Attracting Wildlife to Our Food Forest | Stony Oasis Farms

Feeding Wildlife at Our Food Forest in Central Washington State

I have started my journey of creating a food forest in the foothills of the Simcoe mountains in central Washington state...all on my 80 acres I have named Stony Oasis Farms. The main goal of my efforts is to simply attract wildlife to my property. And, after 5 years my efforts are becoming very effective in that regard.

I have a hammock set up right by my pond at Stony Oasis, and take breaks there, the blue birds come and eat the bugs attracted to the pond....I think the pond makes their hunting much more fruitful. I have installed over 100 birdhouses sized for these endangered Bluebirds, and have two active clutches right near the pond. It is incredibly satisfying to me watch the wildlife take advantage of what I am creating in this dry-land environment!

I also have all the creatures a pond can attract...frogs, snakes, salamanders, and all the thirsty creatures that need a drink. The next nearest open water is 1/2 mile away...one of 3 ponds I had dug on that end of my property over 25 years ago. Thing is two of those ponds only hold water for a few months...but the pond my hammock sits next to is fed by water that is pumped out on the ground at the top of a small hill, so holds fresh water all summer long. Turning my property into a true oasis.

Much of what I am doing is simply for the wildlife I share the forest with. Another thing I do is buy those 30 lb bags of mixed bird seed and scatter about 15 lbs of the seed around. Not only does this feed many seed eating birds, squirrels and others, but some of the seed will actually sprout...produce an abundance of those seeds, and feed the birds all winter. A benefit of this is the animals that feed on the bird seed also bless my planting areas with their manure. It is a win/win!

I was standing by one of my sprinklers that was running and a humming bird was taking a bath...I could tell he was excited seeing plants and flowers he would see no where else up there for miles around. he was flitting from flower to flower...I think in amazement!

The area my property is in is a semi arid part of Washington state that receives about 17 inches of rain fall a year. Introducing water all summer long is a game changer as far as what one can grow there. The first few years I was not sure just what I can grow...but I have come to realize I can grow most things...just have to wait to plant frost sensitive plants after the first of June or so.

I now have 4 year old trees I have planted and some....in particular the Elm trees are 30-40 feet tall now. I also have apple, pear, apricot, honey locus, plum, maple. mulberry, english and black walnut...to name a few. I have also just gotten a great deal on 26 fruit trees I just planted, and I plan to get 30 more. I literally want to plant thousands of trees....we will see how many I can get in the ground.

Needless to say the wildlife love what I am doing there, and if you would like to view many of them visit my YouTube channel....https://www.youtube.com/@jjeerrrr

If you are into cannabis you can support my efforts at Stony Oasis Farms by picking up some of my cannabis seeds at Just Cannabis Seed. I also sell some herb seeds on that site, and will be growing more herbs and expand my herb seed sales inventory. All monies go toward plants, and infrastructure at Stony Oasis.