|
Sunflowers and wasted seed
This is probably old news to most you, but thought I'd bring it up just in case there's someone who hadn't thought of it: Sunflowers!
Yes, I know, a sunflower diet is not good. However, as a toy, sunflowers are great! We had a bunch of "volunteer" sunflower plants start under the wild bird feeders in the garden and I started cutting off the heads as they died off and dried them. This week I finally gave a head to each bird and they are all in heaven (the heads are very small as these are black oil sunflowers, not the striped kind). Molly doesn't even eat the seeds-they're too small for her to figure out. She just painstakingly pulls out each seed and throws it on her tray and then shreds the rest of the flower head. She fights it and talks to it and throws it all around. It's hilarious!
If you have a yard, try tossing out your "used" seed mix and give it a squirt with the hose every once in a while if you aren't in your rainy season. I usually throw whatever is left in their seed dishes under the bird feeders every other day (and most of the seed is wasted, they prefer their pellets and nutriberries over everything). The squirrels and doves like to feed off the ground, so I don't feel like I'm wasting money quite so much LOL. Funny thing is, I have the most bizarre garden going in that spot now. I have a pumpkin plant that stretches twenty feet across the yard, climbs up two of my garden cages, and across the fence. It has tons of baby pumpkins starting on it. I have sweet peas and buckeye and just this week three corn stalks popped up. It isn't too much of an eyesore and gives me a source of free and pesticide-free goodies for the birds. I would never have thought to do this on purpose, but love the results. The sunflowers alone are gorgeous and many people think I planted them on purpose :)
Julie
|
06-28-2007, 02:15 AM
Linear Mode
