Planting a Garden for Wildlife... From the Ground Up

In my last post, I promised to tell the story of how my garden was transformed to be more wildlife friendly. I knew very little about how to approach the task, but I was certain that my new garden would evolve, instead of being planned out in detail before my shovel hit soil.

Having visited Gordon Frankie's Bee Garden at UC Berkeley over the summer, I intended to attract as many California native bees as possible. That was the extent of my planning. I needed to contemplate a clean canvas before I would make other decisions. 

Fall was the ideal time to begin. Starting a garden then provides rainwater to nourish new plants as they establish themselves over winter.

In September, my first step was to remove the lawn and other plantings in the front garden. After I’d dug out about 25% of the Bermuda grass by myself, I rolled over, paws up, and hired a crew to complete the job. Next I had rich soil delivered to replenish what remained after the grass was hauled away.

You can see in the photos that I kept a few plants. Juniper remains green throughout the year, provides a place for small mammals to hide and also offers habitat for spiders and other insects. (Plus, I admit it: I was daunted by the enormous task of removing it.)  As for the hydrangea visible on the right side of the photos, it’s a rare pleasure for me to see a Carpenter bee sleeping behind pink petals, so it stayed too.  

In choosing the garden's main anchor, I picked a fruitless olive tree for its lovely shape, its gray tones and the promise of perches for visiting birds. East Bay Nursery had an appealing, healthy, young tree. After it was planted beside the juniper, I spent time in the space for a couple of days before deciding what next to do. So many options, but I trusted that each step would present itself in its own time.