Have you ever wished you could attract more interesting birds to your garden? Would you like to see more of those “flying jewels” called butterflies? These creatures all have certain basic requirements that you as a gardener can easily supply: food, shelter, water, and a safe place for their children. And native plants are a major component of these needs.

Birds have a diverse diet, including insects, seeds, and fruits. You can help provide the fruit part by planting a variety of native trees and shrubs that produce fruits over a long season. Juneberry is a lovely small tree that provides ripe berries early in the year (June), while most others ripen their fruits in late summer. The dogwoods and spicebush fruits are available during the high-needs time of fall migration, while the chokeberry and winterberry holly produce fruits that last well into the winter and are available for overwintering birds.

Birds need plentiful supply of insects to feed their babies in spring. Those insects come, in turn, from a wide variety of native plants that supply the insects’ needs (do you see a food web forming here?). Obviously, if you try hard to rid your garden of all insects through poisoning, you will be removing one major food source for birds.

Seed-eating finches, among others, feast heavily in the fall and winter on our native warm-season grasses, as well as the seed heads of the beautiful summer-flowering purple cone flower, goldenrod, black-eyed Susan, and blazing star. These are just a few of the many attractive plants you could include in your garden plantings that will stock the grocery shelves for your bird friends.

Many of the plants that are advertised as “butterfly attractive” are really good nectar sources that provide food for adult butterflies as well as hummingbirds, bees, and others. Some early spring examples are spice bush, maples, and violets. Late summer examples are purple cone flower, Joe Pye weed, and asters. Many others, like the coral honeysuckle vine, flower in between. An assortment of these flowers blooming over the whole growing season will ensure a steady supply of food for these creatures.

Butterflies have very specific requirements for the rearing of young. These are so specific that most species of butterfly can use only one kind of plant on which they lay their eggs and their larvae grow to maturity—their larval host plant. One of the best known of these is the association between the monarch butterfly and milkweed plants, but there are many others. If you want butterflies to truly make a home in your garden, you must offer them their required plants. The zebra swallowtail uses the pawpaw tree. Guess which plant the spicebush swallowtail uses? Several members of the skipper family use native grasses as their larval host. And the beautiful great spangled fritillary uses the humble violets in our lawns. Makes you think twice about trying to get rid of the violets, doesn’t it?

Now, you already have plants in your garden that may not be filling the needs of these creatures. Do you have to remove everything and start fresh? Not at all! You might be wise to remove the most invasive offenders that are trying to take over everything (Japanese honeysuckle and ailanthus/tree of heaven come to mind). Then simply add a few of these important food sources over the next several months: a tree here, a shrub or two there, a group of flowering perennials or grasses in a sunny bed over there.

All you have to do to make your garden “bird and butterfly friendly” is to supply some water, some berry and seed sources, a few of the larval host plants, and several flowering nectar sources. Then you can sit back with your field guides and watch them come.

Virginia Winston operates a small nursery that specializes in native trees and shrubs. Call for an appointment. She will host an open house on Saturday and Sunday, May 17–18, from 10 am to 3 pm. Everyone is invited. Call or email for directions and a plant list. Virginia (Provenzano) Winston Landscape Design and Garden; (304) 267-6924; virginia@winstongardens.com; winstongardens.com.