I don't want to drive off our birds...

[lyra1977]

I plan to do a lot of shrub/hedge pruning in the near future, and also turn a marshy area on the side of the house into a small pond. Right now the birds shelter in the bushes and drink from the marsh (it is fed with fresh ground water). So what should I do or not do to make sure that as I work on the yard I don't drive our beautiful cardinals and bluejays away into someone else's yard?

[garden01]

I would not use any plants with thorns because I notice you have a little kid in the picture

[applestar]

Can you prune in stages -- i.e. some this year, some more next year, and so on? Leave a clump here, a clump there and leave alone or only minimally prune known nesting shrubs. Plan on eventually leaving a permanent shubbery roosting/nesting area.

While you're creating your pond, make sure they have another source of water not too far away -- I'm sure they'll return to the new pond area once the construction hubbub settles down.

If you totally convert the marshy area, though, you're bound to lose some residents. Can you design an integrated bog garden into the pond design?

[lyra1977]

Thanks for the tips!

I don't really want to prune too far back, just enough to keep the shrubs and hedges healthy and not looking abandoned to the neighbors' eyes I believe the blue jays are in an evergreen tree in our front yard, so that is fine, but cardinals supposedly nest in dense shrubs and I have no idea which of them they are in! I guess I need to watch and figure it out before I trim. We have 4 different groupings of shrubs/hedges in our yard, all different types. But don't ask me what they are because I'm not that savvy yet.

There is one set of bushes that has a ton of little brown birds in it (don't know what kind of bird, maybe sparrows?) and they are such a sweet good morning and good night chorus for us, right under my daughter's window. The one time I tried to trim those bushes they all freaked out and flew away and scared me to death.

About the marsh/pond...what is an integrated bog garden?!?! Do tell. I am willing to be flexible with my plans but right now it is annoying. I'm going to post more about it in the water garden forum, but basically we have a natural spring next to the house and the sump pump puts the water into a little marsh right in front of the front yard spigot, so every time I need to use the hose up front I have to put on wellies and squelch through the muck. I'd much rather have a nice little rock pond!