Welcome to Home Grown Living - Gardening Tips and Information
Article
Gardening For Birds
Gene
Creating the perfect garden for birds begins by understanding the needs of birds.
Birds, as with other wildlife, require certain elements in the garden to survive.
These elements include:
Food
Water
Shelter
Planting for birds can add beauty as well as function to your backyard.
Food:
Begin by surveying your yard. You may already have some of the ingredients
needed for a bird friendly backyard.
Many flowers you already enjoy provide food for the birds. Coneflowers are
a favorite summer and fall food source for Goldfinches. Sunflowers offer
the seed that attracts the greatest variety of birds.
Consider tubular flowers for attracting Hummingbirds. Favorites include
Trumpet vine, Cardinal flower, and Scarlet runner.
Annuals can also attract these tiny hummers, try including mass plantings of
salvia, impatient, and containers of geraniums.
Adding some of the ornamental grasses will also provide late summer feeding
for birds, while providing beauty in the landscape. Those tall plumes provide
seed Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, and Purple Finches love.
Shelter:
Trees and shrubs in the landscape not only provide beauty but offer the birds
a place to hide and raise their young.
Flowering Dogwoods, and the small fruited crabapples, not only provide a valuable
food source, but will attract Robins and others to nest in spring. Select varieties
that hold their fruit well into winter.
Favorite shrubs include, Service Berry, Honeysuckle, and American Holly. Plant
these and you are sure to be visited by Robins, Thrashers, Mockingbirds, and more.
Shrubs are also a favorite nesting site of the Northern Cardinal.
Evergreens are an essential part of the bird garden. Providing important shelter
and berries during winters cold. In spring, you'll be rewarded by nesting birds
by planting a few varieties of tall evergreens.
Water:
How you provide water isn't important. Whether you add a full backyard pond or
a simple bird bath, just be sure to add water. Birds need water not only to
drink, but also to keep their feathers in tip-top shape.
Even in winter, a water supply is needed. Consider purchasing a bird bath heater.
A heated bird bath will not only keep an open water source available for the birds,
but will offer you a greater variety of birds to watch. Without a winter source of
water, birds will have to use energy used to keep warm and survive to find water.
Allow your plants to remain in the garden through the winter. This allows the birds
to feed on seed heads and insects much longer.
Consider placing feeders and birdhouses in your yard. Once you've watched House Wrens
scouring the soil for insects in your vegetable and flower gardens, you'll be
convinced, gardening for birds is in your best interest.
Visit Wild-Bird-Watching.com for bird watching information on the nesting, mating, and feeding habits of backyard birds.
About the Author
None
Gardening Store Best products
Gardening Store News
gardening store
IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!
A total of 109 stores are closing nationwide. Phillips-Brown said the Garden City store just didn't do enough business. Food Lion is launching a re-branding campaign that shifts its focus north, she said, to areas with more Food Lion stores and ...
Read moreGarden City Food Lion officially closed
Apple's highly restricted app store is a blade that cuts two ways. Fans of the high tech gear buy into a secure "walled garden," where they have the perception that malware will never infest their iPhones, unlike those "riskier" Android devices.
Read moreApple's Walled Garden: Sledgehammer Needed
GREENSBORO — The discount supermarket chain Aldi will open a store New Garden Square next year. The grocery store will open sometime in 2013 at 1507 New Garden Road, according to Kendra Shaw, the company’s Salisbury division director of ...
Read moreAldi to open store on New Garden Road
The highly popular Vancouver BBQ, Outdoor Fire Pits & Tables, Patio Furniture, and Outdoor Patio Heater store, the BBQ Shop, has announced that they will be an exhibitor at the upcoming Fraser Valley Home & Garden Expo on February 10-12, 2012 in ...
Read morePopular Vancouver BBQ Store to Exhibit at upcoming Home & Garden Expo
it is down to eight retail stores, eight food-court vendors and a couple of businesses like the local bar association. So part of the glass-covered mall is being converted into a vegetable garden. “I look at it as space, I don’t look at it ...
Read moreHow About Gardening or Golfing at the Mall?
Many native birds and wildlife call this park home. One way to support this inner-city sanctuary is by shopping at the Wegerzyn Gardens Foundation Gift and Garden Shop at the 2nd Street Market. All proceeds benefit the Wegerzyn Gardens Foundation ...
Read moreWegerzyn Gardens gift shop is thinking spring
The Tri-Town Chamber is currently seeking exhibitors for the 2012 Home & Garden Show. Prospective exhibitors include appliance stores, builders, flooring companies, home decorators, electricians, home security, HVAC, kitchen/bath companies, landscapers ...
Read moreAnnual Home & Garden Show March 11
This is the replacement for IBISWorld's November 2011 edition of Nursery & Garden Stores in the US Industry Risk Ratings Report. Industry Risk Ratings Synopsis This Industry Risk Ratings report from IBISWorld evaluates the inherent risks associated with ...
Read moreNursery & Garden Stores in the US - Industry Risk Rating Report - new industry profile report
Being a horticulturist by trade and a home gardener by hobby, I’m always excited each winter when stores start putting out gardening supplies and plants again. I’ve never understood why some businesses consider the lawn and garden section to be “seasonal.”
Read more