Creating a Bird Garden

[snowyowl]

I'm planning on re-working a lot of my garden to make it even more bird/butterfly friendly. Presently I cut about an acre of of grass with a large lawn tractor. Obviously that isn't a very environmentally friendly thing to be doing.
I'll retain my pond and rock garden plus a few flower beds but I want to focus more on native plants and berry-bearing plants. The pond (9"x9') has to be made much more wildlife/bird friendly. The goldfish thrive in it but there's very little natural life in it, no frogs etc at all.
I'll plant High-bush Cranberries, Saskatoon Berries and Elderberries for sure, There are wild Raspberries and wild roses around as well as a lot of wild Mountain Ash along the driveway and in the woods. I know that sounds like that's a lot of food sources but some years, and this was one, I couldn't find any berries when I checked in the Fall, it seemed to be a complete failure of the berry crops so I want to offer as much variety as possible. With enough diversity, I hope to avoid the wipe out of food sources that occurred this year.
I'd be interested to hear suggestions or to hear about other people's experiences in this type of project. In our climate, anything being planted has to be super hardy.
i've hear a lot about Rosa Multiflora being planted for cover and feed but i've also heard that it can be very invasive. Anyone with experience with it?
Sumac is another one that I'm considering but again, it can be invasive.

[snowyowl]

I accidentally posted this thread twice. How do I get rid of the duplicate? I tried to delete it but that doesn't seem to work.

[kjh]

I only had a mini pond where I used to live, but I have done a little reading about this. One reason you are not getting any other life forms (frogs, nymphs, etc.) in your pond is because of the goldfish. They may be eating everything that enters the pond.

kj

[snowyowl]

I only had a mini pond where I used to live, but I have done a little reading about this. One reason you are not getting any other life forms (frogs, nymphs, etc.) in your pond is because of the goldfish. They may be eating everything that enters the pond.

kj
You could be right because some of the goldfish are reaching about 10" but there's lots of cover in the pond. I suspect that I've failed to set things up so that there's easy access to the pond for birds, frogs etc.

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Snowyowl - seems like you have two options - either the goldfich go, or you have to make another pond!!

[seb_seb]

Goldfish will eat everything in there. They will also cause algal blooms in profusion (due to excretement and feeding habits) and will eat everything from the top to the bottom of the pond foodchain(ok, maybe not a heron?)

[snowyowl]

Snowyowl - seems like you have two options - either the goldfich go, or you have to make another pond!!
Now there's an interesting idea! I could correct the mistakes that I made in the first one.

[Sven W]

Its hard to avoid having some years with insufficient natural food sources and I guess Canada is like Scandinavia, sooner or later you have to start bringing in the food anyhow.

With your large garden I would provide quite a lot of shelter. That way the birds doesn't have to leave so much. A few higher trees is also very appreciated as observation points and possibly nesting places.

If you want to have butterflies, the simplest way is to stop cutting the grass in a fair part of the garden. With time you will get high grass mixed with flowers. If you want to speed this process up, you can remove parts of the grass on and sow with a suitable mix of flower seeds.

In my opinon, goldfish is a quite interesting piece of wildlife even if it isn't native. Your pond is quite large and it might be possible to divide into two parts without possibility for the fish to swim between. A small bridge with a consealed net underneath might work, for instance.

Just some ideas.

[snowyowl]

My main reason for starting this thread was to see if I could get some suggestions for plants that would encourage birds by supplying them with Winter feed and cover. I've already got some very large trees in the wind break around the house and some some good cover in the form of shrubbery but I looking for ways to improve the environment for birds.
I hope to plant Sumac, High Bush Cranberry and Elderberries but hoped that people might have ideas for hardy non-native shrubs that might work especially if they are also decorative.
I asked about Rosa Multiflora which I've heard mention of as being fast growing and an excellent food source for birds. It's also very dense and is said to make an ideal cover for birds. I suspect that it is invasive and was hoping that someone would share there experience with this particular plant.
Anyway I'm still looking for input so if anyone has any ideas I'd be interested.

[seb_seb]

Cotoneaster?

[Susan C]

I would suggest the Viburnum family of shrubs and small trees as well. I don't have any myself yet, but have been reading about similar things for my garden. I have also had toads lay copious amounts of eggs in my ponds for the last three years, with zillions! of very tiny tadpoles in about 10 days to two weeks. The goldfish in my pond probably eat lots of them, but I seem to always have a few small toads hopping around too after a while. We usually have 3 - 6 pots of edging plants along the margins, and some floating plants, maybe that gives them a place to hide?

[Elizabeth Bigg]

I find the berries on Pyracantha go very quickly - there are still a few berries left on some of the cotoneasters here.

[snowyowl]

I find the berries on Pyracantha go very quickly - there are still a few berries left on some of the cotoneasters here.
Thanks, that gives me a couple leads to follow. Nobody seems to know about Multiflora so i may just have to try it for myself and find out the hard way.

[Caron]

Dan, Im almost a years late on this thread...lol but wondered how you made out and what results you have had so far.....
We love the sumac as well but were concerned about its invasive quality..what we went with is a tree that is in the Sumac family but the difference with it is as typical sumacs spread by sucker roots, this one spread by seedpods. They were large round seedponds that seemed to drop in a given week..All we did whenever we walked by that tree was pick up some of the pods. Im sure we didnt get all of them but in the 5 years we lived there, it never sprouted another.....and a short note...the birds loved this tree...If interested, I can try and look up its name for you...

[humminbird]

The one recommendation I make Snowy Owl is, whatever you do, think NATIVE. Using native plants anywhere in the world you can create beautiful gardens and these are the plants the birds are looking for naturally for their food and shelter.

Mark
Bastrop, TX