It's not hard to make a garden that will lure hummingbirds, but if you'd like to build a home in which they will gladly nest and live all the way through the northern summer, you want to provide them with more than a sugar water feeder and a plant or two. An active hummingbird garden doesn't have to be huge, but it will have all of the following major ingredients to draw in and keep the little fairies.

Select plants that bear flowers many times through the spring, summer and autumn.

Flowers are the major ingredient in getting hummingbirds to your garden. The small birds feed on nectar that is made by flowers, and appear particularly attracted to plants with trumpet or tubular bright red and orange flowers. Some of their particular favorites are rose of sharon bushes, rhododendrons and azaleas, so the red trumpet isn't a hard and fast rule. For northern gardens that beckon the ruby-throated hummingbird, select from the list of plants below, be sure that you select plants that bloom at different times during the flowering season to furnish food for them during spring, summer and fall.

Spring Bloomers

Azaleas, rhododendrons and rose of sharon bushes make a great setting for hummingbird gardens. They flower early in the spring and keep on blooming through the early summer. Pink and bright red varieties are preferred, but hummingbirds love all rose of sharon types.

Summer Bloomers

Bleeding hearts and red mountain columbine flower in the early summer, also salvias, petunias, trumpet honeysuckle, morning glories, trumpet vines and impatiens, all of which catch hummingbirds. A wide scope of shade patterned impatiens is an effective attraction for hummingbirds, who hunt by sight.

Autumn Bloomers

Butterfly bush, garden phlox, day lilies, bee-balm and impatiens all will keep hummingbirds returning through the autumn and entice late migrators.

Have a source of water in the hummingbird garden.

Unlike bigger birds, hummingbirds will rarely take advantage of a bird bath or bowl of water. Instead, they enjoy cool mists. A garden hose with a misting fixture or a small fountain that can be adapted to a fine mist will keep them coming back.

Vertical space for hummingbirds to perch and nest.

Hummingbirds require shelter from predators and tiny branches for perching and resting. By selecting a couple taller bushes or trees, you can offer both.

A few feeders will provide a treat in your hummingbird garden.

There are scores of commercially designed hummingbird feeders built to be attractive to the little roamers. Pick feeders with bright red accents to get their attention, and a feeder that holds about 8 ounces of sugar water. Instead of using one big feeder, place 2 to 4 of them around your yard, out of sight of each other if possible. Hummingbirds are notoriously territorial. By offering several private feeding stations, you will increase the amount of hummingbirds that you attract.

They are another reason to go organic because they need not come in contact with chemical pesticides or herbicides that many spray around their flowers and vines. Help them survive.