Start Your Own Hummingbird Garden

One of the most pleasant, relaxing, and rewarding types of gardens to have is a hummingbird garden. The garden alone is attractive to view, so attractive that you don't need anything else to make it a delight. But when you add in the hummingbirds, it is unimaginably spectacular. I can watch hummingbirds for hours, mesmerized by their flight and feeding. If you have ever seen one, you know what I am talking about, and no doubt, if you have even the slightest tinge of a green thumb, you will want to create your own.

It's really rather simple to create a hummingbird garden. All you need are the right plants, flowers, and shrubbery, a little designing, and some feeders. Of course, the plants make all the difference, and the design will be up to you. I can help you with choice, however.

Some flowers and plants were just made for the hummingbird. In fact, many of them depend on the hummingbird for pollination. One of the top websites about hummingbirds, Operation Ruby Throat at www.rubythroat.org lists the best plants for your garden. They are categorized as Native Plants, which were the natural plants of choice in a hummingbird habitat, and Exotic Plants, which were later introduced by man.

The Natural Plants include: Trumpet Creeper, Beebalm, Trumpet Honeysuckle, Cardinal Flower, Spotted Jewelweed, Red Columbine, Canada Lily, Indian Pink, Red Buckeye, and Mountain Rosebay.

The Exotic Plants include: Pineapple Sage, Giant Blue Sage, Cypress Vine, Shrimp Plant, Mimosa, Shrub Verbena, Butterfly Bush, Rose of Sharon, Common Foxglove, and Cigar Plant.

Many of these have long tubular, nectar filled flowers that the hummingbirds love. What is left to you is the arrangement and placement. Try to use color patterns and once in place don't change them. Hummingbirds find their food by sight and will remember a garden based on its pattern. You will want to also create both areas of sunlight and shade. These will be needed in attracting the hummingbirds and keeping them there. They will only build their nests in shade.

As a word of caution, you should never use pesticides in your garden. Not only will they kill small bugs that hummingbirds depend on for protein, but they may kill the hummingbirds as well.

In addition, you will want to have some bird baths around with fresh water and, of course, a few hummingbird feeders will help as well. The Garden Helper (www.thegardenhelper.com) recommends that feeders be spaced out in 30 foot intervals and colored bright red, which will attract the hummingbirds. The hummingbird feeders should only be filled with sugar water at a ratio of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Never use anything else.

Using these simple tips, you should be able to design a hummingbird garden of your own that will attract and keep hummingbirds for your viewing pleasure. It is really an amazing sight and the sound will send tingles down your spine.