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Birdfeeder in flowerbed?
Shutterfly
Posts: 24
I'm new to gardening and relatively new to the UK. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the birds I was able to attract back home (USA) and would like to attract birds to my garden here.
Unfortunately, I have a postage stamp garden in an urban area and the only option I have is to put a pole feeder in my only flower bed. I know that some feed seeds are allelopathic (sunflower seeds in particular) so I was wondering if you guys/gals know what plants would do well under a bird feeder? I wouldnt want to exclude sunflower seeds from my feeders as we have a small population of bullfinches which I'm hoping I can tempt into my garden (in addition to other species).
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Bullfinches regularly feed from hulled sunflower seeds in a squirrel buster feeder hanging from a hanging basket bracket on the house wall. I finf the voles and mice clear up any they chuck out. I have a pole feeder in a flower bed, the worst problem is with grass seed such as oats being chucked out and growing. You just have to pull them out. I wouldn't deny myself the pleasure of watching the birds, just because it causes extra weeding.
Bullfinches will take seeds from forgetmenots. They grew ok under the feeder(and everywhere else)
Someone on this forum once suggested microwaving the bird food before putting it out so that it can't germinate. I don't know what this does to the nutrients (nor if it even works) but it might be worth considering if you struggle to weed the grass seeds or are concerned about them affecting other plants.
What soil do you have in the flower bed? Is it often overly wet / dry? I'd think this would be more an issue than a bird feeder.
Just to play Devil's advocate - Bullfinches also feed on tree buds, especially fruit trees.....
The No-Mess feed mixes are good, birds tend to waste less of it and as it's been husked it doesn't germinate if spilled.
http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/bird-food/no-mess-sunflower-mix-bird-seed.html
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've seen bird food with "non germinating" or something similar on the packaging, but it was much more expensive so I've not tried it. But it's out there should you want it.
Unfortunately I tried this (feeders hang off the apple tree above the soon to be herb garden) thinking it a good idea to keep the stray weeds down and found it still germinated (I put some in a pot in some damp cotton wool to see as I wasn't sure whether I was just suffering a LOT of weeds). Maybe mine was a bad patch!
We have a birdfeeder hanging from a cherry tree over our flower border and use sunflower hearts.
We tried ordinary sunflower seeds - the problem wasn't so much one of germination as of seed/husk spilling (en masse - see below!) and growing a thick crusty and furry mould - no kidding, we thought at first there was a dead mammal on the ground! We were concerned about the spilled seed attracting mice or rats. Being on soil it wasn't easy to clear up the considerable spillages caused by collared doves.
We were plagued by these (nothing against them apart from when they plundered our feeder!). Every time they landed (2 or 3 at a time!) on the plastic base/tray, seed scattered everywhere and they guzzled almost as much from the feeder as they spilled, sat on the telegraph pole till they'd emptied their crops and returned again soon after to repeat the spilling and guzzling. Eventually they snapped the plastic tray/base off.
We invested in a "cage" type anti-squirrel feeder to keep them out - the goldfinches, tits, chaffinches and sparrows have no problem, it's paid for itself in the seed that isn't wasted, and we have no problem cleaning up!.
Thanks for the feedback/ideas/suggestions everyone
I think sunflower hearts are the way to go.
I was reading today that fairy roses are easy to grow and do well under feeders which I initially liked the thought of, thinking that a bushier plant could inhibit the growth of weeds from seeds, but it has thorns which can make cleaning up a bit more tricky lol