Creating a Hummingbird Garden

If you enjoy hummingbirds and would like to see more of those little guys zipping around your yard, you may want to set up a hummingbird garden to attract more of them. A hummingbird garden can be enjoyed by the entire family. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Location

A hummingbird garden can be as large as several acres or as little as a window box. You will most likely want to position the garden in a place where you can see it in order to enjoy them. You will want to give them both sun and shade so that they can fly around in the sun but take a rest in the cool shade when they need to.

Flowers and Trees

Hummingbirds like bright, colorful, tubular or trumpet shaped flowers filled with nectar. Red and fuschia flowers in particular are favorites among hummingbirds. Since hummingbirds have no sense of smell, you don't have to worry about what the flower smells like. Some other flowers often found in hummingbird gardens are honeysuckle, azalea, petunias, morning glory and delphinium. You may want to check with your local nursery to see what else does well in your area since there are hundreds of different plants that attract hummingbirds. If you can find plants that bloom various times of the year this will help to keep the hummingbirds around your garden longer. You may want to also keep some hummingbird feeders around for the times that the flowers are not in bloom. Some trees that are good for a hummingbird garden include bottle brush, eucalyptus, and willow trees. These trees can provide nesting material for them to use in their nests.

Benefits

A great benefit to a hummingbird garden is that there is minimal maintenance. You will not need to use any pesticides in your garden since hummingbirds love to eat bugs. They love to eat small bugs like aphids, gnats and spiders. They will even eat all the bugs in a web, plus the spider and then they will use the web for their nest. Hummingbirds themselves benefit the garden since they are pollinators themselves. While sipping nectar from a flower, parts of their bodies become covered in pollen. They then wind up depositing the pollen on the next flower they visit.
                                                            

If this is your first attempt in attracting these little flyers, it might be awhile before they show up. However, if you are patient they will find you in time and provide your garden with some beauty and fun.