I just received a birdbath I ordered. The bowl must be too deep so the birds won't try it. Must find another one. Any ideas from Austin to San Antonio? Thanks!
Where to shop for unique birdbath?
Some of the nurseries in N. Austin have a decent supply. Shoal Creek Nursery off of MoPac (loop 1) has some nice ones in stock. I don't know how far north you'd be willing to go for a birdbath?
Can you fill in the bowl, with gravel or even a fake liner bottom? Or sometimes it's not that the water is too deep, it's that the sides are too steep or there's a rim. Maybe try putting a stick across, to see if that will get the birds, and if it works you can find something more aesthetic?
Great Outdoors usually has some interesting stuff http://www.gonursery.com/ (Also lots of wind chimes and rain chains, if you're into those things.) (Make a side trip to look at St Ed's cachment wetland, if you go to this one.)
Wild Birds Unlimited has the best as far as bird-orientation, although they may not be the prettiest http://austinsouth.wbu.com/ (It's a chain, they may have a location closer to you.) They sell sort of a hard plastic liner, custom engineered for bird accessibility, that can be used on its own, set on the ground and hung from a tree in a basic stand, or tucked into pretty much any garden statuary.
You might browse through Craigslist. It's hit or miss, but sometimes folks are mostly just trying to get rid of something, and the price is good.
Emerald Garden has a lot of concrete ones http://www.pondsandgarden.com/
Depends on what you want... Do you have something in mind?
On the subject of birdbaths, does anyone wash out their birdbath when the different colored slimes build up? I always think it might poison the water and had been using bleach and dish soap to scrub it, and rinse well. But is this necessary? I wouldn't want to drink out of it but I'm not a bird... :)
I scrub it out sometimes just to make it look good but the water is emptied almost daily so I don't think it has time to get polluted by the algae.
C
http://www.dogwork.com/crwb2/
Maybe you want this kind of birdbath haha!
I clean my birdbaths simply with a brush and scrubbing them really well. If the algae does get too bad (usually in the very heat of the summer), I put in a very small dab of bleach and let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse really really really well.
Carla
Bananna, that's so adorable! Reminds me of my parakeets in the past. I love watching birds bathe. They seem to really enjoy it. Thanks for the tips on cleaning birdbaths. I'll give it a good scrub tomorrow. With the lack of rain here, the animals need some clean water to drink.
Thanks so much for the help! Never thought of gravel in the bottom. I will try this before I give it away. I have three other BBs, clean them about once a week. I use Fountec, an algaecide for the fountains. Thanks also for the web-sites. These are all new to me.
Reading these posts and watching the video makes me want to go out and get a BB too!
Sunshine....don't use gravel, it would be really time consuming to clean it then. Use large cobble stones or rocks that you can remove easier to clean.
Anna....that bird video was a hoot!! I wonder if they tell him he is a "dirty bird" and needs a bath? LOL!
Shelia, birds are so smart, I wouldn't doubt if that were so! There was a video going around a bit ago showing a bird going in a grocery store (through sensor-opened doors), grabbing a pack of chips, going outside, opening them up and eating them! Hilarious!
I saw that video!! If I remember correctly it was a sea gull and they said the locals pay for the chips so the owner won't stop him.
Check out the pix of the bird baths on the Cattle panel trellis thread here in the Texas Gardening I sent a little thing that shows how to make them ..It really is easy ,but I do admit that I did not think I could do one ...
How cool! That reminds me of the man who has a booth at Ren Fest every year, just inside the entrance to the right. He makes art out of coppery metal and I buy a little something every year that I go--a metal rose, butterfly, dragonfly, etc. Anyone know who I mean?
That reminds me of the Wimberley Market Days. There are some crafty people that set up shop there too. http://www.shopmarketdays.com/
I make them out of EE leaves and portland cement
have one I made in the shape of texas too and made one for my mom in the shape of Illinois
Do they hold up well in the weather?
C
Mibus, what is your recipe? Is there an advantage to Portland cement. I will try hypertufa one of these days and that might be a good way to use the cement( Sold in 100 lb bags! That is what is stopping me )
Time here in SE Oklahoma to empty the BB and put away not a good plan to let freeze,I just prop mine up against the fence and some are turn into bird feeders ..Some of the BBs that started out as feeders have been put to good use as planters..Some that I made extra deep work very well as planters for my many Acemenes...
Freezing is probably why this big one cracked. I rolled it to against the fence where a neighbor has a downed tree stump and painted it. It is my un-amended area and used for wild native plantings so it fits right in. I just couldn't throw it away.
I have to find the recipe but it is sand and portland cement and enough water to mix it all wet
Shelia, that is the prettiest sunflower ever! Was the bowl shaped like a sunflower or are you crafty enough to make it that beautiful? Love it!!
Thanks Brenda! Well it had the center circle and the rest was just wavy. I did the shading so it looked like pedals. I did craft store items years ago but they were on smooth flat surfaces. This was a bit more challenging.
Looks great! Wish I'll allow myself be that creative.
I think you have your hands full with the kids and do a great job on your garden. How is that arbor doing? What are you going to put on it next year? I have some evergreen passiflora I can bring you to the next RU in the spring.
oooh--evergreen passiflora, sure would beat looking at the "now blacking" hyacinth beans and cypress vine (we've had a few nights dip down around freezing). Arbor did good. It sure sways in this 30-40 mph wind.
Now about this passiflora, is it a butterfly or hummingbird magnat? I'm leaning real hard in the direction of making my plants double duty -- beauty and food. I was considering letting the cypress take over the arbor, but then lots of other things interest me too -- like honeysuckle and crossvine. I have all winter to dream. . .I'm sure I'll change my mind a million times by spring.
greta - passis are the host plant to the gulf fritillary. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/9/ Depending on the the passi, they WILL chew some down to almost nothing (incense and incarnata in my garden).
Very interesting reading -- I've had those butterflies, always confused them with the monarch (obviously i know nothing about butterflies). I also think I had the catapillers this summer on my basil ??? Is that possible? Something that looked a lot like that, rather scary looking with those spines.
Now to think of a good spot for damaged passiflora to grow. Wondering if something like cypress vine would cover up enough to hide the over eaten passiflora. purple and red would be pretty side by side. Maybe even a couple moon flowers. ??? like I said, I'll be dreaming until spring.
Somebody gave me dutchman's pipe at the fall roundup. I now know it is an annual and will not survive our winter, but they also gave me seed. Thinking of bringing the little seedlings for the winter, just can't figure out how to do it. I could call my arch the butterflies diner. . . and care less how eaten it looked. Hm-m-m. . .
Greta - maybe a clematis would work or a climbing rose. The passis will attach to anything near them so another climber would be good.
You might consider a crossvine Brenda...it is native and evergreen. Look at Frostweeds thread on her wildflower slope. One picture shows what it looks like along the fence in full bloom.
Thanks Sheila! I forgot about the crossvine and frostweed's slope looks wonderful!
If you are ever up this way, you should go by and catch the slope in the summer or fall....it is a thing of beauty!
Thank you Sheila, I guess the Lord and nature have seen fit to reward my efforts, and i am very grateful, not just for myself but for the benefit to the plants and wildlife, and for the people who see it.
Yes, please stop by when you come to visit your sister is not too far out of the way.
Josphin -- thanks! I think I shall.
I still didn't find my recipe but I did ask hubby as he has always helped me and he says we use 1 part portland cement to 1 part sand and then add water til it is all mixed and damp ..don't make it runny or you'll have to come up with something to make a border to hold it in til set