10/13/09

Show Us Your Backyard!

Last week we did a post about turning your yard into a wildlife habitat. Because we received so many interesting comments, we thought we’d invite people to send in photos of their backyards. As we did for the photo contest, we’ll create a gallery of the backyard photos (see the photo contest gallery for example). Please send a jpeg (2 mb max).

We would also love to receive any tips you may have for creating a frog- or wildlife-friendly backyard. We’ll incorporate your tips (along with your name or whatever information you’d like to provide) into future posts.

As the weather gets colder, here’s a little armchair reading to get you dreaming about next year’s garden, or perhaps to get some ideas for last-minute fall planting. This book, Bringing Nature Home: Using Native Plants to Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens by Douglas Tallamy, was suggested by a commenter, Miriam Goldberger:

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You might also want to check out Miriam’s site, Wildflower Farms. She offers native North American perennial wildflowers, native grasses, and wildflower seeds.

And for inspiration, I leave you with a lovely video by another commenter, Ernie McLaney. His backyard is a wildlife habitat certified by the National Wildlife Federation, and he’s been involved in certifying all six campus locations of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC. As he says, “It’s a great project to help increase awareness of the natural world around us.”

While watching the video, I noticed lots of birdbaths. Providing water for birds is one simple thing that everyone can do.

Looking forward to seeing your backyards!