Attracting birds to your garden

Attracting birds to your garden

One of the greatest joys of gardening is the pleasure you get when birds, butterflies, and other wildlife start visiting your yard. Birds and butterflies are particularly enjoyable, because they’re beautiful to watch while they’re going about their business.

If you like the idea of attracting birds to your garden, it’s easy enough to do. Just plant some trees, bushes, shrubs, and flowers which are naturally attractive to them!

Trees which produce some type of berry - even berries which are not edible by humans - are almost always guaranteed to bring birds to your yard and garden. The birds will particularly be attracted during the winter time months, because finding food that time of year is more difficult. And once you’ve started attracting birds to your garden, they’re more likely to keep coming back each year.

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Garden Tip...

If a new lawn of any extent is to be made, it should first be plowed deep, and if uneven and hilly, grade it to a level surface. The surface should have a heavy dressing of manure, which should be lightly plowed under, and then the surface should be dragged several times until fine, and then rolled with a heavy roller. The seed may now be sown, after which it should be rolled again. The spring is the best time to do this work, although if the fall be dry, it will answer nearly as well to do it at that time. The dryer the ground in preparing it for the seed, and for the sowing of the same, the better.
~ James Sheehan
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A crabapple tree is an excellent example of a fruit bearing tree which attracts birds. The Sugar Tyme Crabapple species will actually help to attract up to thirty different species of birds to your yard because it bears fruit throughout the fall and winter.

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Garden Tip...

This question is frequently asked! Do you recommend the use of artificial fertilizers for house plants, and does it benefit them? I invariably answer yes, if used judiciously. The use of good special fertilizers will help the growth of some kinds of plants, which, without such aid, would scarcely meet our expectations. The term artificial fertilizers, applies to all manurial applications, save those produced by domestic animals.
~ James Sheehan
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Dogwood trees are another wonderful choice for attracting birds. The Cornelian-cherry Dogwood produces deep red berries in late July or August, which the birds feed on through the winter.

If you don’t have room for trees in the yard though, try some bushes and flowers instead. The American Cranberrybush for example, grows red berries through the winter, which can attract up to thirty-five different types of birds. Spicebush, St. John’s Wort, Bayberry, and Sumac are examples of other bushes and shrubs which attract a wide variety of birds to the garden too.

Keep in mind that any type of tree, shrub, vine, or plant which produces fruit will attract many birds to your garden. So if you’re trying to grow fruit for yourself or your family such as grapes, strawberries, or blackberries, you might actually find yourself having to fight the birds for the fruit.

If flowers are your preference, then anything which produces nectar of some kind will help attract birds to your garden. Flowers which have a tubular shape to them are especially attractive to hummingbirds, as is the color yellow in large masses.

Honeysuckle vines are particularly attractive to both hummingbirds and bluebirds, and Roses, Sunflowers, or Butterfly weed will attract both birds and butterflies to your garden too.

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