Birds & Blooms Newsletter

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THIS NEWSLETTER is from the editors of America's most popular food magazines...

*Birds & Blooms* brings beautiful backyards from across America into your living room through vivid, full-color photos. It's like a friendly "chat" over the back fence with your bird-and-flower-loving neighbors. To subscribe or give a gift on-line, click here. To visit our website, click here.



*Backyard Living* is the all-new, one-of-a-kind magazine that's guaranteed to help you improve and enjoy your backyard like never before. Each issue is packed with easy projects, great gardening hints, luscious recipes for backyard entertaining, and more! To subscribe or give a gift on-line, click here. To visit our website, click here.

Dear $$firstname$$, Greetings from Birds & Blooms magazine! Take advantage of the practical yard and garden tips in this issue--then take time to enjoy some avian antics like those described here. Read on and you'll discover... All for One... No Topsoil? Grow Cactus! Backyard Bits Fun Feeding Frenzy Mantises? Prey Tell Birds Tell the Temperature

All for One...

ONE MORNING, Dean O. of Harrison, Arkansas noticed a dozen sparrows chirping away while huddled together on his circular driveway. "Suddenly, three of them flew up and perched on a fence near the driveway," he relates. "Then each bird flew off the fence, landed on some tall flowers growing next to the driveway and 'rode' the stems, bending them over until they touched the ground.

"When they reached the ground, the other birds rushed over and started pecking on the ground. My wife and I watched as they repeated this process over and over again. "We finally realized that the 'worker' birds were shaking dried flower seeds off the flowers for the birds on the around to eat.

"It was quite a sight to see them exhibit such teamwork. It seems that birds, like many other creatures, can work together for a common purpose."

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No Topsoil? Grow Cactus!

WHEN Margaret T. says it's hard to grow things in her La Grange, California backyard, she really means it. "We have just a couple inches of topsoil over solid rock," she explains. "Our builder had to use dynamite to blast a hole for the septic tank!"

Taking a cue from her surroundings, Margaret used the scrap rock from that hole to build a raised cactus garden. "With all the rock under the garden, it drains really well, so it's perfect for cactus. Some people may not think cacti are very pretty, but I think they're breathtaking when blooming. I spread the plants apart so it's easier to maintain them without getting pricked."

Margaret says she gets the majority of her cacti from friends. "It's very easy to meet other people who grow cactus because they like to talk about it and share cuttings. It's a great hobby. Even though I have other kinds of plants, my yard just wouldn't be complete without my cactus garden."

To view a photo, click here.

Backyard Bits

FOR a satisfying garden in a small space, consider a cottage garden (sometimes called an English garden). The cottage garden, as its name implies, originated in the yards of English cottages and was filled with annuals, perennials and herbs that seed freely and spread on their own, resulting in a colorful garden with an informal, casual style. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, English gardeners refined the cottage garden by strategically placing plants to create color schemes and continual blooms. Today's cottage garden can be any variation or combination of the two.

Are crows crowding out other feathered friends from your feeders? Try eliminating all suet feeders and use seed feeders with small or no perches. You might also try using weight-sensitive feeders with feeding holes that close when a large bird or critter sits on the perch. Feeders enclosed with wire mesh will also exclude crows. You might try using safflower seed, which crows don't appear to eat.

Fragrance is one benefit often overlooked while planning a garden. Try growing annuals such as sweet alyssum, flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), heliotrope, four-o'clocks, sweet pea, scented geraniums and stocks (Matrhioia). Also consider perennials such as roses, thyme, lavender, sweet woodruff, lily of the valley, hardy lily, hyacinths, jonquils, peonies and sweet autumn clematis. And be sure to plant them in areas where you can enjoy their sweet scents!

Considering a decorating or craft project using empty bird or wasp nests? Think again. Birds' nests are protected by federal law, so it's illegal to collect them. (Most songbirds don't reuse old nests, but there is some evidence that house wrens prefer to "remodel" an old nest rather than build a new one.) As for paper wasp nests, you can collect them in late fall and winter--just be sure the wasps have gone!

Fun Feeding Frenzy

HAVE YOU ever seen a flock of cedar waxwings quickly eat a crop of berries off a tree? "For years, we've had the pleasure of witnessing this event at the fire department where I work," says Gary P. of Trimble, Tennessee. "A berry tree nearby attracts dozens of the birds at one time--they nearly cover the tree's foliage when they come to eat."

The black-masked birds are as fascinating as they are beautiful. Truly sociable, they have an amusing habit of passing berries from one bird to the next, all the way down a row of birds, until one bird eats the food.

"I encourage readers to watch for waxwings in their hometowns," Gary says. "Just be careful where you park your car--the berry stains left behind by the birds are the only downside to watching one of their feeding frenzies."

To view a photo, click here.

Mantises? Prey Tell

HERE'S MORE information (continued from last issue) on beneficial insects and how to attract them to your yard.

Like ladybugs, praying mantises are voracious insect eaters...but they devour good bugs and bad ones alike--even each other! Still, they do more good than harm because they eat cutworms, pest beetles, flies, aphids and other harmful bugs. Mantis eggs can be purchased from garden centers or garden catalogs.

Spiders eat many times their weight in bad insects and can be invited to your yard by mulching with straw. (Technically, spiders are arachnids, not insects, but most people don't differentiate.) Other beneficial insects include tiny parasitic wasps and hoverflies, whose larvae have huge appetites for bad bugs. Attract them by planting nectar-producing flowers throughout your garden.

Moisture is important to attracting beneficial insects. Try placing a shallow dish near the nectar and pollen plants that attract them, and include a few small stones in the dish so the insects have a place from which to take a drink.

"Edge habitats"--places where two different landscapes meet--also attract good insects. Grassy borders and piles of leaves against walks or fences are ideal spots for crickets and spiders. Letting a part of your garden go wild may actually welcome more beneficial creatures than a well-groomed yard. If you have an out-of-the-way spot, try not mowing or raking one small area. Consider letting a few weeds grow, too; many are beneficial to insects. For instance, the humble dandelion attracts bees, hoverflies and crab spiders.

Invite some beneficial bugs into your yard and you may be able to put away the pesticides!

Birds Tell the Temperature
	JUST glance out your window and you'll read our beautiful Bird Thermometer with ease. This 12-1/2"D outdoor thermometer gives the temperature in F and C and offers an attractive decoration in your backyard. Works just as well and looks nice indoors, too. Easy to install. Mounting template included. Weather-resistant plastic.
To order the Bird Thermometer from Country Store On-line, click here.

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Birds & Blooms magazine brings beautiful backyards from across America into your living room--through vivid, full-color photos. It's like a friendly "chat" over the back fence with your bird-and flower-loving neighbors.

To subscribe on-line, visit http://www.birdsandblooms.com/rd.asp?id=350

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