Read This: Bird-Friendly Gardening

To make your yard appealing to birds, with a variety of food and nesting places, check out new book Bird-Friendly Gardening by Jen McGuinness.… Read More

The post Read This: Bird-Friendly Gardening appeared first on Digging.

Part of the enjoyment of having a garden is watching the birds drawn to it. We put out birdfeeders, birdhouses, birdbaths, fountains, and ponds to bring them in. But what really attracts birds is plants — and I’m not talking about turf grass. Trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowering perennials and annuals provide hiding and nesting places. They produce berries, seeds, and nectar, and they feed insects like caterpillars, which many birds rely on in turn to feed their young. Birds delight us not only with their beauty and antics but by showing us that we’re successfully creating healthy habitat for wild creatures.

Putting some plants in the ground and nurturing them is a great start, and birds will come. But to make your yard really appealing to birds, with a variety of food and nesting places, check out the new book Bird-Friendly Gardening: Guidance and Projects for Supporting Birds in Your Landscape by Jen McGuinness, longtime blogger at Frau Zinnie.

An avid birder and gardener in Connecticut, Jen shares the basics of what birds need for food, water, and shelter. She includes safe feeder practices and how to provide nesting materials and the right kind of boxes for different birds. But the meat of the book consists of around 25 bird-