
What is a Habitat Garden?
This is something I often ask myself. My habitat garden is in a city with many city kinds of things such as pollution, heat island effects, cars and roads and massive amounts of impermeable surfaces. It would seem like not much of a place for wildlife, but my garden has lots of life. My dad lives in the middle of the woods. He’s jealous when I show him all my pictures of robins, bluejays, sparrows, squirrels and chipmunks. In the dead of winter “his woods” is dead as a doornail. The only signs of life are deer tracks in the snow. Yet, most of the animals in my garden are very common and abundant around cities. They are abundant in numbers but not so much in species diversity. You most likely won’t find rare or threatened species in my garden.
Habitats support life but is that the same as diversity?
In the spring and summer, my dad’s forest comes alive. First there are wildflowers and then leaves on the trees. The same family of flycatchers return to make a nest. There are scarlet tanagers in the trees, snakes and chipmunks in the rocks and the wood thrush fills the forest with its song.
In my garden there are no nesting flycatchers, scarlet tanagers or wood thrushes, no snakes, frogs or salamanders. No matter how nice and diverse I try to make my habitat garden, because of its location, it has some serious limitations. And no matter how many habitat gardens there are around my garden, it is still a city.
Habitats work as links between habitats.
Yet, despite this somewhat discouraging fact, there is growing evidence that wildlife habitat in cities is important for many reasons. From capturing and filtering runoff water and protecting our waterways to supporting a diversity of insects including pollinators that are necessary for the growth of many of the fruits and vegetables we eat. Yes, some insects may damage our crops but habitats provide homes for insects and birds that eat the insects that eat our crops. Big trees store carbon, and trees such as oaks support many kinds of caterpillars that birds need to feed their young. The combination of trees, shrubs and plants, supports birds and insects during migration in addition to all the common city animals we have come to love (or not so much).
So technically, what is a habitat?
When I think of a habitat garden, I think of some dead wood, a bird house, a small tree and of course flowers, lots of flowers, but a habitat is actually much more than that. According to Wikipedia a habitat is:
“In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus, habitat is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term habitat-type is more appropriate.[1]”
Yes, as I said, complicated! What are the resources, physical and biotic factors present? What are the species? And why must we invite them into our yards? These are all important questions to ask ourselves before we delve into the journey of making a habitat garden.
Why is the DC area special?
While the DC region is full of congested sprawl it is also home to some unique habitats, many even globally rare. At one time it was a swamp which is why we often have so many mosquitoes. Like many eastern cities, it lies on a geological region known as the Fall Zone which separates the Piedmont Plateau and the Coastal Plain. In this area there are mixtures of hard rock, sediment and clay which form unique soils and support unique plant communities. Some of the habitats include wetlands, rock formations, upland forest, flood plains and even prairies. All of these habitats support a staggering number of species, from the tiniest single celled organism to the largest mammal of the sea. It seems odd that these habitats can function in such an urban area and indeed they face challenges including rapidly spreading sprawl which contributes to pollution, run off, invasive species and of course, habitat loss.
Nature is everywhere.
Despite the fragmented look of our landscape from above, nature is everywhere. By supporting habitats in our yards, we can begin to connect our city’s habitats and support the wildlife that remains. Lastly, garden habitats can provide us with a much needed break from the city. They are, in a sense, a habitat for everyone.
To learn more about DC’s local habitats and where to start with your habitat garden, check out the resources page.