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Old Bird

June 28th, 2010 admin No comments

Old Bird

Herbal Food for Birds

HERBAL FOOD FOR BIRDS

When you’re planning your herb garden, don’t forget the birds. They need healthy herbal food, too. Any plants that put out seeds, nuts, berries or fruits are good for birds. Flowers are a good source of nectar as well as seeds.

When planning your garden, take into consideration the trees and plants that grow wild around your home that might provide herbal food for birds. Are there Juniper trees in the area? Juniper trees have berries almost all year long.

How about holly trees, Oregon grape, pine trees, wild huckleberries and blackberries? They all provide good herbal food for the birds. Seeds can lie dormant on the ground for months providing herbal food for birds for most of the winter.

Choose flowers that have a lot of seeds, such as, nasturtiums, calendulas, and columbines. They will drop their seeds and what the birds don’t eat will come up again next year, providing more seeds for the birds.

But some areas, especially in the Northern United States and Canada, have very cold winters with a lot of snow and ice that covers these seeds. In these areas our fine feathered friends have a very hard time. We can help them through these hard times by providing homes and herbal food for them.

An old pie tin or a plastic lid from a coffee can filled with seeds and placed in an out of the way spot in your yard or on your deck works fine as a feeder.

A 90 year old woman shared this idea with me many years ago. She would put a hook in the end of a large pine cone, drizzle honey over it, and roll it in a pan of seeds. Then she would hang it from a tree limb or a hook on her porch. The seeds stuck to the honey and the birds had an herbal feast.

An old, clean milk jug or coffee can makes a nice birdhouse. Just cut a hole in the side, put a lid on it and hang it from a tree limb. If you’re crafty you can paint it in camouflage colors or glue bits of twigs, grasses, leaves or pinecones on it to make it blend in with the surroundings.

I’ve never tried this but I’m told there are gourds that can be dried, hollowed out and used by the birds as birdhouses. Do gourds have seeds? I’m not familiar with gourds so I don’t know. If they do, save them for the birds.

Sunflower seeds make good herbal food for birds and squirrels alike. Since they grow very tall they are ideal for the back side of your flower borders. They can hide unsightly buildings, or vacant lots full of weeds. By the way, weeds have edible seeds for birds, too.

Because they are fast growing, have big, showy flowers and lots and lots of delicious seeds, they are popular with children. What a great way to introduce your children and grandchildren to gardening and learning to provide herbal food for the local wildlife! What a great learning experience to share with the kids.

When you cut open a green pepper, save the seeds. Pumpkins, squash and melons all have lots of seeds. Save them all and feed them to the birds. You can dry them and add them to the mix of herbal food in your feeders or simply spread them on the ground in an out of the way place in your garden or yard (like behind the sunflowers). The birds will find these herbal foods and enjoy them.

If you’re making tomato sauce or ketchup you’re probably discarding the seeds anyway. Save them, dry them and feed them to the birds. If you’re making applesauce or pies, throw the apple cores out behind the sunflowers. The birds will find them and dig out the seeds.

Most department stores and feed stores sell birdseeds if you don’t have room or time to grow them. If you’re not crafty or handy with a hammer and saw, visit our online store for a variety of cute and useful birdhouses and feeders.

However you decide to do it, let’s provide healthy herbal food for the birds this winter. Let’s give them a steady supply of herbal food and a warm, snug home. It won’t cost much and they’ll provide you and the kids with many happy hours of bird watching.

About the Author

Dina Hunter is the author and owner of www.healthyherbalplants.com She is a firm believer in natural healing with fresh natural foods and herbs.She uses herbs for pain, stress and joint care As a cancer survivor she has done a lot of research on herbs to help recover from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.