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Birdscaping

Hi all,

My backyard backs up to several acres of woodland in suburban Cincinnati, and the YMCA that owns the land behind us has been actively riding it of honeysuckle (about time too). I've been helping them do so, and am now looking for native species to fill in the understory. I am looking for something that will attract migrants mostly, we are not in a big enough area to attract lots of breeding species…

We have plenty of low stuff, like blackberry, but we really need a better understory in the 10-25 foot high range. Deer have stripped it, which lead to the honeysuckle invasion in the first place, so if its something they don't like, that’s even better. So, any suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by Kathy McDonald on May 12, 2009 at 9:44pm: HI Brian
This is a very late response. For shrubs that get fairly tall you can't beat Spicebush. Deer resistant (so far) and host to the Spicebush Swallowtail. Paw-Paws are a great small understory tree (host plant for Zebra Swallowtail) that do very well. I'm You have probably noticed them along Blue Jacket Trail at Shawnee. Easy to start from seed too. A great bird magnet is Serviceberry. Of course there is Redbud, dogwood, Hawthorne. We fence all of out trees until they are pretty large to keep them safe - rutting season in the fall is sometimes worse than deer browsing. Our native plant confernece this July 24-26 in Dayton will have plenty of experts there as well as plants for sale!; ▶ Reply to This