Baytree Garden Centre’s top tips for mess-free bird feeding
Feeding the birds is lovely – but not if it leads to mess and unwanted plants. Mark Cox of Baytree Garden Centre explains how it’s done...
I have seen a real difference in my wife this week since she joined a new Latin dance class. According to Antonio – my wife’s tall, dark, handsome, young and virile instructor - she has a real talent for dance.
Since my return from the local home for those of advancing years, she has not been able to do enough for me. Only last night after she had found my life insurance documents and she ran me a lovely warm bath. And to make sure that I didn’t miss my favourite TV show she had thoughtfully balanced the TV on a rickety old stool next to my bath tub.
I imagine due to the liberal sprinkling of bath salts and essential oils, that I fell asleep in the bath which I know is very dangerous. That said I had the most realistic dreams ever. Perhaps it was because I’d been watching Saving Private Ryan earlier but I dreamt that I was on the beaches of Normandy with explosions going off everywhere. I swear I could feel the spray of water on my face.
Imagine my surprise then when a fully kitted ambulance crew burst into the bathroom followed by my sobbing loving wife. I can only assume that, while asleep, the TV had fallen off the rickety old stool before plunging into my bath water. Luckily for me the plug was pulled clean out of the wall as it fell. My wife explained to the crew that she had seen my lifeless body in the bath along with the 65 inch (and very top heavy) plasma screen that she had carefully balanced on the rickety old stool and ended up thinking the worst.
Having survived the indignity of the ambulance crew storming the bathroom with nothing but a pink shower puff to protect my modesty, I felt it best to lay down in a darken room to recover. Later that evening my darling wife asked if I could fill and clean the bird table in the morning. For my efforts she would make me a brew to die for.
As agreed I headed out into the garden to check the feed levels on our bird tables. At this time of the year it is really important to start looking out for our little feathered friends, they do so much to help protect my garden plants from being devoured by pests. However, to survive the winter, a little help from ourselves is greatly appreciated.
When it comes to bird feed I opt for fat balls. These, as the name suggests, are essentially balls of fat with all kinds of tasty morsels that birds love. If you’ve ever watched birds eat then you’ll know that they can be somewhat messy. The great thing about no mess bird seed is that should, and it will, any seed fall onto the soil or be carried around your garden and be deposited later, it won’t germinate. You won’t end up with unexpected plants.
You’ll be really surprised by how quickly word spreads throughout the wild bird population that your garden has food. You’ll be like the McDonald’s of the wild bird world (other fast food restaurants are available). Just make sure that you have a saucer or bowl of water for the birds to drink and probably bathe in, though I’d hold off at supplying towels for them as they won’t appreciate your extra effort.
That’s me done for now as the current Mrs Cox has promised me a nice warming brew made from the berries harvested from her special plants in her secret part of the garden. I’m so lucky.
