Turn your garden into a hummingbird buffet

photographed by Mike Siegel

MY HUSBAND called my attention to our balcony the other morning. "There's a hummingbird out there on the blue flowers," he exclaimed. We watched as the tiny, iridescent bird breakfasted on the rosemary. How did this wondrous little creature find a few potted herbs on a narrow city deck?

I've always wondered why gardeners go to the bother of boiling up sugar water and cleaning out sticky hummingbird feeders. It's got to be more nutritious for hummingbirds to dine on a variety of natural, fresh nectars than to sup simple sugar water. For humans, it'd be like drinking Tang rather than eating a whole, fresh orange. (Do they even make Tang anymore?)

If you think of turning your entire garden into a hummingbird buffet you'll create a colorful sanctuary as welcoming to humans as to these tiny torpedoes.

You stick a bird feeder out there and hummingbirds fight over the spoils. To my mind, the enchantment of having birds in the garden is to share the experience with them. I can think of few greater pleasures than being out in the garden, weeding or reading and being buzzed by a hummingbird. They hover nearby, chasing each other or concentrating on a Lobelia tupa bloom here or a nasturtium there, living out their lives in my garden. And I get to watch.

We're so captivated by these hovercraft of the avian world that hummingbird videos are among the most popular on YouTube. But why watch it on a screen?

To turn your garden into hummingbird habitat, provide clean water for drinking and bathing. A fountain pleases the human ear and delights all kinds of birds with fresh, running water. The goldfinches sit around the fountain in my Langley garden, fluttering, bathing, pecking and drinking, as engrossed in that small stream of water as a gang of second-graders at Wild Waves.

Every garden needs a wild area where birds can shelter and nest. A narrow mixed hedgerow of small trees and shrubs, or even a messy corner will do. Hummingbirds rely on willow and eucalyptus for nesting materials, along with bits of moss, lichens, leaves and spider webs, plentifully available in most gardens.

How you care for your garden is as important as what you plant in it. Never use pesticides or herbicides, and if your neighbors spray their gardens, persuade them to stop. They blow right over and through fences. Birds rely on insects as a source of protein; if you kill the bugs, the birds will suffer. And of course birds sicken and die from ingesting poison, too.

When it comes to planting, think colorful flowers with a tubular shape. Choose ones that bloom early and late to feed migratory hummers as well as our native Anna's hummingbird. Mix in some native plants, which have co-evolved with the birds.

You don't need to worry about hummingbirds finding their way to the flowers you plant for them. Their little bodies use so much energy they need to eat three to five times every hour. Hummers have the proportionately largest brain of any bird, making them smart enough to remember every flower they've supped from and how long it'll take for its nectar supply to be refilled.

I've been studying up on healing gardens. It's remarkable that what heals the human soul — the sound of water, flowers, a little wildness and a safe, organic garden rustling with insects, is just what nourishes a hummingbird. And in turn, their presence in the garden nourishes us.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.