Appeal to birds
by Sonali Gangane
Title
Appeal to birds
Artist
Sonali Gangane
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Plans begin in winter for a garden that will attract birds all year around.
In the middle of winter, I start having visions of flowers. Of buds pushing up from thawing soil. Of color spreading where lately has been only brown or white. Maybe it’s the steady rain of garden catalogs arriving in my mailbox that stimulates my botanical imagination. Winter's the right time to start planning a bountiful garden for birds.
The cardinal on the hawthorn twig must receive intimations from his own sources, for he has started singing again on sunny mornings, tentative phrases for now. He knows too. Spring is coming. Landscaping for birds begins with trees and bushes. But the right flowers attract birds also. It's not the blossoms themselves that most birds want. Birds want the seeds that come later. Daisies of all kinds form generous, nutritious seeds. And leave those seeds for the birds! Don't deadhead all the blossoms when blooming is over. The dried seed heads will bring you finches, sparrows, cardinals, and towhes.First you get the blossoms, and then in winter your garden will bloom again with gold of finches and red of cardinals. Win, win! Birds also love zinnias for their seeds. It's one of the easiest of flowers to grow. The selection of colors and forms is enormous. As a bonus, your zinnias will entice many species of butterflies into your garden. In fact, the zinnia patch in your own garden is a great place to get closeup views and photos of butterflies. For a stunning experience of beauty, walk through your zinnia patch on a summer day with a close-up binocular such as the Pentax Papilio, which focuses as close as 18 inches, and see individual scales of color on the wings of a butterfly!
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Thanks for viewing.2013©Sonali T. Gangane
Uploaded
February 4th, 2013
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