Lake Big Fish

Lake
Big
Fish

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What is a Backyard Habitat? A Wildscape?

Good questions. A backyard habitat, and it's Texas cousin, a wildscape, is just that. It's a backyard, patio, or some other piece of green located in an urban area that provides the basics of life for birds, insects and any other little wild critters that may find it attractive. This means that you provide food (flowers, shrubs with berries, or feeding stations), water (a birdbath, or maybe a pond), shelter (trees, shrubs, birdhouses) and a place to nest (more trees, shrubs and birdhouses).

How did Lake Big Fish evolve into a registered habitat? I used to have a typical suburban yard. Grass, some ornamental shrubs and a pair of fast-growing, short-lived, ornamental trees. Not a lot of color and definately nothing to attract urban wildlife. I've always liked colorful gardens that attracted birds and butterflies, so after experimenting with various tropicals and other exotic plants that didn't survive the North Texas summers, I decided to go native. Several visits to the Heard Natural Science Museum annual native plant sale later, I had a riot of frog fruit for ground cover, morning (pink) and evening (yellow) primrose, a desert willow, 3 butterfly bushes, louisanna iris, blackfoot daisies, and a host of other native wildflowers. Unfortunately, not all of these plants have survived the past few years. Many of the smaller wildflowers were either trampled by Nikki and Murphy or lost when the pond was rebuilt. The butterfly bushes did not survive the past 2 summer droughts. But the primrose is attempting to take over the back yard and the frog fruit just keeps popping up in unexpected places.

One day, Kim & David at the local Wild Birds Unlimited (where I get all my birding supplies) told me about the The Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program. I picked up an application, and found that I met all of the criteria (food, water, shelter and nesting locations). The hardest part of the process was drawing a diagram of the yard and labeling all the plants, etc. Later I found out about the Texas Wildscape Program. This required a bit more work. I had to increase the percentage of native plants that I used. So I added some more mid-level shrubs, like nandine and pyrocanthia, that provide food sources for birds and other little critters, and some more native bog plants and grasses.

The rewards have been well worth it. The garden is always full of life. Butterflies and bees are constantly visiting and every year sees a new crop of baby birds. There are even tiny little field mice and green anoles (anoles are small chameleons native to the area; I released several pair of them in the habitat one year, and now there is quite a colony of them). The ecology has stabilized. The larger critters keep the smaller ones in check. The mice eat insects, seeds and berries. Murphy the Destructo Dog and Callie the brave hunting cat work to keep the mouse population down (they do get help from a local owl). The lizards eat more insects (the fish do, too!) and even the bird population suffers a loss or two to the local hawks (neighborhood cats are not a problem ... most of 'em are too wary of the dogs to come into the yard).

The Pond and The Arbor

There are 2 main features of the back yard portion of the habitat (Lake Big Fish is the name of the pond, but the habitat actually encompasses the entire homestead): the Pond and the Arbor. The arbor is full of Carolina Jessimine, orange trumpet vine (the native cultivar is yellow) and honeysuckle. The trumpet vine has grown so much that it has added at least 6 additional feet to the height of the arbor. The main trunks have twined around each other to form a solid, woody, stem that rises up from the southeast corner of the arbor; the honeysuckle still has control of the northeast corner and both western corners still belong to the Jessimine. And then there are the blue morning glories. It all started with a few plants grown from a seed packet tossed in the sunflower stand under the arbor. Now the morning glories have created a jungle, crawling up the arbor like kudzu and jumping across the pond to the back fence. There are morning glories everywhere! Ghostfish

Lake Big Fish is nestled in the northwest corner of the yard. Besides providing a water source, it is also a mini-ecosystem. The main pond features water lilies, lizard tail and pickerel rush. The bog area utilizes iris and bog hibiscus to provide natural filtration. Native grasses and wildflowers border the pond. Lake Big Fish is home to a shoal of goldfish Feeding Frenzy and a slew of mosquito fish (and you thought goldfish and koi were pigs! These guys will steal the food out of a goldfish's mouth!) Mosquito fish are live bearers and breed very quickly. I think the females are born pregnant! Every summer I give them away by the bucketfull.

Tub Gardens and Wildflowers

The only people who have a single pond are people who are beginning ponders. Since I've been at this a while, not only is there a pond in the back yard, but there are 3 tub gardens in the front yard and a moisture garden in the back yard. Tub gardens One of the larger tubs holds cattails and the other has a yellow water lily. The smaller tub has a deep pink minature lily. The moisture garden has more cattails, some frog fruit and sunflowers.

Since the dogs trample anything smaller than they are, I decided to put wildflower gardens in the front yard. Rather than pull the existing landscaping, I simply dug new beds in the middle of the lawn. These beds feature Texas primrose, various Salvias, daisies, monarda and coeropsis. But by mid-summer the highlight of the front gardens are the partridge peas. Every morning there are thousands of bright yellow flowers ... and hundreds of huge black and yellow bumblebees!

Creating your own Wildlife Habitat

As you can see, it does require some work to create a urban wildlife habitat. But if you want to bring the beauty of nature into your life, it's one of the best ways that I know. For more information, contact the organizations listed below. If you don't live in Texas, contact the Parks Department for your state; they may have a Wildlife Habitat program, too. Another excellent resource is the Windstar Wildlife Institute (visit the Wildlife Habitat demonstation site at Windstar Farm in Frederick County, Maryland).

NWF Backyard Wildlife Habitat
The National Wildlife Federation has several good habitat programs. They even have a Schoolyard Habitat program.

Texas Wildscapes
Texas Parks and Wildlife also have a home site with lots of good information on designing wildscapes. Even if you're not in Texas, there is a lot of good information here that applies to anyone creating an urban wildlife habitat.

The Humane Society of the United States also has an Urban Wildlife Sanctuary Program. For more information, please visit the HSUS web site.

Other Habitats on the Web

I've found some other backyard habitats on the web.

Dirty, wet and green pages

If you are looking for either fish or garden pond related links, two of best places to start are the North Texas Water Garden Society and Pond Rushes (Chuck Rush's home page). Chuck also has excellent information on pond design and construction.

The North Texas Garden Railway Consortium - I'd like a railway in the garden running around the pond. Maybe I could get one of the cats to ride the flatcar!

Aristo-Craft Trains Internet Depot - Well, a girl can dream, can't she?

The Very Small Pond - John's got a pond AND a train! I love this guy!

Stein's Virtual Herbarium - If you want to find out more about native plants, this is the place to go! Beautiful photography! And check out the bugs, too.

The Master Gardener - This is the Master Gardener program at Texas A&M.

Conservation Links

18 March 2002