4 Steps to Atracting Birds to Your Garden

While birds may disturb your garden during the summer months, in the winter, when your garden is mostly bare, birds can be a welcome addition. They can eat slugs and other pests, and may feed on ornamental berries and provide visual interest and a welcome distraction from the bare branches of winter. So how do you attract birds to your garden?

1. Firstly, birds will be attracted by the geographic location of your garden, depending on where you live. To find out which birds are in your area in the winter, you may want to consult specialty magazines or websites. Libraries and book stores have books based on migration, on the roads that some bird species take to get to their winter residences.

Bluetit One of the many species of wild birds which we attract to our garden bird feeders. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Next, birds need water. This is highly important. A bath or a pool, no matter the size or the material, will attract many bird families, even wild ducks and geese.

3. And maybe most importantly, you also need to arrange a place where they can find some food, bird seeds, bread or anything else they might like. Corn, and seeds of any type can attract many birds towards your garden. One type of seed that almost all birds prefer are sun-flower seeds, which are extremely easy to find, and very inexpensive (be sure to get unsalted and unshelled ones). Before buying seeds, you can check and see which birds are in your area and make a list of their food preferences to make sure you're getting something that will attract the birds you want. Many birds also feed on the brightly colored berries of different ornamental trees and shrubs, so if you have these in your garden it won't attract birds during the green summer months, but in the winter they will come and eat the ripe fruits.

4. These are the first three steps to attracting birds to your garden. The last part is keeping things away from the garden that might scare or disturb birds. Animals such as dogs and cats can scare the birds away. Try and ask the neighbors to keep the dogs chained or in the house during the day if possible.

Also, you must know that some birds do not get along, so that a certain species might avoid your garden because there is another species in it. If you live in a noisy area or have small children that run through the yard often, or if the area does not resemble the birds natural habitat, these can also be factors to keeping birds away. So knowing their nature and customs can be a decisive factor in bringing birds into your backyard garden this winter.

Elements for Attracting Birds To Your Garden:
    

Some Things You Don't Need to Do in a Fall Garden

If you've been reading this blog for a while, and gardening for some time, you may think you've learned everything there is to know about all the things you can do in your garden in the fall, to prepare both the soil and any remaining plants for the winter. You can seed, you can mulch, you can even plant some things now instead of waiting until the spring. You've got a whole big list. However, suddenly you realize that you've had a very long summer of constant gardening work and maybe, like the garden itself, you'd really, really like a break. So what are the things you can skimp on, without putting the garden in jeopardy?

Vegetable plot in winter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First of all, you don't actually have to remove all the dead plants if you don't want to. If you have any diseased plants, of course you don't have a choice with those. If you leave those there, they can break down and affect the soil, and give you some very big headaches in the spring. You also don't want to put any diseased plant material into the compost bin over the winter, because it will infect the entire batch of compost and spread disease to all the plants you use it on. Take diseased material and simply throw it away or burn it.

But something like annuals that have been healthy and are now fading away can be left out in your garden over the winter. First of all, they will maintain the appearance of having some vegetation still in the garden for a while. The remnants of ornamental grasses or hostas coming up out of the snow can be very attractive. And after they've broken down over the winter, most of the time you should be able just to turn them into the soil, and they will be one element of your spring compost.

You also don't need to mulch every remaining plant in your garden over the winter. Yes, if you have some that are a little delicate, you should definitely mulch those. The purpose of the mulch is to preserve moisture so the plants don't dry out in the winter air, and to keep an even temperature in the ground around them. So some plants will still need mulching, to give them some extra protection during the winter months. But for other more hardy plants, you can skip the mulching.

Garden Compost bin made of Bamboo canes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Something you should think twice about doing, although this won't necessarily save you work, is wrapping many of your plants in burlap. If you wrap your plants this way, you could actually end up trapping ice inside the burlap and against the surface of the plants. What many gardeners are now advising is that rather than wrapping in burlap to protect plants against things like cold winds, set up stakes all around each plant and wrap the burlap around the entire enclosure instead. This will serve the same purpose, but allow some breathing room for the limbs of the plants as well.

It's a lot of work preparing a garden in the spring as well as cleaning it up in the fall. It's true, of course, that whatever you leave undone in the autumn will have to be done in the spring instead, so you're not exactly saving yourself the work. However, it's also true that the spring arouses new energy, and people often feel much more ready to get a lot done. So if you're tired at the end of the growing season, and really just want to be done with it all, do just the absolutely necessary cleanup and let everything else go for the winter. Put your feet up, enjoy your well deserved rest, and start recharging your energies for a fresh start in spring.

Considering Part-Time Indoor Gardening?

What is a part-time indoor gardener? These are the ones (like me) that live in an area with cold winters – too cold for most of their outdoor plants to survive in. By transplanting or bringing the plants indoors, they can survive the colder months and add greenery inside the home. There are some considerations and preparations that should be made before you decide to become a part-time indoor gardener.

Image by wockerjabby via FlickrThe most important point to think about before bringing a plant indoors is whether or not it will survive being an inside plant. If the plant has high temperature or very high light requirements and your house does not get a lot of light in the winter time – it may not be a good solution. As a back-up you can invest in an artificial light source to supplement the natural light the plant will get.

How will you get the plant indoors? If the plant is already in a pot that will fit inside it is easy enough to move it indoors. But if the plant is in the ground you need to find a pot large enough to contain the root system and one that will not be too difficult to move. Keeping in mind that when a large plant is transplanted (re-potted or put in a pot for the first time) it may go into shock. Although with careful attention, you can nurse your plant through this.

Most likely you have been taking care of your plants outdoors and they do not have any pests or bugs on them. But it's always smart to double-check. By bringing an infested plant indoors you are putting all of your other indoor plants at risk of becoming infected too. Either forego bringing the plant inside or treat the pest problem before the cold weather arrives.

With a bit of attention to these considerations, it's easy to become a part-time indoor gardener, and you may find you enjoy having some of your plants inside all winter so much that you decide to keep some of them there come springtime!

Spring CSA Update

Well, I've got about a month left in my Winter veggie CSA, so just thought I'd post an update. Although I am mightily tired of turnips right now, it has definitely been my best winter ever, food-wise, and I don't think I'll ever return to grocery store vegetables (other than while in between CSAs - a just-right span of about 6 weeks). Having fresh salads, greens, and other yummy organic locally grown food all winter was often the only bright spot in each long, cold, wintery week. It felt like it just gave a little taste of spring in each reusable bag.... (Below is a picture of my share from a month or so ago. It's a bit hard to see through the bags, but contents included kale, turnips, carrots, shitake mushrooms, spinach, salad mix, and sunflower sprouts. Not bad for February in Ohio!)

Winter CSA contents.

I am definitely looking forward to the variety of summer, however! As awesome as fresh salad greens are, I am really excited for green beans, tomatoes, corn, and all the other summer fare. Don't get me wrong, they do have a nice variety (and decent quantity) during the winter, but shitake mushrooms, spinach, and turnips can eventually get a little repetitive. Luckily lately we've been blessed with some different types of greens (kale, Swiss chard, collards, etc.), and I think there are some other fun things coming soon as well. But it's nice to know that summer is on its way!

In the meantime, if you're like me, in need of some new recipes for your CSA goodies, be sure to check out our Cooking From Scratch blog for recipes I post that frequently include CSA ingredients. (I just posted one yesterday for a Shitake Mushroom & Spinach Pizza that was amazing!)