For the Birds

One of the things I've been reading about lately is attracting birds to your garden. I bought this suet feeder and stuffed a seed brick in it (it's a bit hot for suet right now). It's hanging in the quince, which is the tree best able to stand that much weight right now.

I've also ordered some bird feeders and birdhouses from a catalog; they're not here yet so I can't see how effective they are. I'm not sure where I'm going to hang them: the trees in the yard are kind of small and played out as far as hanging stuff goes. I think I'm going to have to get a couple of shepherd's crooks or set in some poles.

I hung a new hummingbird feeder in one of the nectarine trees (all the hummingbird feeders are well away from windows or mirrored surfaces). The hummingbird came over and checked it out immediately, but most of its action is from ants. I don't mind attracting ants to the garden: insects are fine anywhere outside of the house. I like that the new feeder is small, because large seems to be a waste of materials, given how often the nectar gets changed. Also, it hangs nicely in the tree.

The corn seems to be thriving. I've never grown corn before, so I was not sure what to do, but it seems to want compost and water, which I have plenty of. It's an ornamental, but technically you can pop it and eat it. When I read that I thought of a bunch of "edible gardening" web sites I read where they talked about fruit that was tasteless and mealy, if technically edible. I'd rather just eat the tasty food from the garden, so I'm planning to feed it to the birds when it's grown, rather than eat it myself.

I've also set out a pan of bird seed. And there are lots of insects in the garden, which is very attractive to the avian set. I think it's just a matter of patience, now. The garden will grow into its space and the birds will come.

Technorati Tags: birds, hummingbirds

posted by ayse on 07/17/06