Designing Your Garden to Draw Colorful Hummingbirds

By B. E. Conrad

One of the chief benefits of a luscious and beautiful garden is the fact that it can provide a home to all sorts of creatures, including some of the most beautiful birds in the neighborhood. In fact, there are ways to design and build the garden landscape with your feathered friends in mind, so if you want to bring hummingbirds to your garden, read on.

Hummingbirds are among the most beautiful, and the most intriguing, of all birds, due in part of course to their remarkable ability to hover in one place merely by flapping their wings. It is no wonder that so many people find hummingbirds so breathtakingly beautiful.

Fortunately for the gardener, it's not difficult to create a garden landscape that these wonderful birds will find hard to resist. In order to draw those hummingbirds and keep them in your garden over the winter, it is important to provide them with what they need. In addition to the standard hummingbird feeder and attractive plants, you will need to provide some additional touches to keep your feathered friends happy and healthy.

For instance, when designing your hummingbird friendly garden, choose plants that will continue to bear fragrant flowers many times throughout the spring, summer and fall months. Having lots of flowers around is one of the most critical factors when it comes to drawing hummingbirds to your garden landscape. After all, these tiny birds feed on nectar, and that nectar comes from flowers.

Hummingbirds are particularly attracted to those plants that bear trumpet shaped or tubular shaped flowers, especially if those flowers are orange or red in color. Some favorite flowers among the hummingbird set include rhododendrons, azaleas and Rose of Sharon bushes.

Some of the best summer blossoms for keeping those spring hummingbirds coming back include bleeding hearts, petunias, trumpet honeysuckle, trumpet vines, impatiens and morning glories.

When the summer fades and autumn shows its colors, butterfly bushes, daylilies and garden phlox will help keep those hummingbirds satisfied.

Even though the flowers you plant will be the main attraction in the hummingbird friendly garden, it is of course important to provide your favorite birds with a steady source of fresh clean water. Hummingbirds are quite different from other types of birds, in that they rarely use the traditional bird bath. Hummingbirds instead prefer a cool mist, and smart gardeners can use a misting wand on their garden hose, or a small garden fountain, to provide the moisture hummingbirds crave so much.

Providing a nesting area for hummingbirds will help ensure that they remain with you throughout the winter, so it is a good idea to design such a shelter into your garden landscape. Hummingbirds will look for a good shelter in which to hide from predators, as well as a number of small branches on which to perch. Adding a few tall bushes or trees to the landscape can provide the hummingbirds who visit your garden with what they need.

As for feeders, be sure to choose a feeder specifically designed for hummingbirds. There are many commercially available hummingbird feeders, as well as a number of kits to help gardeners build their own feeders. When shopping for a hummingbird feeder, look for one that holds about eight ounces of sugar water.

It is generally best to use two to four small feeders scattered throughout the landscape, rather than a single large feeder. Hummingbirds are very territorial birds, and having several feeders scattered about will help to provide everyone with a chance to eat. Numerous small feeders will also help the garden to attract more hummingbirds.

After you have designed your garden landscape for hummingbirds, all you need do is keep those feeders full and wait for these magnificent and fascinating birds to pay you a visit.

© Doityourself.com 2006