12 Ways Wildlife Can Help You Save Money on Garden Maintenance
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Having a thriving garden shouldn’t come with a hefty price tag or take hours of backbreaking labor. Inviting wildlife into your outdoor space means you can cut costs naturally and let nature do some of the heavy lifting. It’s like hiring the world’s oldest and most cost effective gardener crew. Birds, bees, and even bats are all part of a balanced ecosystem that helps your plants, and saves you time and money.
Few gardeners realize they have a powerful ally in wildlife. Rather than constantly fighting weeds, pests and soil woes, welcome them. No contracts, no hourly rates, no overtime complaints, these little helpers do pest control and soil enrichment. This is how they can make a difference.
Pollination Services
Nature’s pollinators like bees, butterflies and even hummingbirds ensure your fruits, vegetables and flowers survive. Without them, your zucchini may never mature beyond a single lonely bloom. According to the National Institute of Health, wild pollinators add billions of dollars annually to the global agricultural economy. You can save money on buying fertilizers or more plants as a pollinator friendly garden can help promote better yields naturally.
Weed Control Assistants
Weeds can feed wild rabbits and some bird species so you don’t have to spend so much time pulling them. If you have rabbits, they might nibble on a few plants, but offering them clover or other favorite greenery will keep them on the weeds. Less kneeling and grumbling over invasive plants is a fair trade off.
Soil Aeration Experts
Earthworms are not glamorous, but are the ultimate soil engineers. These wriggly workers improve drainage and aeration, enrich the soil with their castings, and tunnel through your garden. You’ll spend less on fertilizers and amendments when you have healthy soil. Make the area friendly to worms by removing the use of synthetic chemicals and allowing the fallen leaves and so on to process.
Natural Fertilizers
While bird droppings might be gross, they are full of nutrients that your plants will appreciate. If you let your guinea fowl or chickens roam your garden once in a while, they can naturally fertilize your soil. Manure from free range birds is one of the most potent organic fertilizers out there.
Pest-Deterring Allies
Some wildlife is good at keeping pests out of the garden that otherwise might munch on your plants. Take toads as an example: they eat slugs and snails and ladybugs eat aphids. In its lifetime, a single lady bug is capable of eating as many as 5,000 aphids. You can save expensive pest treatment by setting up toad houses or planting flowers that attract beneficial insects.
Seed Spreaders
Some species such as finches or sparrows inadvertently carry seeds about as they rummage, encouraging the appearance of wildflowers and even edible species. Their accidental gardening can help you save extra money needed to buy store bought seeds. Never has it been so easy to let nature play gardener.
Decomposers at Work
Not the wildlife that first comes to mind, but fungi, beetles, and bacteria break down organic matter and convert dead leaves and dead branches into rich compost. This means that you’ll spend less on bagged compost or expensive soil conditioners.
Natural Mulchers
Have you ever seen a squirrel burying nuts and leaves in your yard? They’re also creating a layer of organic material that acts as a natural mulch while they are busy prepping for winter. This can hold soil moisture and lower the need for added watering or store bought mulching products.
Erosion Fighters
Beavers and certain insects can stabilize your soil naturally. Beavers build dams, keeping flow of water to a minimum to stop erosion, and ants construct weighty tiny tunnels to support soil structure. This can help you prevent expensive erosion control options in your garden.
Water Management Helpers
The digging or scratching in the soil to look for food by birds and small mammals will also help to redistribute water across your garden. This little step will keep your plants wet and will reduce how often you have to water, thereby saving a little on your water bill.
Natural Pollinator Boosters
Mason bees, and other certain species, are more efficient pollinators than honeybees. A mason bee can pollinate 100 times as many flowers each day. You can invite these super pollinators to fill your garden with free plant boosters by building bee hotels or leaving bare patches of soil.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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