20160826C.jpg
If you build it, they will come!

They say cleanliness is next to godliness… but Mother Nature certainly wouldn’t agree!

It may look messy, but a brush pile – an accumulation of branches of various lengths, dead leaves, a few logs, maybe other vegetable waste – makes an excellent shelter for a whole host of garden friends.

20160826b
All sorts of interesting animals will be attracted to a brush pile.

For example, small birds will shelter there in bad weather and many butterflies look for exactly this kind of habitat so they can overwinter. Toads, shrews, ground beetles and other nocturnal animals will find a brush pile an ideal spot to spend the day. And woodpeckers come to feed on larvae hiding under the bark of the dead branches.

You don’t have to place your “wildlife brush pile” in full view if you fear that your neighbors may complain. Put the pile in a back corner, in a wooded area, or in some other inconspicuous location. Don’t worry: no matter where you place it, your animal friends will find it.

Inviting Nature to Your Garden

It is through small gestures like this – others include planting flowers for butterflies and bees, leaving flower stalks standing in the fall and winter to feed birds, letting leaves remain where they fall in a wooded spot to serve as a hiding place for salamanders and earthworms, etc. – that you can re-invite nature in your garden… and into your life!20160826C

Garden writer and blogger, author of 65 gardening books, lecturer and communicator, the Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, passed away in October 2022. Known for his great generosity, his thoroughness and his sense of humor, he reached several generations of amateur and professional gardeners over his 40-year career. Thanks to his son, Mathieu Hodgson, and a team of contributors, laidbackgardener.blog will continue its mission of demystifying gardening and making it more accessible to all.

0 comments on “Brush Piles Attract Wildlife

Leave a Reply

Sign up for the Laidback Gardener blog and receive articles in your inbox every morning!