Those first steps, planning a garden and acquiring plants, doing the research, etc. are always so exciting. Even after gardening here for 30+ years, I still think I like planning best! Good luck and well done: the wildlife will love you for it. PS: Best way to attract wildlife to any garden, no matter how small, is to have a water source. A small pond, even a tub filled with water and a few plants will do the trick.

I do have a ground-level bird bath. I saw a robin splash around in it yesterday, and it displaced a couple of house sparrows that kept wanting to get a drink. The squirrels drink from it, too, and I think deer that visit overnight and in the early morning do their part.

The deer would topple over the bird feeder hangers because they absolutely loved eating it. It (the bird feeder) was right beside the birdbath, so they'd drink from that while chowing down the bird's food. We'd always have to put it back up. Now we just do bread for the birds now. My kids love it when the wild scrub jays perch on their shoulders and eat from their hands.