I admit it – I’m a bit of a lazy gardener. Sure, I get all fired up in springtime to get busy in the dirt. But by midsummer, the heat and humidity zap me of my gardening prowess. My mode is all about enjoying the garden and trying to keep it alive and healthy through the summer heat.
Our handmade terra-cotta bird feeder serves up a feast of tasty seed for the neighborhood feather set.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
The sparrows keep our family entertained in the garden all summer long.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
Sparrows line up on our fence, waiting for their turn at the feeder.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
This summer, I found a new way to make my garden more enjoyable – bird feeding. My daughter’s school hosted a special fund-raiser, where they auctioned off student artwork. In addition to a fantastic knockoff of pop artwork made by 3rd graders, I picked up a handmade terra-cotta bird feeder.
It seemed easy enough. I headed to the garden center to find a hanger for my new garden art and check out my birdseed options. I learned there are many formulas specially blended to attract specific birds. I live in Illinois, where the cardinal is our state bird. It’s one of the few feathered friends I can identify when I see it, and I also know its bird call – a sound that amazes my kids whenever we hear it nearby. I ended up buying a pretty basic mix that contains sunflower seeds, which are supposed to bring in the cardinals.
We filled our back yard feeder, and now that it’s been out a few weeks, we’ve got birds galore! Well, OK, they’re really just sparrows and the occasional robin so far. But the girls and I love to watch them picking through the feed. It’s been fun and interesting, as well as educational.
Of course, my inquisitive darlings noticed there weren’t any cardinals. When they asked where the red beauties were, I did a little more research about bird feeding. The answer was painfully obvious: Birds have a lot of food sources in summer, so they don’t rely on humans and our bird feeders like they do in other seasons. That satisfied their curious minds just fine. And for now, they’re happy just watching the hungry little sparrows eat their share. (Once in a while, we get an adventurous squirrel visitor, too. But I think because the feeder bounces and swings, they don’t scavenge in the birds’ food too often.)
So far, the bird feeder’s been a great midseason addition to our garden. It’s not so close that the birds take off any time we come outside. If fact, when the girls run in the sprinkler, the birds seem to enjoy watching them as a kind of dinner theater. Later this summer, we’re gonna pick up another feeder to add to the garden in our front yard, so we can sit inside and watch them from the comforts of our couch all winter long.
For this lazy gardener, the bird feeder’s added a whole new dimension to our yard and brought new life to our landscape in the heat of summer. We know it’ll bring enjoyment all year-round – and hopefully some cardinals.
