Content
- The five most important seed plants for songbirds
- Sunflowers - cold buffet for flying garden guests
- The second life of the sunflowers
- Grain Amaranth - did the Aztecs well!
- Convinced gardeners let thistles stand
- Marigolds: natural health for humans and animals
- Buckwheat, the whole fruit for garden birds
Sunflowers are very popular with birds
The five most important seed plants for songbirds
Now that you know the most important facts about the ideal crop rotation, there is certainly still some space between the beds and borders, which makes an excellent source of food for the songbirds in the garden. Such seed plants do not have to be used over a large area, in many cases already sufficient individual specimens, with which the feathered musicians can lure very easily in winter in your garden. Especially since the sunflowers - which we already have at one of the most important sources of food - not only visually make a magnificent figure in the garden, but are also extremely easy to maintain.
Sunflowers - cold buffet for flying garden guests
Thanks to the comparatively large and very productive seeds, sunflowers are particularly suitable as natural feed dispensers and can even replace an extra birdhouse. In addition, the huge blooms provide plenty of nectar-gathering bees throughout the summer. How to dry the sunflowers and conserve the flower heads for the winter, we have described in a detailed article in the garden journal for you. But there is another method that is used very often.
The second life of the sunflowers
Even if the plants are near withering and the leaves turn brown, they would be too good for the compost. Apart from that, the seeds would take root at the beginning of the next growing season and deprive the compost of valuable nutrients. Therefore, cut off the flower heads just below the stem, later you will need some binding wire and a screwdriver.
The sunflowers are finally hung on a hedge or a tree, which you can watch from the house. Only a little time will pass before the first feathered guests arrive at the sunflower seed buffet and enjoy the delicious seeds.
Grain Amaranth - did the Aztecs well!
The small seeds of the foxtail plants are due to their high protein content particularly well as bird food in winter and are very easy to digest for the animals. Although the amaranth is one of the undemanding plants, it looks very decorative in the garden and can reach stature heights between 30 cm and several meters. The millet-like seeds are in a capsule that opens up easily. At the non-harvested seed stands, wild birds enjoy the whole winter through, so you may waive a possibly planned autumn cut of your amaranth hedge with a clear conscience. The fruit stands can also be cut to maturity in mid-October, dried and later, in the winter, similar to the above-described sunflower seed buffet, be hung in the trees.
Convinced gardeners let thistles stand
And if you prefer it to be "neat" in your garden, you should at least collect and dry the mature fruit stands or flower heads so that they can be left to the birds as a source of food for the winter. For this reason, natural gardeners even plant specific varieties with very intense colors in a targeted manner, thus ensuring particularly beautiful blooms and additional bird food over winter. Very suitable are:
Most of these species tolerate even extremely dry locations harmless and appear because of their strong colors, especially in smaller rockeries very decorative.
Marigolds: natural health for humans and animals
How you can use the marigold as a food and medicinal plant and what natural medicine has been using successfully for centuries is described in a very interesting article in our garden journal. The cultivation of the daisy family is very easy and on almost all floors, the location may like to be a bit sunnier. From June to October, you will be spoiled with very colorful flowers, where you do the birds in the garden with the fruits still something very good. Just leave some of the marigold flowers to self-service for the birds in the garden. Otherwise, the flower seeds can be dried after harvesting and later spread in the feed house.
Buckwheat, the whole fruit for garden birds
The grains of buckwheat are due to their slightly nutty flavor to the favorite food of the feathered journeymen. With 71 percent carbohydrates mixed with 9.8 percent protein and 1.8 percent fat and 4 percent fiber, the seeds of the Knöterichgewächses among the most nutritious feed, however, contain a lot of moisture. After the harvest season in September, a very thorough drying process is essential to prevent mold growth.