In 1979, Margy Terpstra designed a garden for hummingbirds at their first home, hoping to attract the small, colorful bird to their yard. But she got more than hummingbirds. “The more birds I saw in the es, the more I wanted to learn about them,” she recalled. “Dan gave me a good pair of binoculars and my interest continued to grow.”
In 1996, she and her husband, Dan, decided to move, in part so they could expand their gardens. Their passion became their life purpose when they found what would become their new home.
A monarch nectars on Eastern blazing star (Liatris scariosa) in Margy and Dan Terpstra’s garden.
The Songbird and Butterfly Garden is in the shape of a butterfly’s wing.
It was May and during the peak of the spring migration. She recalled: “We stepped out onto the deck and the birdsong was overwhelming. The migrant birds were staying high in the canopy, finding caterpillars in the oaks, black cherries, and hickories.”
However, invasive Asian bush honeysuckle had completely taken over the understory of the property. They bought the property, knowing that they “could do much” to improve the habitat.
That has been an understatement. Since then, the couple has removed at least 8,000 square feet of invasive species, as well as large areas of lawn, and made their yard into a paradise for birds, pollinators and mammals.
The Terpstras, who live in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway in Kirkwood, Missouri, are both retired professionals who work from home. Dan is an engineering consultant and Margy is a horticulturist, birder and photographer. Together, the couple maintains their property, named “Shady Oaks,” as a bird and wildlife sanctuary.
Margy said the restoration of the property has been slow, but steady work. They rebuilt the layers in the woodland and garden areas primarily with native Missouri trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers. “Once the honeysuckle was gone, dormant natives emerged like roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii), blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) and mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum),”
Margy said. But they have also added many native species that span the seasons with high wildlife value, such as hazelnut (Corylusamericana), golden currant (Ribes odoratum), witchhazel (Hamamelis vernalis), winterberry (Ilex verticillata), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), cliff goldenrod (Solidagodrummondii) and coral trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens).
The Terpstras installed their songbird and butterfly garden in 2009, and filled it with native nectar and host plants like swamp milkweed (Asclepiasincarnata)and butterflyweed (Asclepiastuberosa). They have two water areas on their land, both of which are surrounded with native plants. “We consider all of our native plantings to be the very best bird feeders,” Margy said. Their goal is to include many native plants that sustain life through more than one season.
She explained: “We leave the flower stalks around the pond and garden areas until mid-March to benefit the overwintering insects and to provide food and cover for birds and small mammals. Birds forage in the leaf litter that fills the beds. Barred owls find voles in the woodland. The Eastern blazingstar (Liatrisscariosa) and buttonbush (Cephalanthusoccidentalis) that provide nectar for monarchs, bumblebees and ruby-throats later provide seeds in winter for dark-eyed juncos, Carolina chickadees and American goldfinches.”
Margy said, “It’s been a labor of love, and definitely worth all the work.” The design of their gardens evolved over time and with thorough assessment and research. “We first had to get a good sense of the water flow throughout the property,” she explained. “We have a little bit of everything here — some (spots) high and dry, some sunny, some shady, some wet. But that was good; it gave us a lot of potential for diversity.”
The addition of a breakfast room onto the house prompted them to add the bubbler outside. “They excavated several beautiful rocks out of the ground, one with a perfect groove down the side, and that became the basis for our bubbler,” Margy said. “We wanted to be able to see the bubbler from the new breakfast room and I’ve spent hours staring at it and watching for birds.”
Margy keeps the annotated checklist of Missouri bird species at hand and has recorded 147 species in their yard. In addition, over the last five years, she has recorded an average of 105 species each year.
Three cameras allow the Terpstras to admire the wildlife that come to their garden, even when they aren’t watching. They’ve seen foxes, raccoons, deer, mink, rabbits and opossums. They still haven’t convinced any of the neighbors to get rid of their lawns and plant natives, but one neighbor has been removing more of his invasive honeysuckle, so Margy remains optimistic about change.
They followed the strict guidelines of St. Louis Audubon’s Bring Conservation Home program for creating habitat and their property was awarded Platinum, the highest level of certification. In addition, Margy served as a volunteer habitat adviser for small private landowners for the program.
The Terpstras said their reason for planting with natives is because it is the most sustainable thing one can do with a yard. They explained: “Native plants are best adapted to our Midwest swings in temperature and variable rainfall. They have been around for millennia and the birds and wildlife are best adapted to the food sources that they provide — they have evolved together and are therefore interdependent.
“Secondly, there is serendipity,” Margy said. “The more you look, the more you’ll see when you start paying attention to nature. It is such a privilege to watch the essence of nature as it unfolds before you. Besides our two grandsons, our garden provides us with such great joy. So much of what humankind is doing to nature is not good or healthy for any of us; we believe that what we each can do in our own yards does make a difference.”
Yard Highlights
- The Terpstras’ partially wooded 0.6-acre lot has four main areas: Woodland and Bubbler Pond, Songbird and Butterfly Garden, East Beds and Water Garden and North Beds.
- The 1,250-square foot songbird and butterfly garden is in the shape of a monarch’s wing and is a Certified Monarch Waystation.
- Their yard includes two water features, a 100-gallon bubbler pond and a 1,500-gallon water garden with a streambed and three waterfalls.
- They have removed at least 8,000 square feet of invasive bush honeysuckle, several areas of English ivy and wintercreeper, as well as large areas of lawn.
- Their yard is more than 75 percent native plantings, and they do not use chemical pesticides or fertilizers except for the application of herbicides in dry areas to eradicate invasive exotic plants.
- The property has been on many tours for native plant classes and for the public, including the Missouri Botanical Garden’s 2011 St. Louis Garden Tour and the inaugural St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour in 2015, which was sponsored jointly by St. Louis Audubon Society and St. Louis Wild Ones.