Simple Gardening

Welcome to Simple Gardening

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

Bulb Gardening Best products

Bulb Gardening News

bulb gardening

Winter sunshine is unlike the light at any other time of year. With the sun at its lowest trajectory, its rays are subtle and slanting, seeking out every nuance of shape, tone and texture. The trunks of trees are thrown into stark relief, and those ...

Winter plants and flowers: Make the most of winter sunshine in the ... - Daily Telegraph

Listen to Walter Reeves Saturday mornings on NewsTalk 750 WSB-AM from 6 to 10. Call 404-872-0750 to ask questions. His Web site, walterreeves.com , contains thousands of answers to lawn and landscape questions. Watch "Gardening in Georgia" each week ...

Early rising won’t hurt daffodils, dig up forgotten dahlias - Atlanta Journal Constitution

There are a lot of people living in urban environments who would love to bring a little more homegrown goodness into their lives, but honestly don't buy that it's possible. Let's be honest, when you wake up to car alarms and reside several stories ...

This Year Make The Resolution To Start Your Urban Homestead - Huffingtonpost.com

Darrel Koehler writes 'The Prairie Gardener' for Thursday's Herald. Send garden questions in care of him to Grand Forks Herald, P.O. Box 6008, Grand Forks ND 58206-6008. Santa Claus may have left amaryllis bulbs under your tree this holiday season ...

Bring some tropical beauty into your home - Grand Forks Herald

A gardener’s list of resolutions should be flexible. Gardening is a combination of science and art. We work within a definite framework of rules but we must always be open to the spontaneous whim of the creative spirit. I might be willing to make a ...

The Garden Life: Gardeners, resolve to define vision for your garden - Columbian

Jonathon Gruenke | Kalamazoo Gazette Sandy Evink, greenhouse manager of VanderSalm's-Flipse Flower Shop, 1120 S. Burdick, removes dead leaves from a poinsettia recently. Evink suggests using houseplants to add color and texture to a home during the ...

Fresh air indoors: Houseplants can enliven inside landscape, fight ... - MLive.com

I know we complain about the heat in the summer, but as gardeners living in North Texas we don’t really have much to complain about in the winter. In other areas of the country gardening comes to a complete halt, but we are only interrupted a day ...

January an excellent time to tend to, create new beds - Cleburne Times-Review

del.icio.us. Sponsored by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), where Marzolla is co-chair of the international commission, the delegates connected with key players in Cuba’s eco efforts. The trip made quite an ...

Is Cuba a Jolly Green Giant? - Santa Barbara Independent

In the dead of winter, I enjoy looking at my sleeping garden, with the sunshine dancing off the ice-covered plants. I think this is because it's the only time of year I can take in the view without feeling a stab of guilt over my failure to keep my ...

Don't let your garden wither this winter - County Press

It's time for our annual New Year's resolutions! Normally, we include dropping a few pounds in those perennial pledges, but seeing as how the anemic economy has all of our wallets already losing weight, I'm going to emphasize the money saving aspects ...