Attracting Birds with Shrubs & Trees in the Organic Garden

Birds can provide a multitude of benefits to your property, from controlling garden pests organically to providing arm chair bird watchers with hours of enjoyment.

Attracting birds to your organic garden and encouraging them to take up permanent residence in a back yard habitat means they must have a steady supply of fresh food, water, and evergreen shelter. This year round supply of food can be achieved by planting a wide assortment of plants and shrubs that will produce food even during the winter months. These shrub and tree varieties should include plants that produce berries, nuts and seeds at different time of the year and provide year round "escape" cover.

For organic gardeners, bringing in a patrol of hungry birds will help to limit aphids, mosquitoes, yard gnats, and those nasty bugs that invade our vegetable gardens. Bird favorites in my yard include the following varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers which may work in your yard as well:

Conifers

Conifers are evergreen shrubs and trees, and include all varieties of pine and spruce trees, junipers, arborvitae, and yews. These plants will provide your back yard visitors with nesting sites, winter shelter and places to hide from other predators. The pine, arborvitae and spruce trees are a source of winter seeds for birds, the yew and juniper have tiny berries that birds find attractive. All these varieties of conifers are very easy to grow. The yew is highly toxic however, and not recommended in yards with tiny children or pets that are inclined to eat plants.

Nut and seed producing plants

Our walnut tree was a favorite hangout for birds who used to loiter around the base of the tree, waiting for cars or pedestrians to crush the walnuts so they could be eaten. While birds do enjoy most nut producing trees including oaks and chestnuts, they won't be able to eat the food unless the trees are placed near areas where the nuts can be crushed by foot traffic. Above patios, along pathways and adjacent sidewalks are just a few examples of locations where a nut bearing tree can be placed to provide a food source for birds.