Last week, I listed the kinds of plants you need to consider if you want to attract wildlife to your garden and talked about conifers, grasses and plants that provide nectar.
Like you and me, wildlife wants something to eat every day, all year long. Consequently, one of your goals should be to establish plants that will provide food in each season.
Any of you who have tried to grow fruit for your own use know that getting any before the wildlife does is a challenge. Just about any fruit you might like to eat will also be relished by wildlife. In addition, there are plants that provide fruit in the form of berries, drupes or pomes that may or may not be edible for us, but can form an important part of the diet for many species of wildlife.
Plants native to your area that provide fruit of one sort or another will encourage the wildlife that are already used to that fruit as part of their diet in the wild. Many of these natives are attractive and garden-worthy. However, many are also aggressive and can become weedy. Some plants, like poison ivy, make berries relished by the birds who deposit seed all over the place. These species are not desirable in the garden, no matter how much the wildlife likes them. Some natives are just plain scraggly. If you have a lot of land, go ahead and devote some space to these unpretentious plants, but select something with visual merit as well as fruit for your important borders.
As you weigh the merits of this plant or that, be aware of their habits and think about just how much effort you are willing or able to put into keeping them under control. Non-native plants can also be aggressive. In fact, just about anything that sets copious fruit generally sets viable seed, and if it does you will find that you will need to pull unwanted seedlings. Think hard about introducing plants that spread rapidly via underground roots; you may spend the rest of your days trying to eradicate them as they gleefully go about taking over your garden. If your garden space is limited, be cautious about plants that sucker or are labeled "vigorous," "easy" or "spreads." In nursery-speak these terms mean an aggressive plant that may turn out to be a problem. Now, aggressive plants have their place and I grow a lot of them, so I'm not telling you to never get a plant that wants to cover ground. Just do your homework before you buy so you know what to expect.
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