“Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other “-cides” don’t fit into a bird-friendly yard. They may or may not directly affect the health of the bird, but they definitely kill off the insects that birds depend upon. They can also alter the balance of organisms in the soil and affect natural cycles. Banish the bottles from your yard care routine and your birds will thank you.” Sally Roth in the book Bird-by-Bird Gardening.
Perhaps I should put up this sign too! You can read more about the benefits about being pesticide free and order yard signs from the Pesticide Free Zone organization website.
Ms. Roth is a naturalist, gardener and award wining author. She gives lectures and is very passionate about creating gardens that welcome wildlife. She is a contributing editor for “Birds & Blooms” magazine. Sally and her husband Matt live in the Rocky mountains of Colorado. She has written several other books about birds, butterflies and gardening. And she and her husband have a delightful and informative website called Adventures with Sally and Matt.
This is a garden we installed several years ago for a couple from Canada that are avid bird watchers.
I talked about the things you need to become a wildlife habitat in my Wednesdays blog. Being all organic means no pesticides. There was a time when I did use them and even had the house sprayed regularly for roaches and ants. But the more I read the more I decided that having these chemicals in my environment was not healthy for my family or my pets. At first I had more insects I didn’t really care for. Now that we are a local bird cafe and lizard lounge I see fewer and fewer insects. I still have too many mosquitoes which is why I am now trying to attract bats!
Since I am not native to Houston several years ago I took some classes at the Houston Arboretum. One focused on gardening for the birds. It was excellent and I learned a great deal about our local bird population. We were recommend several books in the class. One was Bird-by-Bird Gardening, it has been a great resouce book for me as a designer and gardener. I recommend it in my blog Garden Quote – Francis M. Chapman, …bird songs. I have several other books by Sally Roth, another one from the class was The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible: The A-to-Z Guide to Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects and Treats (Rodale Organic Gardening Books) by Sally Roth.
This is in the same garden as above. We added two sources of water, native plants and several varieties of small trees that fruit or seeds.
I hope this weeks posts inspire you to turn your garden into a wildlife habitat too : )
Happy Gardening!
I couldn’t agree more, Laurin – all of the ‘cides’ have an impact on the ecology of a garden. Without the aphids, we’ll have no ladybirds and lacewings. Without some caterpillars, I’d have no blue tits. I wish we had a wildlife habitat certification, like you have in the US. Such a good idea!
: ) From what i have heard UK is very progressive about organic gardening.
I looked for the ‘loved’ button and settled for ‘like.’ I think they should change the ‘wildlife habitat’ signs to “Bird Cafe and Lizard Lounge!” That is such a clever phrase. =D The mini bird sanctuary is lush and pleasing to human eyes, too.
Perhaps I need to make my own sign : ) Could put it on our company t-shirts too!
Oh, I hope you do. =)
Laurin, I love the birdbath picture. I remember the moment I decided to avoid the use of all chemicals in my gardens. It was back in the 80’s when I was watching a bird eating insects in a flowerbed that I’s sprinkled with insecticide. It was the last time I used a toxic substance in any garden. That week I subscribed to an organic gardening magazine.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
Reblogged this on Green Lizard's Blog and commented:
This is such an important message. -pesticides are wrong in every garden. Gardens attract bugs of all kind. Just because we don’t always like bugs it doesn’t mean we are entitled to poison them and other creatures. Bugs attract birds. Bugs attract hedgehogs. Bugs attract other creatures.
Thank you for passing it on! I wish my bugs attracted hedgehogs, I stayed for a while in Toddington and the garden had a family of hedgehogs. We get racoons and possums occasionally.
Wow! Raccoons and possums. How exotic.
Thanks for posting this. I’m going to share it. I also want to put a sign in our garden but I’m not sure it’s environmentally sound to bring if so far round the earth.
Oh and I forgot armadillos : )
When I was a child I was obsessed with armadillos! I’m so jealous.
They aren’t good for anything! Let the birds eat the bugs. We don’t need to kill everything in our impatience to have an instant perfect surrounding.
Thank you for commenting! Great to know so many are in agreement! The birds are happy too!
I also believe in organic gardening. In addition to not using pesticides, I also believe in having lots of diversity in plants, especially including a lot of edible plants and trees in the garden. That results in more habitat for more kinds of beneficial insects, and more food for birds.
Happy to hear that Hannah! I hope this becomes the norm world wide!
Great work I am starting out properly on my yard this year. I did have an allotment but they threw my off, mainly due to it not being perfect they didn’t like my wild flower section for bee and incests and keep telling my to use roundup! I clearly said no!