As warmer weather is approaching and you are itching to get outside and start working on the ideas you have for this growing season I am curious if you have considered transition zones for your yard. Harvard defines a transition zone as, " a domain where the state within an Earth system component changes gradually." I have no transition zone here where I am currently at, to give a visual it is yard with no trees and a stark boarder where it meets the forested area. That is called an edge and some animals are...okay with an edge, like deer, but they don't prefer it. If you want to see more animals in your yard and even encourage more pollinators and you have an edge type habitat in your yard, this blog will help you get inspired on what can be done and have a more successful yard.
1. Planting Native is Number One!
As conservationists we harp on this a lot. It is so important to plant native species because they are better for and more favored by pollinators. A lot of them are also beneficial to the soil health because they are meant to be there from ecological adaptations over time. If you are concerned about them not having a pretty ornamental look you can go to a local native plant nursery and they will help you find something close to what you had in mind. If you want to plant periwinkle because you like purple and you want to pair it with yellow flag iris, well you can just plant the native blue flag iris and get the periwinkle color and the iris look in one. It is a pretty sound compromise. But what if you liked the ground cover that periwinkle provides? You could grow native wintergreen instead or a variety of native ground cover plants. A key take away is that you still have a lot of options when planting native.
2. Work in layers
This is really where the transition zone comes in. Pretend that you have my yard, a stark line of yard and forest with nothing in between. To create a transition zone you want to work in layers to eliminate the hard edge. This image above went from forest, to short bushy ground cover to grass lawn. There is still a bit of a hard edge created by the brick but in all that counts this is a good buffer to that edge.
Follow the pattern tall (trees), medium (bushes), short (ground cover, grasses etc) and shortest is lawn. the more you buffer these is even better. It sort of gets scientific and it is pretty fun to research and plan this out for your own yard. If you are missing an element like forest then pick it back up at the next closest one you can manipulate.
3. Bushes
Photo by: Green Action
Close to the forest you would want to plant some bushes- native bushes. I highly recommend elderberry not only does wildlife of various kinds love this plant but you can harvest the berries and make some delicious elderberry syrup for pancakes! Winterberry is another tall bush that produces a bright red berry that birds love. Winterberry kind of resembles a holly.
4. Grasses
Photo by: The New York Times
The next transition zone you can implement is native grasses. A lot of people opt out of this layer because it can tend to look unkept. From the picture above you can see how there are trees and bushes and right along the edge the property owner chose to only mow the land he wanted as yard and left the rest of the grass to grow tall. Grass habitats like this one are excellent for turkeys, rabbits and other ground nesting birds. Snakes may utilize this as well but they are nothing to worry about- they would like it in the tall grass to catch mice and other small rodents. Pollinators tend to really enjoy tall grasses as sometimes landowners chose to implement more of a native prairie with wildflowers. Grasses attract grazing deer and provide a nice spot to bed down in the Summer. Deer have the ability to go from the tree cover and slip into the tall grass unnoticed by predators and these soft edges transition zones create are so beneficial to all wildlife.
Photo from Fine Gardening Magazine
5. Ground cover
Ground cover is a fun yard implement to design. Many ground cover plants are flowering and what this layer does is it erases the hard stark edge of mowed lawn and the rest of the transition zone- essentially it is a blur on the edge. Examples of native Michigan ground cover plants are: wild strawberry, creeping phlox, wild geranium, Canada anemone, and bearberry. Ground cover is just low growing plants and some people opt to plant them instead of mulching so as to crowd out garden weeds.
6. Minimal yard clean up is okay
Lastly, don't stress too much about yard clean up. Those leaves that you left in the yard since fall can provide great nutrients to the soil, just mow over them to make them smaller and less noticeable. The woodpile you may have in your yard probably has served as a winter home to some mice or rabbits, try not to be so quick to move it all because they will likely move out when the weather gets warmer and there is more food for them to forage elsewhere. If you want to attract wildlife to your yard don't make it an unwelcome place for wildlife to come to. Occasional mowing, planting and landscaping won't deter them- it's really all about what you are doing to the yard and if it is suitable habitat when you get all through.
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