Robins are primarily ground feeders and they eat a LOT of insects - so I'm not surprised they'd go for suet. It's just not generally offered where they typically feed, ie hanging up somewhere. They also eat berries and fallen fruit (probably more than insects depending on season/availability) so while I wouldn't have thought of it, eating jelly and oranges would be pretty normal for a robin as well - its just not generally put out where they would get it. I would guess they would prefer apples to oranges though. Dogwood, service berry, mulberry, chokeberry, some types of sumac, winterberry (especially liked by robins in winter), bunchberry, some types of quince, crabapples, arrow wood and several other viburnums; there are a LOT of shrubs and trees you can plant to attract robins, cedar waxwings, and other birds that aren't seed feeders. Mulberry trees in particular have an undeserved reputation as a "trash" tree - the issue being that they attract birds who poop all over the place! WELL YEAH! That's what they are good for! Just don't plant it next to a patio, walkway or driveway if it bothers you. We had a white mulberry that we NEVER were able to get any fruit off because it was mobbed by birds as soon as it set fruit, LOL! Red mulberry will stain a walk but white won't. If I had a yard - and I wanted to attract a lot of birds - mulberry would be the first thing I'd put in.

I feed 2 types of suet or lard - the plain raw beef suet in a suet cage, and a home-made mixture of rendered fat (suet or lard) with peanut butter, corn meal and flour, nuts, etc. Rendered suet stays solid at higher temperatures - I think it's in the 90s F - than unrendered suet. I do feed the raw suet year round and it doesn't melt because we don't get temps in the 90s that often, and also the suet cage is sited on the north side of a large tree trunk so it has little sun exposure. The woodpeckers love the raw suet but many other birds will nibble on it too. Many birds also love the home-made mixture, and the Bluebirds come every winter to eat nuggets. This past winter I had up to 12 bluebirds! But I feed much less of all the bird food in the summer because there are usually plenty of insects for them to eat.

Compost socks, aka silt socks, are basically long tubes filled with compost, you see some types around construction sites to control erosion. Although they are generally made from mesh material, landscape fabric can also be used to better restrict root growth and prevent weeds. They have been used to grow strawberries and other fruits and veggies, but figs really shine when planted in them, the growth first year has been equal to planting a tree in the ground with fertile soil. Compost can cause drainage problems in container mixes, but when used in compost socks it acts like a small raised bed. It can provide adequate fertilizer for the first year, and holds more water than potting mixes, simplifying care. To enhance growth in future years, holes can be made to allow some roots to grow into the soil. Irrigation is easy, soaker hoses or drip tape work well, as would sub irrigation (compost has good wicking properties). Storage is no more difficult than standard containers, in fact, they are cleaner and can be stored on their sides without spilling any compost. If indoor winter storage is not an option then they can be tipped sideways and covered. Rather than shuffling them in and out during early spring they can be laid on their sides and covered and uncovered. Transplanting trees raised in these containers will be easy, as digging a shallow trench is easier than a deep hole. Repotting these trees will take some ingenuity, but because fig trees are so resilient, there are several options that could work. Here's a few pictures of growth progression, these were stuck in late April. 6/12 6/26 7/7 7/15 7/21 7/25 8/3 Others were started outside around the same time and have also done very well. I also transplanted small trees into them by bare rooting, and planting in one end works also. Transplanting small trees in spring is a good place to start, although the socks improve aeration, direct rooted cuttings are still vulnerable to overwatering and bare rooting plants in summer needs to be done carefully.

I just hung an additional feeder, this one with seeds in a tube inside some wire mesh to discourage squirrels. Even that has been ignored so far. Saw the same dark eyed juncos that like to look for the seeds in some straw strewn over grass seed planted, but they haven't caught on to "look up" yet.