Immediately, you can remove those rings of rock around the trees. :) And kill that Palo Verde: the volunteers are usually weak-branched messy things. I would also get rid of the Cape Honeysuckle in favor of something that is more 'deserty', like another tree. It's a big green blob right there. I would start by finding some books on desert landscaping and reading them (Sunset's Western Garden book ... essential and saves a lot of mistakes). Small desert shrubs mingled with the trees, if you can keep the dogs from laying on them, will settle the trees, as will perennial wildflowers like desert marigold, brittlebrush, etc. You can harvest seeds, start them in pots and set them out when the summer rains have started to minimize water use. I do activity-based area planning. Read the article at the link below: it's what I do to clients and have them do before we start talking about picking up a shovel. After you have the activities and how much room they will get, and where, the rest gets much easier. If you need to demolish anything, do it as early as possible. Landscape as if the fence you plan is already there. To continue the landscape out past the chain link fence, just repeat the plant material and lines across the fence. Instead of a line of anything along the fence, have an open group of them falling across the fence line. Beware of Cassias - some can become invasive pests. I'm still fighting Feathery Cassia seedlings from the ones we removed 5 years ago. Stick to AZ desert natives or plants that don't have a rep for running amok. For more shade, and we AZonians do really need it, how about a trellis or arbor along the "dog walk". Check zoning and building codes, but usually an unroofed arbor is OK. http://www.flickr.com/photos/38617480@N07/3614575147/in/set-72157619486607319/ shows my west-side arbor. It's growing a Queen's Wreath and some beans right now. Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own landscape plan

Well any bush or small tree that is spiny (if this is not an issue with young children around) is sure to attract desirable nesting birds such as the Song sparrow. Check if the one or two Berberis species (commonly nammed barberries) that are native to the USA are now clear with your local laws. (They used to be banned because they transmitted wheat rust disease to crops.) An Hawthorne also makes an excellent nesting bush for small birds, but they are slow-growers. Song sparrows and Red cardinals also love any dense thicket of Red cedar (which the waxwings and robins will also devour the fruits from) or arborvitae (White cedar) to nest inside and get cover for sleeping during those nasty winter weather spells... We have two large Sambucus canadensis, fruiting heavily in the sun, two other ones that strive under dense shade(Sort of as an experiment... last year they had sprung from the ground just like a perennial, seemingly dying to the ground in the fall... But this spring the buds are forming higher on the old fall branches, so maybe these two will recover and become full-fledged shady spot shrubs... we'll see). Then we have a specimen of Sambucus pubens, and this other native species indeed grows fast (gotta be careful about root competition at first though) in the shade, flowers in its first couple of years, then fruits almost as soon as it flowers! Fruits are shining bright red in the shade and are a very pretty sight in early summer, but these do disappear fast with the birds!! I am surprised that you seem to have problems finding those plant species at the nurseries. Here in the Montreal area and suburbs, at some points in the season they come almost a dime a dozen! I suggest you shop around a little more. And don't forget that if you buy small potted plants from Internet dealers (search here in the archives to find those reliable dealers), in the case of Sambucus, they grow so fast and easy that this should not be an issue for you.

For years I had a tube feeder full of nyjer seed, but sparrows used it more than anything else. Only once in a while I would see a goldfinch eating from it. A month ago I replaced the tube feeder with a sock. There was an immediate increase in goldfinches, with up to a few of them on it several times the first week. After one week there was a big increase in goldfinches and it has not let up yet. There are almost always 1-4 goldfinches on the sock and several times, including today, there have been 8-12 fighting each other to get a space on the sock. They are such beatiful birds and it is great to see so many of them now. I hang the sock from my tree about 6 feet from the ground and so far I've never seen any squirrels messing with it.

How nice this thread got bumped! I enjoyed re-reading it and thinking about how much the yard has changed in a year. My bird-friendly yard is evolving. Have made great progress removing invasives, particularly Bittersweet, Buckthorn, and Norway Maples (treework cost me $2000 last year and there's still one GINORMOUS Norway maple left). There was a lot of brush created by all this tree/shrub work. Some was burned this Spring, right smack in the middle of the Oriental bittersweet patch, but the rest is in piles. The brush piles attract a lot of birds, particularly Sparrows, Cardinals, Juncos, and Wrens. The birds also love the back half-acre, which is wild and full of Crabapples, Choke Cherries, White Pine, and still some invasives like Honeysuckle and Autumn olive. Also making great progress on growing bird-friendly natives. Purchased another 50 native tree/shrub seedlings from the NH Nursery. That makes 130 total between this year and last - all of which ultimately make berries/nuts for the birds and wildlife. Most of them are in holding beds and haven't flowered yet, too little, but I've given away some and started to plant out a few. I winter-sowed many native species of perennials, annuals, and vines. Exactly where all this stuff is going, is not completely clear at this point, but I'm creating lasagne beds like crazy! The birds are always flitting around the yard and it's only going to get more interesting and fruitful for them (hopefully). It's great!