{"id":11796,"date":"2014-11-01T06:20:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T13:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11796"},"modified":"2014-11-01T02:01:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T09:01:47","slug":"special-ideas-to-help-birds-and-wildlife-in-your-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/environmental-gardening\/special-ideas-to-help-birds-and-wildlife-in-your-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Ideas to Help Birds and Wildlife in your Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Bird Feeders by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6369004791\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.staticflickr.com\/6119\/6369004791_ae65e98349.jpg\" alt=\"Bird Feeders\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Feeding and Feeders<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>I like the use of a candle or tea light holder to carry a suet ball or piece of fruit on the spike that normally holds the candle.<\/li>\n<li>Seed feeders come in various shapes. Look for one that allows the seed to run freely and not get wet in a sump. Wet seed will germinate and block the hole.<\/li>\n<li>Include special feeds for special birds like meal worms, fruit even pasta as well as nuts seeds and your usual bird mix.<\/li>\n<li>Put some feed on the ground. I put a cover over the seed and bird food. You can get different sized spaces for larger or smaller birds.<\/li>\n<li>Make or buy a feeder that will stop seed falling on the ground in the slightest puff of wind.<\/li>\n<li>Make your own fat ball food with seed and fat or suet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Bird Feeders by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6369014629\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.staticflickr.com\/6211\/6369014629_aea22b36e6.jpg\" alt=\"Bird Feeders\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Grow Plants That Help Wildlife<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Grow bushes which <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/environmental-gardening\/berry-bushes-for-birds\/\">produce berries<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Grow plants that produce plenty of seedheads for<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/environmental-gardening\/seed-heads-for-wild-life\/\"> winter food<\/a>. Leave them all winter if necessary.<\/li>\n<li>Plant perennials that provide all year around habitats rather than short lived annuals.<\/li>\n<li>Select plants that are rich in pollen and nectar chives nettles and Monardia for example.<\/li>\n<li>Plant native species and not exotics and F1 plants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Special help for Special Visitors<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Have more than one supply of water for drinking.<\/li>\n<li>Add some sugar to water to attract butterflies.<\/li>\n<li>keep water and food away from cats and predators.<\/li>\n<li>Do not be too tidy, leave an area where wood can rot and feed insects.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid chemical sprays.<\/li>\n<li>Plant up winter hanging baskets to provide habitat and varied food sources.<\/li>\n<li>Think vertically as well as horizontally. Birds like to be above ground for feeding and safety.<\/li>\n<li>Keep feeders, water and food areas clean.<\/li>\n<li>Donot bother feeding the sea birds in our picture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Bird Feeders by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6369035029\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.staticflickr.com\/6096\/6369035029_8a6afb06dc.jpg\" alt=\"Bird Feeders\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sources.<br \/>\n<strong>Ten Plants<\/strong> for birds<\/p>\n<p>&#8216; * Centaura scabiosa &#8211; the seeds provide food for birds and other wildlife<br \/>\n* Taxus baccata &#8211; this native evergreen shrub produces berries which provide food for birds and other wildlife<br \/>\n* Campanula carpatica &#8211; a compact nectar-rich variety that sits well in gaps between paving<br \/>\n* Fagus sylvatica &#8211; a native tree that supports a number of insects and food for animals<br \/>\n* Anthriscus sylvestris &#8211; a nectar-rich plant attracting lacewings and hoverflies which eat aphids<br \/>\n* Ilex aquifolium &#8211; this evergreen shrub produces winter berries which provide food for birds and other wildlife<br \/>\n* Cotoneaster horizontalis &#8211; this deciduous shrub produces brilliant red berries in autumn which provide food for birds and other wildlife<br \/>\n* Buddleja davidii &#8211; the ultimate attraction for butterflies<br \/>\n* Achillea millefolium &#8211; nectar-rich plants which are wonderful for attracting bees and hoverflies<br \/>\n* Lonicera fragrantissima &#8211; a fragrant shrub which makes a nesting site for birds and a refuge for insects&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grow Plants That Help Wildlife and feed birds from suitable feeders. Keep it up during winter and watch birds raise families next spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}