Eight or 10 years ago, when a young pine tree needed some companions, Paula Hamelik rounded up quailberry and snowberry, which are low-growing pine rockland plants, along with a sturdy silver palm and a native cycad called coontie. These South Florida plants are increasingly rare in the wild, so Hamelik decided to give them a home together in her Pinecrest yard. That was the beginning of what this month was certified as a National Wildlife Federation habitat. And here's the thing about it: it has gradually evolved into a comfortable refuge for birds, butterflies and critters as well as people.

It does not harbor native plants to the exclusion of everything else, but blends natives with exotic fruit trees and palms. It is a welcoming yard, taking in creatures, rescued areca palms, found and traded plants and neighbors who gather after work.

The mulched beds are edged in coconuts or old palm trunks, which give the yard a hand-made authenticity. Two benches and a small table are arranged on a patio of pavers beneath the shade of an oak. Staghorn ferns and orchids have found suitable tree branches in which to nestle. An unused barbecue has become a much used planter.

Here and there are things that have significance for the people living here: a small statue of a Buddhist monk, a round ceramic cat, a ceramic penguin beneath the cherimoya tree, a couple of chairs that have worn through their primary function and serve cheerfully in a less supporting role.

Paula, who is the gardener, is a massage therapist. In her spare time she volunteers at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, leading walking tours in the winter and cleaning seeds in the summer, and goes to hula school one night a week in Fort Lauderdale.

Her husband Ron is a researcher at the University of Miami medical school. The Hameliks have lived here for 28 years, "except for a little hiatus after Hurricane Andrew," Paula says. They have three cats, one of whom is a dedicated butterfly watcher.

BIRD BOOKS

When a 9-year-old neighbor, Freddy Schaefer, called Paula over to look at a woodpecker nest, Hamelik decided it was time to concentrate on the wildlife refuge aspect of her yard. She will stop in midsentence to point out a bird, and bird books are brought out to decide if a passing raptor is a red-tailed hawk or a red-shouldered. Being in nature is, well, second-nature.

"Mom was from a Podunk town in north Louisiana," she says. "She was an avid Girl Scout leader and so my sister and I were brought up with a lot of nature and camping."

She also likes home-grown fruit, and her wildlife habitat might well pass as an idiosyncratic tropical fruit grove. Carambola, mango, allspice, black sapote, cherimoya, sugar apple, lychee, grapes, coconuts and canistel are the flavors of choice.

Canistel, or egg fruit, is not often grown in South Florida; there just aren't many aficionados here. Canistel has a yellowish flesh with the consistency of a baked sweet potato. "It makes a great pie," Hamelik says. Especially when she adds chopped coconut and macadamia nuts to the top. Her allspice tree is female and produces berries, which are the source of the spice. In addition, Hamelik incorporates the leaves into her massage work. "I use the leaves to make massage oil," she says. "I shred fresh leaves and put them in sunflower oil. I filter that a week later. It's wonderful for arthritis."

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