Chickadees Go Airstream in Long-standing Backyard Habitat
Wan and Edwin Marsh of Charlotte NC
Twenty-eight years ago Wan Marsh made lists of her backyard plants to complete a simple form. She and husband Edwin had shrubs to provide cover for birds and tasty berries for food. They set out bird baths for water, and whimsical houses for nesting spots. In 1987, when they certified their backyard in the Madison Park neighborhood of Charlotte as an official wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation, they did not know they were beginning a local movement.
Today their 1/3 acre urban wildlife magnet is only one among more than 900 such certifications in Charlotte, helping to qualify the entire city as a Community Wildlife Habitat.
During a recent visit to the Marsh home, the couple made it clear that gardening for wildlife has been part of their way of life for nearly three decades. Even with an in-ground pool and separate art studio for Wan, their small backyard still teems with plant life and all the avian visitors that go with it. A wide variety of shrubs, perennials, and herbs hide the back fence and scatter color in every nook and cranny of the yard. A towhee calls from the treetops and a brown thrasher flits beneath a bird bath.
“Start with water,” Wan advises any would-be wildlife gardeners. “It will attract more than you can imagine.” Not a fan of bird feeders, she has had great success letting her wild cherry tree flourish to feed wildlife, as well as a towering red cedar, and the many annual and perennial flowers that go to seed in late summer and fall.
“They also come to eat all the little insects in the bushes,” Edwin points out as he waves an arm across an entire back border of shrubbery. A large Oak Leaf Hydrangea peeks out between a variety of native and ornamental plants. Arborvitae and juniper provide cover for songbirds as well as “grandmother’s spiraea”. A palmetto waves in the breeze beneath one of several rustic birdhouses.
Among the Marsh’s favorites is a bird house shaped like their own Air Stream trailer. Apparently the local chickadees favor it too, by nesting there each spring. By early April there are already characteristic moss samples in the bottom of the hanging “trailer”.
The couple has enjoyed hearing and seeing tree frogs, chipmunks, rabbit, anoles, raccoon and hawks in their habitat, and they’re often entertained by bats swirling above the swimming pool at dusk. Wan suspects the local pair of barred owls are actually nesting in a hole in their front yard willow oak.
Several planters filled with herbs also decorate the area. “I always plant three times what I need of parsley,” Wan explains. “That way there’s some for me, and the rest for the caterpillars.” She also attracts butterflies with Joe Pye Weed, rhudbeckia, coneflower and coreopsis.
Even though she was a Master Gardener for 10 years, Wan emphasizes the fun of experimenting with plants. “It’s trial and error: you learn by doing,” she says. “Everything is not going to work, but you find out what does work. Just do it. That’s my advice.
“You would never know we are five miles from downtown Charlotte,” she exclaims. “We’ve made this a very secluded area.” And it’s one that she and Edwin seem to enjoy sharing with many wild creatures that others may never even see.
Today their 1/3 acre urban wildlife magnet is only one among more than 900 such certifications in Charlotte, helping to qualify the entire city as a Community Wildlife Habitat.
During a recent visit to the Marsh home, the couple made it clear that gardening for wildlife has been part of their way of life for nearly three decades. Even with an in-ground pool and separate art studio for Wan, their small backyard still teems with plant life and all the avian visitors that go with it. A wide variety of shrubs, perennials, and herbs hide the back fence and scatter color in every nook and cranny of the yard. A towhee calls from the treetops and a brown thrasher flits beneath a bird bath.
“Start with water,” Wan advises any would-be wildlife gardeners. “It will attract more than you can imagine.” Not a fan of bird feeders, she has had great success letting her wild cherry tree flourish to feed wildlife, as well as a towering red cedar, and the many annual and perennial flowers that go to seed in late summer and fall.
“They also come to eat all the little insects in the bushes,” Edwin points out as he waves an arm across an entire back border of shrubbery. A large Oak Leaf Hydrangea peeks out between a variety of native and ornamental plants. Arborvitae and juniper provide cover for songbirds as well as “grandmother’s spiraea”. A palmetto waves in the breeze beneath one of several rustic birdhouses.
Among the Marsh’s favorites is a bird house shaped like their own Air Stream trailer. Apparently the local chickadees favor it too, by nesting there each spring. By early April there are already characteristic moss samples in the bottom of the hanging “trailer”.
The couple has enjoyed hearing and seeing tree frogs, chipmunks, rabbit, anoles, raccoon and hawks in their habitat, and they’re often entertained by bats swirling above the swimming pool at dusk. Wan suspects the local pair of barred owls are actually nesting in a hole in their front yard willow oak.
Several planters filled with herbs also decorate the area. “I always plant three times what I need of parsley,” Wan explains. “That way there’s some for me, and the rest for the caterpillars.” She also attracts butterflies with Joe Pye Weed, rhudbeckia, coneflower and coreopsis.
Even though she was a Master Gardener for 10 years, Wan emphasizes the fun of experimenting with plants. “It’s trial and error: you learn by doing,” she says. “Everything is not going to work, but you find out what does work. Just do it. That’s my advice.
“You would never know we are five miles from downtown Charlotte,” she exclaims. “We’ve made this a very secluded area.” And it’s one that she and Edwin seem to enjoy sharing with many wild creatures that others may never even see.
Layers of perennials and shrubs combine to make a wildlife haven, even in an urban area.
