10 Everyday Garden Habits Driving Hummingbirds Away

Your hummingbirds didn't leave because of a storm or a cat. In almost every case, the thing they needed was removed on purpose — by you, with good intentions, probably on a Saturday. None of these ten habits is careless. Every one of them is something a careful gardener does because somebody taught them it was correct. That's exactly why they're so hard to spot. The ten: Deadheading the moment a flower fades Buying the double-flowered version Feeding the garden too well Spraying the aphids Clearing the spider webs — the one nobody knows about Sweeping up every fallen leaf Cutting everything back in October Deep mulch and landscape fabric Rearranging the garden every year Doing the whole year's work in one weekend Most of what's on this list isn't work. It's the absence of work. Two things in the comments: which of the ten were you doing this week, and if your birds ever vanished right after a big day in the garden, tell me what you'd been doing and where you are. That pattern is more common than anyone has recorded.