Enhance your bird bath area by planting these 5 flowers to attract birds and create a visually stunning garden
Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Garden: A Guide to Attracting Birds
A garden that is not just aesthetically pleasing but also beneficial for wildlife can be achieved by carefully selecting the right plants. Here's a list of plants that provide food, shelter, and attract pollinators and birds throughout the seasons.
Coneflowers (Echinacea and Rudbeckia) are daisy-like perennials offering vibrant summer blooms that attract pollinators. Once the petals fade, they leave behind seedheads in autumn and winter, providing food for birds [2][3][4].
Lavender is another great choice, with its fragrant, silvery foliage and lasting summer blooms. It attracts bees and butterflies, creating a calm environment around the bird bath without overpowering it [1][3]. In addition, birds forage for the seeds in spent flower heads, providing a valuable food source.
Agastache, also known as Hummingbird Mint or Hyssop, is a plant with tall, spiky, nectar-rich flowers in lavender, pink, or orange. It attracts hummingbirds and bees year-round, and its fragrant foliage helps repel pests [1].
Native berry-producing shrubs and trees such as blueberry bushes, crab apple trees, hawthorn, guelder rose, holly, and rowan provide natural food sources and shelter for birds [2][5].
Sunflowers, teasels, and native grasses (like Big Bluestem) produce seeds that attract seed-eating birds and provide cover [2][5].
Butterfly-friendly native wildflowers like bee balm, milkweed, and asters attract insect pollinators, which in turn feed birds [2][5].
Buttonbush, suitable for moist sites, is a native shrub that provides summer nectar for pollinators and nuts in winter for birds while offering good habitat around water features [4].
When choosing plants, prioritise native species suited to your local climate because they support native wildlife best and require less water and maintenance [2][4]. It's also important to ensure a mix of plants that bloom sequentially to provide nectar and seeds throughout the growing season, plus dense shrubs or grasses nearby to offer safe shelter and nesting sites [2][5].
Planting tall flowers around the bird bath, along with berry bushes and seedheads, creates an inviting environment that encourages birds to drink, bathe, feed, and take shelter in your wildlife garden.
In addition to these, Honeysuckle is an excellent choice for small gardens, as it smells delicious, has plenty of nectar, grows vertically, and provides berries for birds in autumn. Fountain grass not only adds aesthetic appeal to a garden but also provides nesting material for finches and sparrows. Ornamental grasses such as Angel Tails and Pheasants Tail Grass can be bought from Crocus.
Holly is a plant that feeds, shelters, and protects birds, offering both food and shelter all year round, and can be bought from various stores. Perennial Rudbeckia also leaves behind attractive seedheads in autumn and winter, providing an additional food source for birds.
In summary, the best approach is to plant a diverse mix of native flowering perennials (cone-flowers, agastache, lavender), seed-bearing annuals/perennials (sunflowers, teasels), and berry-producing shrubs or trees (holly, crab apple, rowan) near your bird bath to attract and support a variety of bird species year-round [1][2][3][4][5].
- By combining a variety of native flowers, such as coneflowers, agastache, and lavender, with seed-bearing plants like sunflowers and teasels, and berry-producing shrubs like holly and crab apple, you can transform your home-and-garden into a wildlife-friendly oasis, enriching your lifestyle with homegrown attractions for birds and other wildlife.
- To ensure a thriving and colorful home-and-garden that supports birdlife throughout the year, consider incorporating pollinator-attracting plants like honeysuckle, fountain grass, and ornamental grasses when improving your home-and-garden's lifestyle and design, selecting plants appropriate for your region's climate, and arranging them to provide food, shelter, and nesting sites for birds.
