Introduce bats to your garden

Mexican free-tailed bat

Bats eat night-flying insects and are good garden pollinators, as well.  If you would like to attract bats to your garden, you may want to introduce flowers to your garden that bloom late afternoon or at dusk and are night-scented.  Bats are drawn to night-pollinating insects, like moths, for food.




Here are a few plant suggestions to encourage bats to visit your landscape:

Evening primrose
Fleabane
Four O’clock
Goldenrod
Moonflower
Phlox
Salvia Nicotiana
Silene catchfly

More tips for a bat garden:

Dead trees provide a good habitat for bats. In addition to being a good roosting spot, dead trees provide a place for insects to gather. In lieu of a dead tree, erect a bat house.

Fragrant perennial vines climbing the walls and fences in your garden will provide additional bat roosting sites. Create a sheltered corner by using walls, fences, or hedges grown at angles.

Garden lights will attract insects and provide food for the bats. Bats eat various garden and pests including cutworm moths, and chafer, potato, and spotted cucumber beetles. Some moths can even detect bats and will avoid an area where bats are present.

Bat guano is a wonderful fertilizer for your garden.

Image: The Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), also known as the Brazilian free-tailed bat, is a medium-sized bat that is native to the Americas and is widely regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America.

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Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden.  If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog.

Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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Garden plants for allergy sufferers

- by Debra Anchors

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, seasonal allergies affect 22 million Americans each year, while 12 to 15 million suffer with asthma. Pollen is often a garden-lover’s worst nightmare.

Dr. Jeffrey Sugar, a board-certified allergist, explains that trees such as oaks, maples, and birches lead to spring allergy symptoms. Grasses, such as those found along roadsides, cause problems in June and July; and weeds, especially ragweed, trigger symptoms between August and the first frost.

Not all flowers produce allergenic pollen. You may need to forgo a favorite flower or two, but you will find many low-allergy plant options with which to create a lovely garden.


Low-allergen plant choices –

Crab apple
Daylily
Delphinium
Hollyhock
Mealy-cup sage (and other sages such as scarlet sage)
Pansy
Peony
Petunia
Snapdragon
Tulip tree

Plants to avoid –

Asters

Birch trees

Cosmos

Daisies

Flowering tobacco

Foxglove

Garden mums

Grasses

Lantana

Marigold

Ragweed

Spider flower

Sunflower

Zinnia

Image Note: False color scanning electron microscope image of pollen grains from a variety of common plants: sunflower, morning glory, prairie hollyhock, oriental lily, evening primrose and castor bean.  Public domain image (created by the Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility).

If you enjoy this website, you might like my magazine, Gardening Life.

Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden.  If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog.

Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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Do squirrels have the run of your garden?

- by Debra Anchors

Although squirrels are a constant challenge for gardeners, they are fun to watch as they leap along their treetop sky-ways. Squirrels are sometimes able to glide their way 20 feet from a tree branch to a target, which unfortunately is often a “squirrel-proof” bird feeder.

Tips

Female squirrels scout for safe resting areas and will take advantage of an opportunity (a rotten board, open vent, or hole) to enter an attic. Once inside, they may gnaw through insulation, wall boards, and wiring. If squirrels are present in your yard, check your attic for entry points and cover holes with metal or mesh before a squirrel uses it as an entrance.

Protect your tiny bulbs by tucking them inside wire baskets made of screening or chicken wire. Surround them with crushed gravel to deter squirrels from digging.

Place bird feeders on a pole in a clearing and use a baffle to stop squirrel raids (you may need to use a baffle below and above the feeder).

To protect fruit trees, the Humane Society of the United States recommends that you trim any branches less than six feet from the ground and wrap a two-foot-wide band of sheet metal around the trunk about six feet above the ground. Dwarf trees can be covered with netting. Remember that if there are nearby trees, roofs, or other access points, squirrels can and will make the leap.

If you would like to attract squirrels, purchase a special squirrel feeder. Fill the feeder with a treat, such as peanuts in the shell, and locate it far from other feeders in your garden.  A “lift-top” type of feeder box requires the squirrel to figure out how to operate it and is great entertainment.  Squirrels utilize nesting boxes for shelter and raising their families. Purchase one with a three-inch entry hole located on the side of the box to provide easy access.

If you enjoy this website, you might like my magazine, Gardening Life.

Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden.  If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog.

Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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