WE TALK ABOUT pollinator gardens, and hunt down the vegetation that present that important nourishment to bees and butterflies and moths, for instance. However bugs don’t dwell by pollen alone. To make our gardens locations of life-sustaining habitat, we now have to supply for different wants, too—like water, as an illustration, and shelter in every season of the 12 months and extra.
A brand new e-book referred to as “Pure Habitats & Wildlife Gardening: Inviting Nature Into Your Yard” (affiliate hyperlink), by Shaun McCoshum, supplies inspiration for doing simply that.
Shaun is a panorama ecologist, conservationist, pollinator researcher and author who has labored on inexperienced power initiatives, conservation initiatives, and habitat plans throughout the US. He shared a number of concepts for enhancing the facility of your home.
Plus: Remark within the field close to the underside of the web page for an opportunity to win a duplicate of “Pure Habitats & Wildlife Gardening: Inviting Nature Into Your Yard.”
Learn alongside as you hearken to the March 30, 2026 version of my public-radio present and podcast utilizing the participant beneath. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
creating habitat, with shaun mccoshum
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Margaret Roach: How are you, Shaun? And the place are you; the place are we speaking from?
Shaun McCoshum: So I moved to Corpus Christi, Tex., about two years in the past. Yeah.
Margaret: That’s your pure habitat proper now. O.Okay, good. [Laughter.]
I bear in mind a chat you probably did, possibly it was final 12 months, that I consider is now posted in your YouTube channel [below]. It was referred to as “Going Past Plant Lists,” which is form of good. And we do must transcend plant lists to make a backyard that’s a posh dwelling organism or system, don’t we? Not only a flower mattress, proper?
Shaun: Oh, completely. Sure.
Margaret: In order that’s form of the premise. Once I took away from the e-book, and there’s plenty of science within the e-book and there’s plenty of different habitats that I don’t learn about, deserts and no matter. And there’s issues for all areas of the nation and so forth. However that’s what was one of many overarching issues that I took was that I’ve to do greater than feed them [laughter].
Shaun: Sure. Transferring past plant lists is a extremely good discuss as a result of for that particular viewers—it was for principally gardeners—and we had been actually in a position to discuss how rockscaping, borders, logs, birdhouses, all this stuff play into creating habitat inside our gardens. And sometimes after we take into consideration making a pollinator backyard, the place we see these articles that say, “plant this, plant that,” nevertheless it doesn’t say additionally present shelter.
Monarchs is an effective instance: plant milkweed for monarchs, as a result of it’s a bunch plant they usually’ll nectar on the flowers. It’s a improbable plant. However these monarchs must get off the plant to shed their pores and skin between every caterpillar stage, after which they want a protected place to pupate. So that they sometimes received’t try this on the plant as a result of because it’s getting eaten, it’s going to reveal them to the daylight. So that they wish to be in a spot the place they’re going to be much less more likely to be discovered by predators, but in addition not uncovered to the solar.
So by offering a variety of vegetation or hiding locations and shelter, we create a greater habitat and improve the survival probability of all the animals we’re making an attempt to assist.
Margaret: Proper. Effectively, and so as an illustration, all of us are serious about, oh, bees, I wish to entice the bees they usually’re pollinating and blah, blah, blah. And so plenty of occasions we’re procuring the catalogs, or on the nursery, for perennials with flowers and so forth. And we learn about we wish to have an prolonged interval of bloom, not only one minute within the backyard season and so forth, and that’s all good. However…then what else do the bees want, for instance, and we don’t actually take into consideration that. And there’s so many various species of bees, so that’s one other factor altogether. However can we use them for example, too?
Shaun: Oh, one hundred pc. So the native bees, if we’re North America, we’ve about 4,000 species of native bees. About 70 % of these are floor nesters. And surprisingly, scientists don’t have plenty of knowledge for which areas within the floor bees prefer to nest. Out of the whole 20,000 species on the earth, we’ve solely described about 500 species’ nesting habitats, and most of these will not be in-ground.
So of those which are within the floor, we now have discovered that they like sandy to clay soils. Numerous our bigger bees, like our digger bees, they like compacted clay. You’ll discover them in previous bison trails, cattle trails, two-track roads, and even operating paths in a few of our parks. Perditas to be like sandy areas proper subsequent to the sidewalk the place they will excavate and perform these grains of sand that match inside their mandibles.
And inside our gardens, we’re sometimes offering actually good soils for vegetation to develop in, however that’s not essentially good nesting habitat for the native bees we’re making an attempt to assist. So then they’re relegated to bizarre locations round our panorama, typically subsequent to the driveway or subsequent to the sidewalk, or in a fence line. But when we deliberately perceive that these sandy soils have to be supplied or these clay soils have to be supplied, we will do it in areas like alongside our paths or round our HVAC items, however we will incorporate it into the design in a means that’s enticing, but in addition very helpful to the animals as an alternative of leaving them the possibility to seek out the assets that they want.
Margaret: And lots of people suppose, “Oh, however I purchased a bee resort.” [Laughter.]
Shaun: Yeah.
Margaret: That’s a fantastic instance. And I’m not a bee resort particular person. what I imply? I’m not as a lot of a gimmicky particular person as I’m somebody who likes to strive to determine one thing else. Clearly the bee resort works no less than at first, however there’s drawbacks, sure?
Shaun: Sure, completely. So with the bee lodges, we now have to ask ourselves, what’s it mimicking in nature? I imply, when was the final time you noticed a bunch of bamboo tied up in a bunch naturally current, proper?
Margaret: Oh, it doesn’t? I didn’t know that. [Laughter.]
Shaun: So if we have a look at the place plenty of these cavity-nesting bees, that are utilizing these bee lodges, they’re really cavity-nesting bees, not particularly stem-nesting bees. And so they sometimes could be using previous beetle burrows outdoors of useless wooden. So issues like Cerambycidae, which is a longhorn beetle or Buprestidae, that are the metallic wood-boring beetles—when these larvae depart wooden, they depart these clear tunnels that naturally could be utilized by most of the species which are going to make the most of the bee lodges.
Margaret: Oh.
Shaun: However after we’re speaking about stem-nesting bees—and there’s plenty of confusion between the bee lodges and stem-nesting bees, as a result of we’re utilizing bamboo stems—plenty of stem-nesting bees are literally excavating pith outdoors of the stems that they’re utilizing. And though a cavity-nesting bee will make the most of a hole stem, inside a wholesome pure ecosystem, these little tiny hole stems sometimes aren’t the issues that they would choose for except you’re speaking about Ceratinas or a pair wasps. The vast majority of them are going to be using the wooden or crevices in between rocks and constructing their cabinets inside these areas, that are simply being mimicked and centralized inside a bee resort.
Margaret: And might in addition they, the bee lodges, can they generally … They’re not clear ultimately, are they? Are you aware what I imply? Do they-
Shaun: Right. A number of researchers have completed longterm research with bee lodges. And actually, within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s, we had been making an attempt to create these partitions of lodges round alfalfa fields as a result of these bees want these cavities. And the primary 12 months they get colonized they usually’re nice, they usually get crammed with bees. Second 12 months sometimes has a reasonably robust inhabitants. However by the third 12 months, the pollen mites turn out to be an issue they usually unfold and begin consuming all the pollen after which the larvae starve. The parasitoids, the bees that take over these cells or eat the larvae after which eat the pollen, these populations develop. And we’ve just about created this buffet for the whole lot that eats bees, as a result of bees aren’t actually excessive up on the meals chain. They’re fairly low.
So sure, you’re proper. The bee lodges do turn out to be an issue after a couple of years and we’re supposed to scrub them and substitute them if we’re using them in our gardens.
And being in a small neighborhood, it’s arduous to have the pure succession of wooden forming, beetles popping out of it and creating all these new lodges. So the bee lodges do have a spot in our gardens, however they need to be small they usually do have to be changed each few years, and moved round. I like to recommend within the e-book, transfer them from nook to nook in your yard from 12 months to 12 months in order that any of these pollen mites or parasitoids no less than must perform a little bit extra work to discover a new dwelling for them. And so they’re a part of the ecosystem, too.
Margaret: You mentioned the phrase succession, and in a much bigger sense, early within the e-book, you remind us that pure habitats, wild areas, no matter, they usually comprise numerous levels of succession. It’s not all freshly planted stuff like a model new flowerbed that I simply planted with stuff from the nursery, or it’s not all simply pollinator vegetation. There’s decay, and there’s a half-dead one thing or different [laughter], and there’s issues in numerous levels and ages and so forth. And I believe our gardens usually lack that as effectively, don’t they, the thought of succession?
Shaun: Sure, I totally agree with that. And within the e-book, I labored with some superb photographers and there’s some actually strong pictures of post-burn meadows the place the bushes are nonetheless standing and that may be the habitat that the bees could be nesting in, or the assets the bees could be nesting in. And moths could be pupating and beetles could be growing. However then you will have these lovely Phlox and larkspurs and lupines rising in between these useless bushes, which is what we sometimes plant inside our yards. So I like to indicate that juxtaposition of these two form of concepts that the vegetation that we’re placing in our yard, of their pure habitat, have these different assets that so most of the wildlife we’re making an attempt to assist depend upon.
Margaret: I imply, and once more, I mentioned the phrase decay, and that’s within the e-book, and it appears like a damaging phrase, proper? Decay. “Ooh, that sounds unhealthy. Ooh, I don’t need any decay.” It appears like one thing so that you can go to the dentist about [laughter]. However that’s not what it’s. It’s a part of the life cycle and it’s such a critically necessary facet of it.
As a result of for instance, whilst hardworking as woodpeckers are who’re blissful to—and I take advantage of that phrase “blissful” and anthropomorphize, I’m sorry—however anyway, they’re on the market they usually’re going to make a cavity and another person could determine to make use of it in some unspecified time in the future, possibly fortunate sufficient to make use of it, and it’s improbable all of the kind of pass-along habitats that they supply for different creatures. Nonetheless, if we don’t have bushes which are in a situation that the woodpecker listens and scopes out and says, “This can be a good one,” after which goes forward and begins excavating, you recognize what I imply? It’s like if we take down and clear up and erase each declining useless and dying tree, effectively, there’s not as many alternatives for even the woodpeckers to do their good job, I believe.
Shaun: Proper. And we see that decline in or that affecting the populations of animals and seeing a decline in cavity-nesting birds and fungus that dwell in these woods that … Like rooster of the woods is massive within the Northeast. Individuals prefer to go and forage for it; you’ll be able to cook dinner it. It’s shiny orange; it’s attractive. And it relies on useless wooden that has sat for some time and has began to decay and that mycelium’s in a position to develop by way of it.
And that entire log that we name useless is so alive with bugs and fungus and micro organism and all these various things which are using it that I want we may change that vernacular from “useless wooden” to “dwelling ecosystem of earlier bushes” or one thing. We clearly don’t have the English time period for it.
However within the e-book, I attempt to deliver that into our landscaping designs, too, that we will usher in log borders, we will usher in hen packing containers that mimic these hole stems, we will usher in bat packing containers. And we see this recurrently after we go to the shop, that we’re making an attempt to imitate a few of these assets. However there’s so many animals and vegetation that depend upon the nutrient cycles of that wooden breaking down, that it truly is necessary to herald a few of these bigger items of downed wooden and lay them in our yards and use them as a part of the panorama to create an entire habitat for the organisms that we’re making an attempt to assist.
Margaret: And if we now have a declining or a useless or a fallen tree, then welcome it. what I imply? Incorporate it, welcome it. Don’t solid it out. Don’t rent somebody and pay cash to, once more, erase it.
I consider them as—you mentioned we want a very good phrase—I consider it as biomass, as a result of it makes me keep in mind that it’s alive in a means. Are you aware what I imply? I say biomass. However all it’s important to do is have watched … I had a giant previous birch tree out within the yard that was right here lengthy earlier than I ever was, and it began to say no and I turned it right into a snag after which it declined and lasted about 10 years in that situation or possibly seven years in that situation. After which lastly it was getting wonky and I took extra of it right down to stabilize it, however I lay this massive piece subsequent to the foundation system.
After which a pileated woodpecker, he was blissful to be utilizing the half that was on the bottom. He didn’t thoughts that it wasn’t standing up anymore. He was blissful for months [laughter]. Are you aware what I imply? After which there’s all these unseen organisms, in all probability billions of them that had been blissful, too. And once more, I’m anthropomorphizing galore; that’s my factor. Everyone’s blissful.
Shaun: It’s good to. It helps us join with the character to empathize and put among the feelings with these animals and vegetation even.
Margaret: Effectively, and woodpeckers at all times look blissful to me for some motive. They’re so charismatic [laughter].
Shaun: They are surely. I like seeing them.
Margaret: A lot power. However yeah, so introducing a few of these issues, and once more, not considering, “Oh, decay, oh, useless,” however considering, “Oh, wow, that is life sustaining. That is a part of the cycle.”
Shaun: Yeah.
Margaret: Yeah. And I believe that you simply level out within the e-book that the apply of depart the leaves that’s turn out to be so well-liked lately, that’s a apply of decay, sure, of celebrating decay, of welcoming decay, sure?
Shaun: Sure. So necessary to the general ecosystem to go away the biomass that falls inside our yards as a result of it’s feeding nutrient cycles. However that’s with a caveat. So you probably have a large oak tree and a full-sun meadow that you simply’ve planted and cared for, and you’ve got toadflax rising in there and brief milkweeds, these vegetation can’t actually develop by way of a thick layer of leaf.
So after we are holding these leaves on our property, we wish to be certain that they’re ending up in areas that may be utilized as habitat, but in addition not suppress any of the plant progress, as a result of bushes are additionally combating off different vegetation from rising. So a part of that leaf fall is to suppress different vegetation from rising. So we don’t wish to make the most of that pure cycle after which by chance interrupt the general purpose that we had for our backyard as effectively.
Margaret: Proper. One level that you simply make within the e-book that I liked, particularly, is that after we’re serious about making a backyard or evolving our backyard, if we have already got a longtime one, we must always take into account what organism or a few organisms, what creatures we’re desiring to welcome probably the most. As a result of not everyone desires the identical issues; not everyone requires the identical issues. And so to me, that’s actually necessary.
And once I first began making my backyard a long time in the past, I used to be fascinated by birds and I considered birds and I seen, and I had no information actually, however I seen, I imply, I purchased a bunch of hen books [laughter], however I seen that there was plenty of motion alongside the fringes on the fringe of the property the place the tree line was, the place there have been additionally some naturally occurring shrubs and vines and no matter, form of a tangly areas, the messy areas, that there was plenty of motion in there.
And I believed, “Oh, O.Okay., effectively, I’m going to make some massive shrub borders. I’m going to get plenty of shrubs and particularly ones with fruit and particularly native ones.” And anyway, so these massive kind of, I name them biohedges or shrubberies, no matter they’re, I imply, they’re simply these fantastic locations crammed with birds plenty of the time, particularly when the fruit is there and crammed with pollinators when the shrubs are flowering earlier on.
However I believe shrubs are one of many vegetation, once more, we’re all drawn to, “Oh, let’s go get some pollinator vegetation,” and we expect perennials, we expect asters and we expect Rudbeckia and we expect Echinacea and so forth. However I believe shrubs are actually necessary too, sure?
Shaun: Sure. Shrubs are one of many main declining vegetation constructions usually. So shrub lands are sometimes not managed for as a result of they’re actually tough to handle, particularly on a big scale. And the few locations that we discover them persistently contained in the panorama anymore is power proper of how the place they go and mow each 5 or 6 years.
However making an attempt to get massive equipment by way of, it’s sometimes simpler to try this by way of a meadow, so that you mow the whole lot down or actually tall bushes and you’ve got spaced out open-canopy forests. So including the shrubs to our panorama is essential as a result of they’re lacking from the final panorama. And so they do present host vegetation for a lot of of our pollinators. They feed plenty of our bugs for the native shrubs. After which the berry-producing ones are going to create meals assets for our migrating birds in our winter surviving birds as effectively. Sure.
Margaret: And once more, in the event that they’re one other layer, like particularly adjoining to the sting of you probably have massive bushes they usually’re the subsequent layer down, so to talk. Now, if there’s understory bushes after which shrubs and herbaceous stuff down beneath, that edge habitat, that ecotone, is like the place the motion is plenty of occasions, each with bugs and birds. At the least that’s my beginner commentary. There’s quite a bit happening there [laughter] in these layered areas, versus shrub in the course of a chunk of garden or tree in the course of a chunk of garden. That’s not a lot motion.
Shaun: Agreed. Yep. I see that as effectively. And a part of that’s that that construction can be creating some wind breaks. So plenty of the bugs on windier days can fly in that area as a result of they’re not getting blown away, versus subsequent to that shrub round all that mowed grass when the wind is blowing. If a Perdita bee, one of many smallest bees or the genus of the smallest bees, they in all probability can’t fly greater than 15 miles per hour. So if the winds are above that they must be flying in protected areas whereas they’re out foraging to allow them to get again to their nest. Does that make sense?
Margaret: Sure, completely. I didn’t consider that, however you’re completely proper.
We are able to’t discuss all of this, about what else we must always present aside from meals, with out mentioning water. And the neatest factor I did—and once more, utterly not understanding what I used to be doing; I did it selfishly for myself, as a result of I needed to listen to the sound of slightly waterfall— however I made two in-ground swimming pools, backyard ponds, firstly once I first made the place. And I hold them unfrozen; I hold a gap within the ice in every one, so there’s water 12 months a 12 months. And I believe that was the neatest factor I ever did. So water, inform us about that, about offering that.
Shaun: Water is extremely necessary for all of our animals. And one of many largest errors I see gardeners make is they supply a hen bathtub and a hen bathtub solely. So numerous our animals like toads, salamanders, plenty of our bugs even can’t stand up there. So it doesn’t mean-
Margaret: On a pedestal, you imply? A hen bathtub on a pedestal?
Shaun: Yeah. So at floor stage is de facto necessary, as a result of that’s the place water is of course supplied. And by placing it low down, extra animals can entry it. And it actually helps construct up the populations, as a result of organisms can come and get their hydration after which return into their territories. So we do want so as to add water. And within the colder winters and stuff, particularly the place we’ve dammed up the rivers and actually affected springs that may sometimes be offering liquid water in winter, it’s a good suggestion to have some kind of heating gadget to soften the ice in order that animals can nonetheless entry and drink water.
Margaret: And in addition I believe as a result of, I imply, I’ve numerous species of frogs and salamanders that make the most of the water, whether or not for replica or no less than one life stage is in there even within the winter, if not adults as effectively. what I imply? There’s motion in there. There’s life in there, even within the winter. So I don’t wish to suffocate them, proper? I imply, I don’t wish to don’t have any gasoline change, have a strong ice factor over this unnatural little pool that looks like it wouldn’t be a good suggestion, both.
Shaun: Sure. And sometimes our self-made or designed swimming pools and ponds are sometimes not deep sufficient like they might be within the wild, the place if it did freeze over, there would nonetheless be sufficient gasoline inside our physique. So as a result of our areas are a lot smaller, it’s a good suggestion to make that adjustment in order that it permits the gasoline change to proceed to occur.
Margaret: The opposite factor that we didn’t discuss, which I liked is you’re an advocate for nooks and crannies [laughter], little hiding locations and the whole lot. And I simply love that as a result of I’m loopy about amphibians and all my frogs and toad, all my buddies, they love these little areas and I discover them in probably the most peculiar, fantastic spots whereas they’re simply on the market; they’re simply watching to see who’s going to return round to who can get eaten or no matter. However nooks and crannies is de facto necessary too, sure?
Shaun: Sure. And within the e-book I discuss how plenty of the massive animals which are now not inside our landscapes actually helped create plenty of these nooks and crannies, both by bears rolling over logs, or armadillos pushing issues over. They cease the soil from sealing in opposition to plenty of these objects. So if we deliberately create ground-level shelters or underground shelters that mimic burrows, we’re in a position to present the assets that so most of the wildlife which are nonetheless current inside our neighborhoods and inside our pollinator gardens can make the most of and perform their lifecycles that we would not be contemplating if we simply take into consideration what does this animal want on an total annual timescale that they do. We simply don’t have the info. We haven’t considered it, proper?
Margaret: Yeah. Effectively, there’s quite a bit to be discovered in “Pure Habitats & Wildlife Gardening,” your new e-book. Thanks, Shaun, for making time immediately, and thanks for the e-book.(All pictures from “Pure Habitats & Wildlife Gardening” by Shaun McCoshum, printed by Princeton College Press.)
enter to win a duplicate of ‘pure habitats & wildlife gardening’
I’LL BUY A COPY of “Pure Habitats & Wildlife Gardening: Inviting Nature Into Your Yard” by Shaun McCoshum for one fortunate reader. All it’s important to do to enter is reply this query within the feedback field beneath:
What aspect of your backyard aside from a flowering perennial will get probably the most consideration from wildlife, whether or not bugs or birds or another person?
No reply, or feeling shy? Simply say one thing like “depend me in” and I’ll, however a reply is even higher. I’ll choose a random winner after entries shut at midnight Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Good luck to all.
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MY WEEKLY public-radio present, rated a “top-5 backyard podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper within the UK, started its seventeenth 12 months in March 2026. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station within the nation. Pay attention domestically within the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Jap, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the March 30, 2026 present utilizing the participant close to the highest of this transcript. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
