Many of us use the springtime to make our homes more welcoming for our neighbors and guests, but what about wild neighbors? What if our outdoor spaces became mini-havens for our animal and plant friends?

During the Welcoming Wildlife theme, we’ll be exploring the many things we can do in our outdoor spaces –whether that’s an entire backyard or a small window box–  to help increase biodiversity and create habitats for the other creatures who call this planet home. The more people working together with wildlife in mind, the healthier our ecosystems will be.  Together, we’ll navigate everything from best planting practices to city regulations. 

This page is the hub for all things Welcoming Wildlife. Explore the resources tabs below if you want to learn more about the different ways you can welcome wildlife into your outdoor space.

Make sure to follow us on social media for all the Welcoming Wildlife updates:

Green at Home Group

Join Imago’s Green at Home Facebook group! It’s a hub for all things sustainability at home. You can ask questions or share resources about welcoming wildlife or anything else sustainability related!

Welcoming Wildlife

 Check out the resources below to learn more about ways you can welcome wildlife into outdoor spaces.

Native Plants

Gardens + Soil

What to plant to attract wildlife

Pollinator Information

Planting for Pollinators

How to turn your space into a certified wildlife habitat

Why traditional lawns are bad for biodiversity

How to have a yard that welcomes wildlife

Local lawn rules and ordinances 

Resources coming soon

How to attract birds to your space

Feeding Guides

  • Backyard Wildlife | Bird feeding tips based on the season from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources

 

Dealing with backyard + garden pests

Backyard Predators 

General Tips

Window boxes + Container Gardens

Attracting Birds

Indigenous Peoples have always been well-aware of the importance of biodiversity, living with respect for land and natural systems. It is important to recognize the history of violent colonization, forced removal, and systematic racism that has led to Indigenous communities being some of the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. As governments and organizations turn to Indigenous communities for guidance, we must recognize the harm done, advocate for Indigenous Rights, and let these communities lead the way. We encourage you to learn more about the Indigenous communities where you live. Imago wants to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Kaskaskia, Osage, Shawandasse Tula, Myaamia, Adena, and Hopewell people. 

Local organizations advocating for biodiversity

  • Cincinnati Wild Ones | “Wild Ones educates people on the importance of native plants, for the health of the environment and everything living in it.” Their site has tons of resources if you’re interested in learning more about welcoming wildlife into your yard. 
  • Cincinnati Zoo Pollen Nation | This is the Zoo’s hub for all things related to pollinators. Help the Zoo reach their goal of registering 500 new pollinator gardens this year. 

Local businesses and nurseries where you can purchase native plants + seeds 

Local examples of biodiversity loss 

Blog Posts:

Welcoming Wildlife Wrap-Up

Our spring sustainability theme was all about Welcoming Wildlife. The goal of this theme was to help people turn their outdoor spaces into mini-havens for our animal and plant neighbors.  During this theme, we shared information in a few different ways. We created a...

Pesticide-free Gardening?

The idea of welcoming wildlife to our outdoor spaces seems like something easy enough to get behind, that is until it comes to unwanted garden pests. The go-to solution for getting rid of pests is to spray your garden with a little bit of a chemical pesticide. The...

The Best Time to Take this Green Action is Now

If you had to do just ONE thing to be greener you could choose from a myriad of possibilities…

Rain Check: How to manage Rainwater with a Rain Garden

Image Source: Creative Commons In part one of this blog series, we explored the benefits of rain barrels and featured tips from rain barrel expert Matt Trokan for installing one in your outdoor space. In today’s blog, we’ll be looking at another way you can manage...

Rain Check: Catching Rainwater with a Rain Barrel

When you think about Welcoming Wildlife to your outdoors space, managing rainwater might not be the first thing that pops into your mind, but creating intentional systems for collecting water is a great way to support the local ecosystem. We’ve been focusing a lot on...

No yard? No problem! Welcoming Wildlife to small outdoor spaces

In our last blog post, we talked all about lawns and what people can do to make them more welcoming spaces for wildlife. But what about people who don’t have a yard? For those of us with smaller outdoor spaces, there are still a lot of ways we can welcome wildlife, we...

Lawns: Is grass always greener?

One of the biggest enemies to natural biodiversity is a pristine turfgrass lawn. Manicured lawns are an example of monoculture meaning lawns are areas where a single type of crop (grass) is the only thing that is planted. While it might look clean and tidy to have a...

Why we need biodiversity

While we’re sprucing up our outdoor spaces for spring, it can be easy to forget about our wild neighbors. Unfortunately, sometimes what we see as improvements to our green spaces can be pretty harmful to the biodiversity of our neighborhoods. Without biodiversity,...

Resources: