A Wild Shrubbery

To attract more wildlife to your yard you can plant a native shrub hedge. This plan furnishes shelter for wildlife while also providing fruit for birds and nectar for butterflies and bees. This plan includes 100ft x 25ft of space with 27 shrubs of 16 species.

To attract the widest diversity of birds to the garden provide fruiting trees throughout the year. Fragrant sumac, golden current, fringe tree, service berry, and wild plum all have fruit during the summer months. In fall spicebush, pagoda dogwood, and sassafrass will attract migrating flocks of birds. For winter resident birds plant beauty berry, winter berry, and blackhaw viburnum to contribute fruit that lasts through the cold months.

Providing sources of pollen and nectar throughout the year for insects will attract more butterflies and bees. Early nectar sources are spicebush, fragrant sumac, service berry, and wild plum. Wild hydrangea, New Jersey tea, and pagoda dogwood bloom in summer. Vernal witch hazel blooms in the middle of winter on warm days to produce necessary food for early insects. Hummingbirds will find nectar from golden current and red buckeye.

Native shrubs are also valuable host plants for butterflies. The spicebush is the host plant for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly and the wafer ash is host to the giant swallowtail butterfly. The fragrant sumac is host for the red-banded hairstreak butterfly and the regal moth. On wild plum look for caterpillars of hairstreaks, viceroys, cecropia, and sphinxs moths.

A landscape design is never one size fits all. Notice on this design that the plants that like a wetter environment are on the right and drier on the left. The plan can be adapted to fit the space available. Be sure to purchase shrubs that are the true native and not a cultivar that might not provide the same ecosystem services.

Plant list:

4 beauty berry, Callicarpa americana, plant on 3ft centers

3 fragrant sumac, Rhus aromatica, plant on 3ft centers

2 wild hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens, plant on 3ft centers

3 New Jersey tea, Ceanothus americanus, plant on 3ft centers

2 golden current, Ribes odoratum, plant on 4ft centers 

1 vernal witch hazel, Hamamelis vernalis, plant on 6ft centers

2 winter berry, Ilex verticillata, plant on 10ft centers

2 spicebush, Lindera benzoin, plant on 10ft centers

1 red buckeye, Aesculus pavia, plant on 10ft centers

1 blackhaw viburnum, Viburnum prunifolium, plant on 12ft centers 1 pagoda dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, plant on 15ft centers

1 fringe tree, Chionanthus virginicus, plant on 15ft centers

1 service berry, Amelanchier arborea, plant on 15ft centers

1 wafer ash - Ptelea trifoliata, plant on 15ft centers

1 sassafrass, Sassafras albidum, plant on 15ft centers   1 wild plum, Prunus americana, plant on 20ft centers