I live on 15 acres in the Pacific Northwest. The front 5 acres has been primarily fields for livestock, and the back 10 acres is a woodlot along a salmon bearing stream, with a man-built pond adjacent to it. About 10 years ago we opted out of large animals and now mow our fields about twice a year mainly to control the invasive blackberry population. It has been very interesting to see what plants are colonizing themselves. I have also been planting natives and cleaning up the trees to create brushpiles. We have deer, coyotes, bobcats, squirrels, weasels, and beavers. Occasionally we get visiting river otter. Neighbors have spotted bear, but I have not (thankfully, they terrify me). The pond attracts various water fowl - mallards, buffleheads, wood ducks, herons, Canadian geese. Bald eagles fish in the pond and creek, especially in the fall when the salmon are spawning. I am also introducing more native plants into my cultivated gardens and have been rewarded with more songbirds. We just started a native restoration project through our local Conservation District; I plan to take photos today and begin a separate thread to follow that.

I'm in the Central Texas Hill Country just north of San Antonio. We bought a house last year on about 2.5 acres that the previous owner let get away (landscaping wise). I'm learning about Texas native plants and experimenting with several across the various different micro-climates on my property.

Biggest enemy for me is deer...they tend to browse on many things, including a lot of juvenile plants. Armadillos and other creatures occasionally do some unpaid "aeration".

Hello everyone,
Although not new to Garden.org & Dave's forums, it has been many years since I was active. I live in north/west central Texas - in Brown County - which is sort of between Waco and Abilene. Although I live in town, we are in a very rural area and the town is very small, so all sorts of wildlife come through my yard.

I love having habitat for the birds, especially, and we are blessed with a great many. I also am "challenged" by deer and an armadillo who comes back every year. Glad to see this forum, and I hope it takes off.

What are the rules about posting links? I have a You Tube channel, and I've made a couple of videos about creating wildlife habitats in the yard.

Tina

Sounds interesting! I'd love to check it out...

Thanks Larry. I went through and followed the National Wildlife Federation's guide for creating a habitat, then made a little video of it to encourage other people to do so in their own yards.

Congratulations on your new place! Sounds like you are having fun with it - those challenges are so satisfying when we solve them! I don't have the same kind of deer troubles that you are facing, but they will steal every tomato just as it ripens, even though we live in town. The best thing I have found so far is to surround my vegetable garden with Deer-X netting. I zip tie it to T posts and it is invisible from a few feet away. As long as nothing grows near it to give them perspective on its height, it keeps them out (scares them - they don't know they can jump over it because they can't tell where it ends). I attach it at the top and middle, let it puddle on the ground, lift it up over the T posts to mow, and drop it back down.

Tina

Great! Hopefully you can post the YouTube link. I actually just got some tomato plants from a friend - I do have a very small enclosed area that I have a small amount of veggies in ... right now radishes, zucchini, and carrots. But I'll admit vegetable growing is not my strength right now

I consider our tiny yard to be a native habitat in what may be a very rationalized way, IDK. I allow natives that I like, try to prevent invasive exotics from taking up residence, don't use any 'cides, try to plant as many nectar-yielding plants as possible, keep dishes of water during periods of drought, installing more shrubs for lower-level shelter, but do cultivate some non-native plants and in-town zoning requires the non-bed areas to be mowed frequently. The wild plants and animals found in my yard are mostly of the very small kind, frogs, anoles, geckos, squirrels, all manner of flying things, occasional snake, possum, armadillo.

I think you are doing very well Tiffany

TYVM, Josephine! :+)

Bonehead, I liked reading about your property. It sounds fantastic.

I'm on Tiffany's level- a suburban yard that I try to maintain in a native insect, bird, critter, plant friendly way. We have good songbird action, and a bluebird house in use. Just added a bat house.

Sounds peaceful, Sally.

Our birdbath gets a lot of use, and I see squirrels drinking from it often.

Embarrassed to say I just now found this forum
Would like to see it grow
I think my place fits in here

I have almost 7 acres with creek as back property boundary.
The bottom 4 ac has been let go wild . We have all kinds of wildlife and I also use it as a release site for the local wildlife rehab.
As I grow older and slower more and more is left to go wild. The horses are gone so the once pasture has become a grassland/ native prairie/wildflower meadow. The owls and birds of prey have really enjoyed the rodent population in the tall grass. Right now the butterflies and bees are enjoying the native thistles in bloom and soon the birds will be fighting for the seeds.

Will be watching to see how others are helping to "Go Native "

Cinda, this has been kind of a low-key forum, likely because there is not so much 'management' for a native habitat. Photos are always welcome.

Hi, I guess I'm just slow to read down the forum list. I joined NGA last fall and am embarrassingly inconsistent in checking in on it, so I just discovered this thread. We live in a town that is on the outskirts of Atlanta, so hot and humid. We have 2.5 acres on a small river with old-growth trees in the back and a subdivision lawn in the front. I am trying to take up more of the front lawn with gardens, but like many of you, deer are my nemesis.
The view out the back toward the river is absolutely beautiful, but the former owners removed every understory tree and shrub and were trying to grow a lawn on the forest floor! In the two years, we have been here we have planted many understory trees and shrubs, some with success, some eaten to the ground by the deer or taken by the beaver. We spend a lot of time removing invasives and have stopped mowing under the trees and it has been amazing to watch the natives sprout. We have calico aster, wild petunia, several nice sedges, cardinal flower, hearts-a-Bustin, rough sunflower, wingstem, and others. The critters are red fox, river cooters (turtles), we think a river otter - it's a little too fast for our trail camera, we only get a picture of the tail! Also, lots of birds and several butterfly species and we have a koi pond with only 4 fish, but they are about 16-18 inches long each and bullfrogs to serenade us at night.

sounds like a beautiful place to share with nature