Is there a best place for a feeder? Not having luck....
Tally
17 years ago
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tracey_nj6
17 years agorembetika
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Anyone have any luck feeding your yard birds suet?
Comments (12)Tony, I'm with you. I have never had any luck with suet of any type or recipe in Florida. I DO think you are more likely to succeed with it in cooler weather because the birds need a much higher energy type food then. And also because many types of suet cakes and mixtures spoil quickly in the heat. But even in winter, my woodpeckers prefer to eat sunflower seeds directly from the tray feeder, and they ALL ignore the suet. I do buy the big SEED cakes (BirdOla, etc) that just look like lots of seeds, peanuts and fruit somehow molded into a large square. You probably know what I mean...there's no suet that you can see, just the seeds & fruit bits. I put that in a wire holder designed just for it, and the goldfinches will eat from that, until it gets too small for their short beaks to reach it through the wire. They still drop shells and a little bit of seed under the feeder, but they can't fling it all over while looking for something they like, so it's much less messy. My goldfinches finally showed up about 3 weeks ago, and I've had as many as 30 in the yard at once. There are at least 4 that are almost completely yellow and black now. Just gorgeous. I haven't seen any buntings or grosbeaks this year, though. And the chipping sparrows left right when the goldfinches showed up. But I'm happy...I have my cardinals back, my white-winged doves are here, and my goldfinches. My seed-eating catbird and my seed-eating Myrtle warbler both left, after stuffing themselves for several weeks. (They obviously didn't get the memo telling them they prefer insects and fruit.) I'm really happy now that the squirrels can't seem to reach the feeders any more. (Still knocking wood, though.) Try one of the big seed cakes and see if you like it! Marcia...See MoreModifying Best-1 Feeders for Safety
Comments (10)Gak! I've never even seen these feeders before, and when I saw the picture I was horrified. How can these people who make these 1. call these "Best-1 Feeders" and 2. claim they are easier to clean? The very easiest to clean feeders I've found are the saucer feeders, you just have to make sure they don't have the yellow flowers (what on earth are these feeder makers thinking with using yellow anyway??? -- that's a yellow jacket attractant!) Let me see if I can find a link to these... Found one... They are all over the place. I see no reason whatsoever to use the other plastic feeders. I do have a couple of hand blown glass ones, the only problem with them is they tend to leak and attract yellow jackets at that time of the year, but I just take them down then, and there are all kinds of flowers the birds like that are blooming then anyway. I have given up on any bottle type feeder that doesn't allow adequate cleaning with bottle brushes, so that includes the famous "perky pet" feeder that is the hourglass shape - which is absolutely the worst design in hummingbird feeders, except this best-1 design. The Best-1 feeder looks like it has the same problem with the bottle brush issue. It really shouldn't take rocket science to figure out how to design a good feeder... but then again, perky pet has red dye added to their nectar too. And that's not a good idea. Saucers are easy to clean and easy to hang without leaking because you don't have to flip them over, and the hummers love them....See MoreOrder placed. Wish me luck!!
Comments (21)Once I use up my peat pots, I don't think I'm going to buy any more. Last year, I started my tomato plants in small plugs. When they got big enough, I transplanted them into large peat pots. When they were ready to go outside, I transplanted the peat pots into their final containers. Fast forward to end of season. I was clearing out the dead tomato plants from the pots. I pulled one out and the peat pot came out INTACT. It had never broken down or fallen apart, and the poor tomato plant, even though it was in a large container, was pretty much potbound still inside that little peat pot. Very few of the roots had ever found their way out into the rest of the container. I used some peat pots this year because I still had some, but I made sure to tear them before I transplanted so the plant roots could find their way out....See MoreBest/Worst Luck With Plants-Central TX
Comments (18)I wholeheartedly agree with everyone's assessment of using plants that are well adapted to the climate and soils in your area. That's being said from the perspective of someone who knows better... When I first arrived down here I was a sucker for anything that looked cool and sounded even remotely zone hardy. I put part of the blame for planting out of place plants on certain nurseries, especially the big boxes that carry plants that are technically zone hardy, but don't grow well in the local soils. Go to any HD or Lowes around here right now and you'll find Camellias a-plenty. In the summer they have all kinds of azaleas, gardenias and hydrangeas too. You get the picture... All that said, I agree w. Shebear that unless a plant's obviously completely dead, giving it at least 3 years is reasonable. In fact, we moved some of our plants that were floundering in their previous locations and they seem to be doing better now. We moved our Fatsias and Wheeler Dwarfs to shady locations and they look much happier. We replaced the Wheeler's Dwarfs with Nana Pomegranates in the full sun location and so far so good. Several of the issues pointed out by Pricklypear were unknown to me at the time of purchase. That said, we'll see what happens. The Little Gem, Camellia, Photinia and Golden Euynomous look healthy as can be, their growth has just been disappointing. All 5 of our Camellias do have flower buds set though! The Queens, well, the darn folks at the HD just tempted me too much. If they ever grow and don't freeze out they'll look great by the pool though. :^) I don't get the whole Firebush (Hamelia Patens?) deal either. I see several people around the neighborhood that have large ones, so it must've just been me... Oh well, I guess trial and error is part of the joy of gardening. As long as the successes outweight the failures!...See MoreTally
17 years agokristin_williams
17 years agorembetika
17 years agoTally
17 years agomaggie0126
17 years agorembetika
17 years agoTally
17 years agorembetika
17 years agovikki083
17 years agoTally
17 years agohummersteve
17 years ago
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