Naturescaping - Landscaping for Wildlife

Why the name “NatureScape” Designs?

Our firm believes in creating pleasing landscape designs that meet all of your needs and interests while remaining sensitive to our environment.

In the Hendersonville, N.C. area, heavy urban development threatens our native environment. We feel that it is especially important to help our insect, bird and animal friends by providing them with proper habitats that are disappearing at an alarming rate. These proper habitats include native plants and ecosystems.

The term “naturescaping” is synonymous with landscaping for wildlife. The word was coined by a group of wildlife enthusiasts and Master Gardeners meeting with the staff of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1989. *

The concept has existed for many centuries at least, but it has gained new popularity since 1990. In simple terms, it is an effort to bring back the diversity of wildlife and life-sustaining native plants to urban and suburban yards.

Another way to describe naturescaping is a partnership with nature.

To really succeed, naturescaping has to be good for people as well as wildlife. For homeowners, the benefits include more leisure time and the joy of creating a more personal landscape.

The use of native plants usually means reduced maintenance---less watering, less pruning, little or no fertilizer, and less weeding and mowing.

Native plant use is basic to naturescaping. By using indigenous species, the odds of succeeding are greatest for both the plant and the landscaper or homeowner. The native plants have adapted over the millennia to the local climate as well as most of the locally-occurring pests and diseases. They are also familiar to local wildlife who will use them for food or cover. Using native plants is one of the very best things you can do for wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation has found that native plants support 10- 15 times more wildlife species than non-natives.

Creating a naturescape, or-recreating a natural habitat, involves four basic elements.

· First, all wildlife needs water to survive. Though a few species of animals get water through the food they eat, most animals need water to drink as well.

· Second, food is an obvious necessity. Whether it is berries, nuts, seeds or foliage, or less obvious foods like nectar, pollen, insects, or detritus, the food must be available to create the habitat.

· Third, cover-also referred to as shelter- must be provided as protection from the elements and from predators. The cover is also a place to rest and raise the young.

· Fourth, space must be available. The habitat must provide enough territory to support the species and population that that you are trying to achieve.