Creating a hummingbird garden doesn’t have to break the bank. These lively little birds bring joy and a splash of color to any garden, and with a few budget-friendly tips, you can transform your backyard into a hummingbird haven.

Let’s explore some cost-effective ways to attract these beautiful creatures.

Choose Native Plants

Native plants are best, if possible. While hummingbirds may be attracted to any number of plants in your yard, hummingbirds have evolved with native plants, which have adapted to local conditions such as soil and climate, according to the U.S.

Forest Service.

Use Recycled Materials

Craft your own feeders and garden decorations using recycled materials. Old bottles can be transformed into charming feeders, while tin cans and scrap wood can become creative, rustic garden art.

This not only keeps costs down but also adds a personal touch to your garden.

Plant in Clusters

Drifts of bee balm, clusters of fuchsia and columbine, and trumpet vine stands complement rose beds. Providing a continuous bloom sequence through the seasons is key to attracting hummingbirds.

If your garden only blooms in the spring, they probably won’t stick around all year long! Or they may choose to find a different garden next year that provides blooms throughout the summer and fall.

Add Water Features

First, provide a source of fresh water. Hummingbirds are attracted to moving water, so consider installing a small fountain or waterfall.

You can also simply hang a birdbath in your yard and change the water regularly. However, the very best bird baths are the ones that mimic the water features that birds encounter in nature.

Birds enjoy shallow puddles of water and slow, babbling streams.

Create Perching Spots

Place your hummingbird feeders near bushes to provide perching spots. Hummingbirds.net says these little birds spend 80 percent of their time perching.

They like to keep an eye on things, not for a long time but long enough to keep an eye out for predators. It’s easier to protect yourself if you can see your predators coming.

The busiest times of day to observe perching hummingbirds are early morning and late afternoon when the birds are most active. However, hummingbirds may pause to perch briefly any time they are not feeding.

Ideal perching spots provide both proximity to food sources and good visibility to watch for competitors or predators.

Use Bright Colors

Hummingbirds are drawn to flowers of bright colors that stand out in the garden and are especially fond of the color red. One reason that hummers are particularly drawn to red flowers is that other pollinators such as bees can’t see red at all.

First and foremost, color does matter. Red flowers are without a doubt the best but there are plenty of flowers that are not red that still attract hummingbirds.

Strong, bright colors, long tubular or cone-shaped blooms and high nectar content are the most important factors to consider when designing a hummingbird-friendly garden. Hummingbirds aren’t known for being fantastic smellers so they rely on identifying colors – and are drawn in by bright red, purples, blues etc.

Grow Vines

The trumpet-shaped flowers of the honeysuckle vine are a favorite of all types of hummingbirds. You can often find these vines growing wild in woods or along fences.

Kentucky native vines like trumpet honeysuckle, passionflower, and trumpet creeper are sure-fire hummingbird favorites. Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is an interesting-looking, spiky flower that hummingbirds love.

It will seed itself in your garden and you can divide it every three to four years.

Avoid Pesticides

If you want to provide hummingbirds with access to insects that they need to survive, we recommend avoiding pesticides. In addition to killing off hummingbird sources of food, pesticides may make hummingbirds sick.

Pesticides may reduce the number of bugs and insects that annoy you, but pesticides can make hummingbirds sick, and these little birds actually need to consume insects to survive! We recommend skipping the pesticides in your hummingbird-friendly garden.

Provide Shelter

Hummingbirds need more than just a meal to feel at home in your garden. They need places to perch and water to bathe in and cool themselves down in summer.

Where possible, you should include plenty of trees and shrubs in your space to provide hummingbirds, other birds, and other wildlife with shelter and habitat throughout the year. Providing a meal for hummingbirds is just one of the essential things a hummingbird-friendly garden should do.

Plant plenty of trees and shrubs and create lots of dense, layered planting schemes to provide hummingbirds with places to perch, shelter, shade, and potentially even nest.

Use Feeders Wisely

Use hummingbird feeders with your own homemade nectar solution: four parts water to one part sugar. Don’t use red dye, as there are concerns regarding the safety of red food coloring.

Replace the solution every 3-5 days. You may need to replace the sugar water more frequently during hot weather.

Use hummingbird-safe sugar water in your feeders, and keep your feeders clean! You can have more than one feeder, but they should not be in sight of each other because that can create negative territorial behaviors among male hummingbirds.

Plant Continuously Blooming Flowers

Ideally, hummingbirds will find blooming varieties throughout the breeding season, even though individual types of lilies may only bloom for a few short weeks every year. A good hummingbird garden will include flowers that bloom throughout the year.

You will want to choose a mix of morning glory varieties to extend the blooming season. Ideally, you will plant patches of other flowers like petunias, bee balm, and coral honeysuckle which will attract hummingbirds.

Create a Layered Landscape

It is a great idea to replace lawns or other ecologically barren garden schemes with rich, diverse, and layered planting to create wonderful habitats for hummingbirds and other wildlife to enjoy. Forest gardens, rain gardens, and wildflower meadows are just some eco-friendly garden schemes to consider.

How you combine your plants is also important. Think carefully about how you can create rich, lush, and layered planting to give a meal for hummingbirds – both nectar and insects – and provide them with nesting sites, shelter, and other things they need.

Incorporate Early Bloomers

An important fact about lilacs is they bloom early in spring, providing a vital source of food for hummingbirds that have just returned from migration. This early nourishment is crucial because not many other flowers have bloomed yet!

Because daisies often bloom early, they may offer a vital visual cue for hummingbirds when not much else has flowered yet. By combining daisies with more nectar-rich plants, you can provide the food hummingbirds need after they migrate and then for the rest of the season.

Budget hummingbird garden checklist

Spec	What our writers say
Plants	Native species adapted to local soil and climate
Planting	Drifts of bee balm and clusters of fuchsia and columbine
Water	Moving water; a small fountain, waterfall, or birdbath
Natural baths	Shallow puddles and slow, babbling streams
Perching time	Hummingbirds spend 80 percent of their time perching
Color	Red stands out; bees cannot see red at all
Vines	Honeysuckle vine; Kentucky natives include trumpet creeper
Pesticides	They sicken hummingbirds and wipe out the insects they eat
Nectar	Four parts water to one part sugar; no red dye
Nectar change	Replace every 3-5 days, faster in heat
Early bloom	Lilacs flower early for just-returned migrants

Keep reading

• 16 Signs Your Hummingbird Garden Needs an Urgent Makeover
• 13 Must-Have Features of Every Successful Hummingbird Garden
• 14 Ways to Make Your Hummingbird Garden Stand Out