Berryscaping: The Layout That Keeps Birds Coming To Your Garden All Winter

While birdfeeders offer a great way to provide food for your local birds year-round, it's arguably even better to simply grow plants that they can forage from. This can even be a more affordable option in the long run. Not only does a landscape full of berries — or a berryscape — look beautiful, but it also provides your feathered friends with food. While growing berried plants to attract birds is a snap during summer and fall, it can be a bit more challenging during winter months. Of course, this time of year, when food is scarce, is when birds need your help the most. By planning ahead, however, you can grow a beautiful layout of larger foundation shrubs alongside smaller secondary plants and ground covers, all of which will hold onto their berries well into winter, providing local birds with food for when they need it most. 

While many migratory birds are long gone by the time the cold arrives, others like chickadees, cardinals, and juncos remain. Providing them with plants whose berries persist into winter can help them survive the cold months and will encourage these beautiful birds to visit your yard. Some of the best shrubs for berryscaping include hollies (Ilex spp.), Bodinier beautyberries (Callicarpa bodinieri), snowberries, (Symphoricarpos albus), and bearberries (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). While you could grow these plants scattered throughout your yard and mixed in with other shrubs, growing them together in a structured berryscape layout keeps all of your local birds' favorite winter food together and provides you with a gorgeous display all season long.

Starting with large foundation plants, like a bigger holly species or the Bodinier beautyberries, which grow to around 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide, gives the layout of your berryscape a substantial base. The beautyberry's unique purple berries stay on branches well into the winter months, when birds turn to them after other, more appealing foods, are picked clean. These beautiful shrubs are hardy in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 8. 

An excellent holly variety to consider as a foundation plant in your berry landscape is the winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata). Depending on the cultivar, it can grow as large as 15 feet high and 12 feet wide, though smaller varieties are also available. Native to North America and hardy in zones 3 through 9, this plant produces berries that persist well into mid-winter, providing an excellent snack for local birds. 

Both shrubs thrive in moist and sunny locations, though winterberry holly can also handle shade. Winterberry holly, like many holly varieties, is also an excellent deer-resistant shrub for your yard. Just be aware that you'll need to grow both male and female plants for your female holly shrubs to bear fruit. 

An excellent secondary plant to put in front of your larger foundation plant is the beautiful snowberry. Their unique white berries are popular with birds and can often last the entire winter. Growing to a height of around 5 feet, snowberries are hardy in zones 3 and higher and thrive in a variety of soil types in full to partial sun. This versatility makes them a snap to fit into a variety of locations.

A ground cover is a perfect way to finish off your berryscape and tie the planting together. One of the best options for this is bearberry, an adorable North American native plant. This low-growing evergreen ground cover plant seldom gets taller than a foot and is hardy in zones 3 through 7. It thrives in sunny spots with dry or slightly moist soil. This makes it ideal for planting in front of some of your taller shrubs, where its edible berries can offer a winter treat for birds. If your berryscape is on a slope, bearberries can even help with erosion control.