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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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What’s on the menu for birds this winter?
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| Thursday, 15th November 2007 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
In 2006 we had a long, hot dry summer (remember: droughts and a water butt shortage – how could I forget?). But as a consequence of the warm weather trees and shrubs throughout the country produced an abundance of seeds and berries. This in turn gave our wild birds plenty of natural food. There were a few fatter-than-usual pigeons around my neck of the woods!
This year is a different story, however. This year’s yields are dramatically down – which will mean that birds are likely to return to gardens, seeking their autumn and winter food. Studies have shown that many tree species produce a large seed crop every four or five years, but this is usually followed by a ‘rest year’. Autumn 2006 saw a huge crop of beechmast, but autumn 2007 appears to be just such a rest year.
A widely noted shortage of acorns has already seen jays on the move from their woodland-edge habitats. Lack of conifer seed, an important winter food for siskins and crossbills, is also apparent.
While it is a good idea to feed wild birds all year round, so allowing many species to flourish and to provide entertainment and enjoyment for us mere humans, feeding birds in the colder months is actually a matter of life and death to huge numbers of them.
The British Trust for Ornithology is also urging people to stock up on suitable seed mixes in readiness for a busy winter in the garden.
Birds exist to feed! They often need, it is claimed, more than their own weight in food per day. So, how do you know the best types of food to provide?
Fortunately, garden centres offer a good range of foods suitable for most of the bird species that are likely to visit gardens – and you can choose from a wide range of feeders and tables, too. There are seasonal feeds, and all-year-round feeds. And there are mixes for different groups and types of birds, too.
Here’s a sample menu for the bird restaurant just outside your house:
Hors d’oeuvres:
Small slugs, cutworms, leatherjackets, vine weevil larvae (whenever I’m digging or pottering about in the garden, the moment I come across such juicy morsels as these, which make perfect appetisers, I’ll pop them on the bird table as a sort of running buffet!)
Starters:
Mealworms, waxworms, peanut granules, sunflower hearts (favoured by robins)
Mealworms, waxworms, finely chopped peanut cake, grated cheese (selected by wrens)
Mealworms, seed mixes, sunflower hearts, mixed corn (the choice of house sparrows)
Main courses:
Seed mixes, sunflower hearts, black sunflower seeds (the option of bullfinches)
Seed mixes, peanuts, most live foods for sale, kitchen scraps (preferred by starlings)
Seed mixes, mixed corn, grain (in demand by collared doves)
Desserts:
Fruits (such as raisins and sultanas), peanuts, mealworms (regarded as ‘ideal’ by blackbirds)
Fruits (raisins, sultanas, and other berries not required for the home), peanut granules, mealworms, earthworms (voted ‘top’ by song thrushes)
Peanut cake, peanuts, sunflower hearts, black sunflower seeds (enjoyed by any of the tit family)
Side orders: A little bread (wholemeal preferably, not white, may be taken to the table, but not in large, unmanageable chunks as that will put the birds off; it needs to be accessible)
Drinks: The food may be washed down with a choice of waters, either rain or tap (the important thing is to make sure it is available, and that birdbaths do not become dry; even in icy weather birds need plenty of water)
The above menu, of course, isn’t complete, as we don’t have the room to list every type of wild bird, nor of the all the different foods eaten by them. But by supplying this kind of food, the birds that do visit your garden will certainly be happier and healthier and, who knows, may even leave the berries on your holly bush alone this year!
Finally, there are a couple of ornithological cuisine tips that are worth imparting:
First, don’t store your bought bird food in an airing cupboard, or in a conservatory in full sun, or in an attic in summer, as these places are all too hot, and will make the food go bad, or unpalatable.
Second, (and this is the really horticultural bit) do grow a few plants in your garden that encourage insects, and provide nesting sites for birds.
And think about growing plants that produce fruits – if you like, ‘sacrificial crops’ that the birds will go to instead of your prized plants.
And lastly, it is a good idea to try to include some native species (hawthorn, beech, oak, dogrose, alder, and so on) if there is room, as these tend to attract more insects, and consequently more birds.
Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Don’t forget to prepare sites for your new fruit plants and cover the soil with plastic to keep out the worst of the autumn rains and cold. This will enable you to plant trees bought during winter – even in frosty or wet weather!
The autumn snowdrop, Galanthus reginae-olgae, looks so much like the winter snowdrop that you would be forgiven just for thinking that it got its timing wrong! When a clump has finished flowering, lift it, split it and replant it.
Root-prune vigorous, non-flowering plums and cherries to curb growth and encourage fruit spurs to form next year.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
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