Building a Habitat Tripod for your Garden

Pollinator Habitat Tripod Garden

Looking for a simple and natural way to attract birds to your garden? Try building a habitat tripod! Made from three sturdy branches tied together at the top creating a tripod and then underplanted with pollinator friendly plants, this habitat provides food, shelter and perching space for pollinators, small birds and other wildlife.  You can enhance your tripod habitat by weaving in twigs, grasses, or vines, focusing on pollinator friendly native plants.  Also consider including a shallow water dish to encourage visits. It’s an easy, low- cost way to support biodiversity—and it adds rustic charm to your garden, too!

We started researching, and found a great article from NC Extension about building a habitat tripod for pollinators & small birds—and we knew just the spot for it in our Experiential Learning Garden at the Extension Office. We had a large cement planter that once housed a beloved deodar cedar. Sadly, the move from our former location on Broad Street to Criswell caused it stress, and despite our best efforts, it didn’t survive. While we were disappointed to lose such a beautiful tree, we saw an opportunity to reimagine the space—and give it new life as a welcoming habitat for pollinators & birds.

Here's a step-by-step guide to constructing a habitat tripod in your garden, along with a photo example to inspire you:

Gather Materials:  Collect three sturdy branches, each about 6-8 feet long which can be harvested from local woods (or use purchased bamboo poles) and twine.  Here we used 4 branches as our cement pot was square. 

Getting Started - laying out our plants!

Assemble the Tripod:  We inserted the branches into the soil sufficiently deep to ensure stability and several inches from the edge of the pot to provide room for spiller plants outside of the poles.   Then we lashed the poles together about 6 to 8 inches from the top with twine, wrapping multiple times and knotting firmly. 

Now comes the fun part – plant pollinator friendly vines and plants:  First, we placed all plant material to ensure fit and design. At each corner (pole) we planted Thunbergia, ‘Sunny Susy Amber Stripes’ (common name black-eyed Susan vine), twining it around the poles.  On the sides, we planted Zinnia ‘Profusion Double Cherry’, annual red and coral Salvia, Coleus ‘Electric Green’, white Bacopa and yellow Calibrachoa (common name million bells or mini petunias). Directly under the tripod apex, magenta Cleome ‘Clio’ (common name spider flower) was planted.  Finally, in the corners in front of the Black-eyed Susan vine we inserted pink Angelonia (common name summer snapdragon or angel flower) along with purple Calibrachoa.

The final touch was painting the planter to make it cheery and bright. This simple, fun structure will be buzzing all summer, providing food, shelter and perching sites for pollinators & small birds, enhancing biodiversity in the garden. We hope you will stop by and see it!  If you need assistance starting a tripod habitat in your own yard just reach out, we would be happy to help you out. 

We hope you will stop by and see it!