Habitat Forming : O.C. Gardeners Take a Wild Approach to Installing Creature Comforts in the Back Yard

One yard is alive with butterflies; another has an alligator sunning itself. One is a small lot on a hilltop; another is the common grounds of a townhouse complex.

What they have in common is a welcome mat for wildlife.

Scores of Orange County gardeners have joined the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program of the National Wildlife Federation--many in the past year--in an effort to lure more wild creatures to their yards.

The Backyard Wildlife Habitat program was inaugurated by the federation in 1973 to encourage homeowners to make gardens more hospitable to wildlife by providing them with four basic necessities: food, water, cover and a place to raise young.

Supplying these basics is easier than people think and doesn’t require a total revamping of existing landscaping, according to Craig Tufts, national manager of the program.

“Something as simple as adding a birdbath can make a big difference,” he says.

Every small step helps, too, Tufts says. “Loss of habitat is the No. 1 threat to wildlife,” he says. “We can help counteract that loss by creating thousands of mini-refuges across the country.”

Interest in the habitat program is at an all-time high, Tufts says. One reason is the federation’s recent success in dispelling some misconceptions about its program.

You don’t need a country estate to create a viable habitat, for instance. Tufts’ own yard, Habitat No. 2364, is less than a quarter acre. Yet it contains more than 300 varieties of plants (“Diversity is key to a successful habitat,” he says) and attracts more than 40 kinds of butterflies.

A garden doesn’t have to look “wild” to qualify as a habitat either. The approximately 12,000 gardens certified under the federation’s program are as different as their owners, Tufts says. “Some are very naturalistic, but others are surprisingly formal.”

Here are five of the distinctive back-yard wildlife habitats in Orange County:

Shady Oasis

Fifteen years ago, the Corona del Mar garden of Ron and Brigitta Yeo was among the first in the county to become certified by the federation. Though this property is quite modest in size--30-by-118-foot, half of which is house--it, too, supports a varied wildlife population.

The Yeos’ yard is dark and jungly. The mature pines, sycamores and Chinese elm that originally enticed the Yeos into buying the property now attract many species of birds for cover and nesting sites. So does the giant bamboo the Yeos added later.

The flowers that thrive under this canopy of shade tend toward the exotic--orchids, begonias, clivia, epiphyllum.

The visual focal point of the garden--a 6-by-12-foot pond stocked with goldfish and water lilies--is also a wildlife magnet.

“The pool is the heart of the yard,” Ron Yeo says. “It’s the source of the life here. It’s what really draws in the animals.”

Aquatic insects begin the chain, as well as the occasional amphibian, then birds of all sorts--attracted by the insects as well as the water--and finally a nocturnal parade of mammals--raccoon, skunk and opossum.

“They come in sets--almost like work shifts,” Yeo says. “It’s great fun to watch them arrive (from the window of the living room).”

The Yeos’ garden illustrates several points, according to Tufts. One is the importance of water: “It’s the most overlooked requirement of wildlife, especially in urban areas.”

Another is the value of considering property from a vertical as well as horizontal point of view regarding its potential for animals. “Animals live at different levels, which means you can support more than you think, even in a small yard,” he says.

Small Cottage Garden

This minuscule cottage garden full of roses, perennials and herbs is high in the Orange hills.

The owner, who asked that her name not be used, said her primary aim in creating a habitat was attracting more birds and butterflies. Toward this purpose she put in a concrete, pedestaled birdbath, two regular bird feeders and a hummingbird feeder. All these amenities proved wildly attractive to the local avian population; they were discovered immediately and are put to use daily.

Though the feeders are the main attraction to her yard, she believes the seeds of many of her favorite cottage flowers also turn out to be avian treats.

“Birds love my alyssum seeds,” she says. “So do the cottontails that come to nibble on my grass. Birds like my feverfew seeds too. And my stock, sweet peas, hollyhocks and nasturtiums.”

Butterflies are attracted to the nectar of many of these flowers, as they are to the lovage and dill in the herb bed. To attract even more butterflies, the homeowner is putting in additional caterpillar fodder--such as a South African milkweed bought at UCI Arboretum--and is ordering a butterfly nesting box and feeder from a garden catalogue.

The coloration of this garden may be a little more vivid than most cottage gardens. Butterflies hone in on purple, and hummingbirds on red and orange, so these colors were chosen over pastels. But otherwise there’s nothing here that shrieks “habitat.” Yet this tiny garden supports a rich ecosystem.

One reason is its absence of chemicals. Pet rabbits provide superb fertilizer; no pesticides are used. (“Pesticides and wildlife are basically incompatible,” Tufts says.) Birds and lizards keep the insect population in check.

Tropical Jungle

Nick Amodio’s half-acre-plus property in Laguna Niguel is heavily canopied, and walking through the gate into this habitat feels like walking into the San Diego Zoo.

Stepping over the full-grown American alligator sunning itself on the bridge over a pond may have something to do with it. (There’s a second alligator in a separate pond; Amodio raised both from eggs.) An exotic pheasant does a mating dance; koi swim in a third pond, and a pot-bellied pig and lop-eared rabbit roam the property freely. A walk-in aviary is filled with African starlings, Peking robins and other exotic birds.

“I’ve had a zoo around me since I was a kid,” Amodio says.

Mature eucalyptus trees provide the uppermost tier, and palms, bananas and bamboo fill out the understory. All were planted by Amodio.

This Australian-style forest provides abundant habitat for the local avian population. “Nine vultures comes to roost here every night,” Amodio says. “Crows, ravens and hawk visit regularly, and I’ve seen orioles here the last few years.”

Amodio provides food for his avian clientele as well as cover and water. Half a dozen bird feeders dot the property, and on his sunny back slope he’s put in blackberry and raspberry bushes and a fig tree and, for the hummingbirds, nectar-rich hibiscus shrubs.

Edge of the Wilderness

John Albritton and Paulette Cullen’s property in Laguna Canyon is like a zoo, too. Only all the animals in it are wild.

“We live on the edge of civilization, close to a greenbelt and have a creek running through our back yard,” Albritton says. “It’s like a highway for animals. We don’t have to lure them here. I don’t think we could keep them out.”

The property was already a good habitat when the couple bought it. That was one of its attractions. It contains several mature pecan trees that attract raccoons, woodpeckers, blue jays and other birds, dense oleander shrubs that house noisy flocks of sparrows and finches and a thick mat of ivy edging the creek that is home to insects, spiders and small rodents.

The couple have seen a red-tailed hawk capture prey in their yard, a fledgling hawk test its wings on their roof, a barn owl perch on their fence, a blue heron fish their creek and a family of skunks sleep under their porch.

No pets or chemicals help make this a successful habitat. But mostly, they say, its their philosophy of leaving things alone.

“We don’t rake away leaf litter, and we prune very lightly, if at all,” Albritton says. “Some of our relatives can’t visit without wanting to break out the hedge clippers, but we like the feeling like we’re in the middle of a wilderness.”

Condominium Community

The Tiburon townhome complex in Fountain Valley is one of the most recent applicants in the county to be certified by the Wildlife Federation. The project is still in its early stages but is seen as having the potential to become a significant habitat for wildlife.

The residents of the 513-unit complex made the decision to turn their land into a habitat after they were frustrated with the disruption of plant and animal life in a high-maintenance landscape.

“What we have now is late hodgepodge,” says Jim Christman, resident and chairman of the planning committee for the environmental project. “What we want is plants that require less water, less maintenance and that will provide more support for birds and butterflies.”

The mature trees on this 50-acre property already attract many species of birds, but residents of the community think they can do much better.

“Instead of turf and foundation plantings, we envision a series of pocket parks, butterflies gardens and strands of trees. Eventually we want Tiburon to look like a natural landscape that just happens to contain buildings.”

It’s the kind of vision the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program wishes more people would have.

A Wildlife-Friendly Yard

The ideal back-yard wildlife habitat for our area would be composed primarily of indigenous plants. Native plants are not only ideally suited to our soil and weather, but they have a proven track record of supporting local wildlife.

Here are some indigenous plants suggested by Earthscaping Designs of Laguna Beach that can be used to create a wildlife-friendly yard:

Trees

* Coast live oak ( Quercus agrifolia )

* Western rosebud ( Cercis occidentalis )

* Catalina ironwood ( Lyonothamnus floribundus )

* California sycamore ( Platanus racemosa )

Background shrubs

* Ceanothus (Ceanothus ‘Ray Hartman’)

* Coffeeberry ( Rhamnus californica )

* Oregon grape (Mahonia ‘Golden Abundance’)

* Toyon ( Heteromeles arbutifolia )

* Shrubby wormwood ( Artemesia arborescens )

Hedge

* Pacific Wax Myrtle ( Myrica californica )

Accent plants

* Coastal sagebrush ( Artemisia californica )

* Red flowering currant ( Ribes sanguineum )

* Coffeeberry (Rhamnus ‘Eve Case’)

* Manzanita (Arctostaphylos ‘Sentinel’)

* Fuchsia flowering currant ( Ribes speciosum )

Perennial beds and borders

* Hybrid coral bells (Heuchera maxima hybrids)

* Monkey flower (Mimulus hybrids)

* Showy penstemon ( Penstemon spectabilis )

* Douglas iris ( Iris douglasiana )

* Island bush-snapdragon (Galvezia ‘Firecracker’)

* Autumn sage ( Salvia greggii )

Ground covers

* Coyote bush (Baccharis ‘Pigeon Point’)

* Manzanita (Arctostaphylos ‘Emerald Carpet’)

Vine

* Pipestem clematis ( Clematis lasiantha )