Easy Bird Feeding
We’ve had perfect fall weather for getting out into the garden and cleaning up, so I’ve been taking advantage of it. I picked the last roma tomato yesterday and there is something with tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella in my immediate eating future.
I also did something for the birds that I do every year. We’ll often save the big sunflower heads for feeding in the winter, but, this year, all of the sunflowers were squashed and killed, except for 3 plants that seeded themselves – all a variety with smaller heads.
The sunflowers are spent now, but the birds haven’t eaten many of the seeds yet, so I clipped off all of the sunflower heads and put them in one of my empty raised beds for the birds to enjoy. This is a very easy way to feed the birds!
If you have kids, they’ll love doing this. We clip the stems off, leaving only about an inch of so on. Then you just “plant” the stems into the ground so the heads stick upright for easy feeding. It’s easy, fun and you get to watch a lot of bird activity, too.
I don’t have much in my vegetable garden that I worry about the birds eating, so I purposely try to attract them there for insect control. I’ve found birds are one of my best organic gardening methods.
October 14, 2012 - 4:04 PM
Still looking for the name of the giant sunflower like I planted quite a few years back. Head had to be 10″/12″ across and loaded with biiigggg seeds.
KH, I think I need to revisit my post on peppers before somebody gets the wrong idea. My growing situation is unique in two ways and should explain my take on it.
First off, I’m above the frost line. Meaning I happen to be in a saddle on top of a ridge with valleys on both sides. Cold air normally settles in the valleys at sundown and continues overnight. Cold air is heavier and displaces the heat that’s built up all day, therefore pushing the warmer air upslope. That means on a normal morning spring and fall, I’ll be 4 to 6* warmer than say Poages Farm or a sheltered valley. That allows me to push my season as much as 3 weeks earlier than the last frost date in the spring.
Second reason is how and where I grow. In container pots backed up to the house with direct southern exposure. That helps hold up the temps in the spring and also in the late, second bloom period. Therefore “earlier is better”, like in getting them out earlier. And “cooler is best” since my growing season is extended but the days are definitely turning cooler. My second blooming never produces the size of peppers one gets in the early summer, but a second crop nonetheless.
Karen, liked your idea for the sunflowers. We just cut the plants off about 8 above the ground and then “weave” them into our 4 ft. high fence that surrounds the garden. Then after awhile, we just pull up the rest of the stalk.
Planted close to 100 garlic cloves this past weekend and also planted some fragrant daffodils in the flower garden for next spring. I still have another bag of daffodil bulbs to add to another flower garden.
Gardening is not done for us up here on (Upgraded) Doppler Ridge. We have a row of peas that are just now making pods. We hope that they will survive to maturity. A row of green beans is still hanging in there. We have been covering them these past cold nights. Hopefully we will be able to pick some in the next few days.
They’re shore pushin their luck.