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BACK YARD WILDLIFE HABITAT:
Bammel Timbers, Houston, Texas

Our backyard is beginning to attract birds, butterflies and bees to what had previously been a rather ordinary residential back yard.

It all began when we bought a new home that appeared to have a drainage problem. The backyard, which was the leaching field for the septic system, was constantly wet and one section was a virtual swamp. Well, drainage problems can be solved, so we bought the house anyway.

After much investigating, we came to the conclusion that the ground was 'used up' – that it have become clogged with fine particles from the septic system effluent over the course of twenty years. Now the soil seemed incapable of doing what was being demanded of it by the rain and septic system outflow.

Solution: I dug out part of the lawn to create a minature wetland, deposting the excavated soil to one side to create a raised dry bed area. The excavated area was filled with bullrock and gravel and edged with waterloving plants - ginger, iris, elephants ears, etc. The raised bed was planted with conventional plants and flowers to attract bees and butterflies. Backdrop to this is tall shrubbery, that the birds like, and huge pecan trees and oaks populated by squirrels. In fact, the whole neighborhood was once a pecan plantation and some of the mature trees are over 60' tall and possibly more than 100 years old.

Our property is one-third of an acre and much of it is lawn. This project - the mini-wetland - is just the first of several planned projects to reduce the lawn area and develop habitat more conducive to attracting wildlife. In fact, we have already begun to attract birds, butterflies, bees, frogs and lizards, to what had previously been a rather ordinary and sterile full lawn residential lot.

How we did it.

Visitors to our Backyard Habitat.