Stop Cleaning the Garden

One thing a gardener needs to learn when creating a backyard habitat is to stop tidying up the place. Leave leaf litter. Not only does it save the hassle of raking, it provides a place for insects to live which will then attract salamanders, turtles, toads and lady bugs which feed on these insects. Birds such as thrushes and towhee forage in leaf litter.

Another thing to leave laying about a garden or wooded area are tree stumps. If they aren’t in the way or you can plant a nice shrub over it, leave the stump be. Set a container plant on it, grow ivy over it. Rotting wood, fallen trees and stumps they leave behind are natural habitat for wildlife. A nice decaying tree stump is a great place to harbor meals for birds, snakes and herps. Not only that chipmunks love building their tunnels through rotting tree roots. It’s a favorite place for chipmunks to make their homes so if you’d like to keep them from digging tunnels in other areas, provide alternative housing by not cleaning up.

A tree that fell and was left to rot is now the home of a chipmunk.

Another chipmunk family lives in a wooded area where we were thinning out trees but left the stump.

In a more sunny location a pine was cut down. It became a chipmunk house but was abandoned. A rat snake now lives in it. There are a lot of rat snakes here which means no rats.

This tree rotted and died in an overcrowded area of the woods. We left it there and it is a chipmunk home.

When we first moved in two years ago I had difficulties with chipmunks wanting to live under my foundation. A little cleaning up in the woods and creating a friendly environment for them in the woods – and a less friendly environment about my immediate home – has encouraged them to stay out there and not around my house.

And more chipmunks in the woods….