offer birds,” says Lund. “It could be a place to nest, it could be food and it could be shelter.”

Once they start flocking, you can experience the joy of identifying each species and their unique behaviors.

• Attract birds with food from wandering beyond their allotted space. perennials, such as asters and hardy chrysanthemums, will need to be dug up, cut apart, then replanted every spring. Invasive perennials like beebalm, tansy, goldenrod, and artemesia do not need division to spruce them up. They need to be divided to keep them

A feeder is the quickest way to create a backyard feast, but it’s not the only one. As Lund points out, “not all birds even eat seeds.” Woodpeckers, for instance, prefer suet, orioles like oranges and grape jelly, and hummingbirds enjoy nectar, or sugar water, which you can make at home.

The best long-term approach to bring birds to your yard is to add native plants.

The following perennial flowers need division only every three or four years: armeria, phlox, coral bells, canterbury bells, cerastium, Siberian and Japanese irises, veronica, yarrow and Shasta daisies.

Although dividing perennials will satisfy early season yearnings to get your hands in the dirt, some restraint is in order. Not all perennials want to be divided now. Perennials that go dormant in midsummer should be dug up and divided at that time. This group includes Oriental poppies, bleeding heart, bearded iris, and Virginia cowslip.

And think twice before dividing perennials such hellebore, peony, monkshood, butterfly weed, lupine, and baby’s-breath. These flowers need division perhaps once a decade, and they often show their resentment for this treatment by not blooming for a year or more thereafter.

Any gardening questions? Email them to me at garden@ leereich.com and I’ll try answering them directly or in this column. Come visit my garden at leereich.com/blog.