You do not need a big garden or a plan from a designer. A hummingbird garden is four plants, one water source and a feeder, arranged so a bird can see them from the air. Here is the first year, in order.
Before you buy anything: find your dates
Everything below hangs off one number — when hummingbirds reach your area. Look it up first, because it decides when you plant and when the feeder goes out.
Step 1 — Pick the spot
- Sun for most of the day for the main bed. Most nectar plants want it.
- Somewhere you can see from inside. This sounds soft. It is not — you will notice an empty feeder or a sick-looking plant weeks earlier.
- Near a shrub or small tree. Males spend most of the day perched, watching the patch they are defending. Give them the perch and they stay.
Step 2 — Four plants, four slots in the season
The single most common mistake is buying everything in one trip in June, which gives you a garden that blooms for three weeks. Buy for the calendar instead:
- Spring: wild columbine or a penstemon.
- Early summer: a native honeysuckle.
- High summer: wild bergamot.
- Late summer: cardinal flower, or jewelweed if you have moist shade.
Plant each in a clump of three or more. A single stem is invisible from the air.
Step 3 — Add water
Hummingbirds rarely use a deep birdbath, but they will use a mister, a dripper or a shallow dish with a stone in it. A slow drip onto a broad leaf is the classic trick.
Step 4 — Hang the feeder about ten days before they are due
Males arrive roughly a week ahead of females, and the first bird through is scouting. An empty feeder on that day is a yard that gets skipped. One part white sugar to four parts water, nothing else.
Step 5 — Stop tidying
- Leave some spiders alone. Hummingbirds build nests with spider silk and eat small insects constantly — nectar is the fuel, bugs are the protein.
- Skip the insecticide. A yard sprayed for mosquitoes is a yard with nothing for a hummingbird to feed its young.
- Leave the seed heads and stems standing over winter. They shelter the insects that next year’s birds will eat.
What year one actually looks like
Perennials spend their first season putting down roots, so expect a thin show and a lot of feeder traffic. Year two is when the planting starts carrying the garden and the feeder becomes the backup rather than the main event.
The short checklist
- Look up your arrival dates.
- Buy four plants — one per season, three of each.
- Plant in sun, near a perch, in sight of a window.
- Add a shallow water source or a dripper.
- Hang a clean feeder ten days before they are due.
- Put the insecticide away.
Sources
- Maine Audubon — native plants for hummingbirds
- National Audubon Society — when to expect hummingbirds
- Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute — nectar recipe
Last reviewed: October 2026.