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Making Your Garden An Inviting Habitat For Birds

Birds are amazing creatures and they are simply entertaining to watch and listen to. No wonder, a lot of people are encouraged to keep birds in cages so they can watch these beautiful flying creatures closely. However, you can still enjoy birds and their songs without locking them up in a cage. If you have a garden, you can recreate this space into a welcoming oasis where birds can fuel up and take refuge. Below are some useful tips to get you started.

Know the birds and their needs

The first step that you have to take is to know what types of birds frequent in your area. Find out about the plants that have the food they need. The more you know about them, the easier for you to give them what they need. At the most, birds require accessible food sources, water and places to make their nests. They do not like places where predators are lurking. So be sure to keep these things in mind when you tend to your garden.

Think variety

Just like people, different birds have different food preferences. Some birds eat seeds, some love fruits, while others feast on insects or nectar. Hence, if you want to attract a wide array of birds into your garden, consider growing a number of plant varietiesâ€“combine flowers, ground covers, fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. The greater the mix of vegetation you can give, the greater variety of birds will be enticed to hang out in your garden.

Layer the look

Birds love to congregate in environments with multi-tiered and densely packed arrangements of plants. So when planting, aim for a tiered effect. For instance, you can put larger trees at the borders, followed by lower trees, fruiting shrubs, and clumps of bushes and vines, then tall grasses, blooms and ground covers. This is a pleasing composition that mimics nature and will supply sustenance, refuge and protection to different kinds of birds year in and year out.

Keep bird feeders year-round

All too often, homeowners bring out their bird feeders during cold months when birds spend nearly all their time and energy seeking for food. This should not be the case in your garden, though. Keep feeders filled for spring and summer, too, so that you will get patrons year-round. As an added bonus, you’ll get to enjoy the colorful plumage of birds while you sit back and relax in your garden.

Quench their thirst

Birds get thirsty, too. So aside from the plants, provide them a source of water as well. You can use birdbaths around your landscape to give your flying visitors splashy spots where they can drink and bathe. Just make sure that each basin is just two inches deep so that birds can easily drink and they should also have a rough surface for better grip.

To protect the birds from lurking predators while they drink and bathe, position the birdbaths a few feet from shrubs or trees so that the immediate perimeter is open, but close enough to sheltered areas where they can easily getaway. Likewise, always keep the birdbaths clean and add fresh water daily. You can also outfit them with birdbath heaters so that they would still be accessible to birds during winter. To further invite birds, you may also use bubblers and misters along with birdbaths.

Hang houses

Nesting pairs will find refuge in your garden if you include birdhouses in the landscape. The placement and the size of holes of the birdhouses will depend on the type of species you are trying to invite. For instance, wrens love to nest in areas surrounded by trees, but other birds like purple martins prefer raising their broods in big, open areas.

To prevent territorial disputes, build the birdhouses away from feeding stations and each box should have a space of a minimum of 25 feet in between. Also, choose sturdy materials when building and securing the boxes in place. It is recommended to stay away from using nesting boxes with perches as they are a magnet for pest birds.

This guest post was written by Ericka for Lothian Skip Hire, a premier skip hire in Falkirk. Ericka has been writing articles about a wide variety of topics for some years now. However, she is particularly interested in providing helpful posts about gardening, outdoor living and home improvement.

How To Grow Your Own Carrots

by Trish

It is much better to grow your own vegetables from home, not only do they taste much better, but they are also much cheaper and healthier. Once you start growing your own vegetables, you will never want to go back to buying them from supermarkets.

You shouldnâ€™t worry about growing your own carrots from home as it is quite an easy and quick process, as long as you have a little time to prepare your carrot seeds and to plant them.

Step One

The first step to growing carrots is to sow the carrot seeds. This may sound a little complicated, but trust me, once youâ€™ve got the hang of it, it wonâ€™t ever be a problem again.

You should first make sure that you are planting your carrot seeds at the right time of year, it should say on the back of the packet when it is the best time to plant them. Most varieties of carrots are usually planted in March, if you wanted to get a start on your vegetable growing earlier than this, you can buy the Scarlet Horn or Nantes variety which can be sown in as early as February.

Before you begin sowing your carrot seeds, you are going to need to prepare your soil. You should prepare quite a large patch of soil; to make sure that it is healthy for your carrots to grow in you should dig it up and remove any weeds, stones and debris.

Step Two

You are going to need quite a lot of space to sow in your carrot seeds, the soil also needs to be quite deep so that the carrots have plenty of room to grow.

You should sow the seeds directly into drills. You should aim to sow them half an inch deep and 15cm apart.

Step Three

You need to keep your carrots healthy and fresh; to do this you should water the compost on a regular basis. If you start to notice that your carrots are wilting, this means they are not getting enough water. Give them a good soaking and this should rescue your carrots from any problems.

Step Four

It will usually take around 12-16 weeks for your carrots to grow properly. Once you believe the carrots are big enough for your use, they are ready to harvest.

Before careful when you pull them out of the ground, if it is a little tough to pull them up you can use a fork to help break up the soil around them.

Jenny started growing vegetables from her home and has really enjoyed it. She gets all her gardening equipment from http://www.gardenhealth.com/

Creating the Perfect Lawn From Seed

by Trish

The perfect lawnÂ doesn’tÂ just happen. Rather, it is the result of hard work, patience and common sense. However, as long as the basic rules are followed, even a novice can achieve excellent results.

One of the keys to a perfect lawn grown from seed is soil preparation. First, the site has to be dug over and cleared of any detritus, stones and weeds. Weeds fall into two categories â€“ annual weeds and perennial weeds. Annual weeds are easy to clear as they can be got rid of by hoeing or just in the act of turning over the earth and disturbing the roots. Perennial weeds are, however, a different matter, and require more care. When digging over the site, take care to remove all traces of roots as well as obvious weeds such as dandelions. The reason for this is that if you leave just one bit of root, no matter how small, it will probably return with a vengeance a few months down Â the line and spoil the look of your new lawn.

When you are satisfied the area is weed-free, you can set about ensuring that you have a level surface on which to sow the seed. If you are dealing with a large area, you may find it easier to mark it out into sections and do one at a time. However you do it, it is useful to have a spirit level that you can place wherever desired to check that youÂ haven’tÂ created any slopes and that any hollows or bumps have been evened out. The best tool to use for flattening and levelling is a garden rake, which can also be used to break down any lumps of earth to form the fine tilth that you require.

At this point, you can take a breather, as you need to leave the prepared bed for two to three weeks to allow any weeds to germinate. When they do, treat them with a weedkiller and rake off after a couple of days. Then, apply a base dressing comprising of a micro-granular or compound granular fertilizer and leave for a few more days.

Now itâ€™s time to sow the seed. Sowing is a relatively simple business, provided you do it on a dry, windless day, but before you even buy your seed, bear in mind what your lawn is going to be used for. If it is a family lawn that is going to bear the brunt of any manner of indignities, you require a different type of seed to someone who is going to plant a lawn for a putting or bowling green. Make sure you get the right seed mix by going to a reputable seedsman. It may cost a little more than the local garden centre, but his advice will prove to be well worth any extra cost in years to come.

Scatter the seed in the proportions (grams per square metre) advised by your seedsman or on the box. To avoid sowing unevenly and to make sure you have sufficient seed, mark the plot out into sections of one square metre with a little sand. If you donâ€™t do that, you may run out of seed before youâ€™ve covered the whole site.

Finally, spray the area with water. Itâ€™s vital to keep it moist over the first ten to fifteen days, so the seeds will germinate. Depending on whether you sow in the spring or the autumn, the best sowing times, you can either rely on the weather or have to do it yourself, but donâ€™t let it dry out. When the grass has reached a height of about five centimetres, you can cut it to about two to three centimetres with a rotary mower.

Written on behalf of the seed specialists King Seeds