Part of caring for God’s creation is to be intentional about what you choose to plant on your property. Native plants are best, for they provide food and shelter for the birds and animals that are native to Virginia. These plants and animals have evolved together and so need one another to thrive.
Virginia Creeper is an easy to cultivate as a ground cover, even though it has a climbing habit and will use trees as its trellis if left to its own devices. Its compound leaf has five leaflets, which helps to distinguish it from poison ivy, which has a compound leaf with three leaflets. A carefree vine that needs little attention other than occasional pruning, Virginia Creeper foliage turns a dramatic red color in the fall and produces highly nutritious dark purple berries that thirty-five species of birds enjoy eating, including woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, thrushes, robins, catbirds, bluebirds, cedar waxwings and sparrows. Birds also use Virginia Creeper bark as nesting material. Virginia Creeper leaves also serve as food for several types of moth caterpillars, which means that birds also have access to caterpillars, which they need in order to successfully raise their young. Read more..