Beneath the birdfeeder ideas?

The attached photo shows the long strip of yard that leads to the birdfeeder hook. We're just beginning to garden this area -- you can barely see hostas and coleus in the very back, and in the foreground in front of the birdfeeder area, the new "chapel garden" a-building, with herbs, coleus, columbine, a Japanese maple, a birdbath and -- not visible in the picture -- an old stained-glass window from a church, propped against the fence.

Beneath the birdfeeder is just dirt. We feed a lot, and we find that for whatever reason grass won't grow beneath our feeders. Lots of traffic from birdy feet? (We have a lot of pigeons and doves on the ground.) Doesn't matter to me -- feeding the birds is a priority over beauty for me -- but I was wondering what might at least be pretty to put OVER the dirt that's still okay for the birds to walk on, easy to clean, etc. I was thinking maybe some kind of pea-gravel effect that I can rake (daily? oh dear) in a circle or whatever. The area beneath the feeder is almost circular, ovoid maybe.

I do plant to install more Turk's Cap and hostas along the fenceline. It's a bit dodgy, because there are numerous crepe myrtle roots along that fence, also (the trees are on the other side of it), but so far so good.

Sidebar: see the track of dirt where grass won't grow behind the dog cottage? See how it seems to curve around either side of the cottage? That's the site of The Folie 500 -- a 3-4x daily chase that goes on in my yard: the Golden Retriever egging on the Pomeranians until they chase her madly around the cottage, over and over again. She never chases them. She taunts *them* until they chase *her*. Grass will never grow there, but it's a space we give up willing to the dogs' raw joy of the chase. You can see one of the little Poms in the shot. That's Mr. Sprits'l, a garden superviser and -- at 6 lbs. -- an athletic little Golden Retriever chaser.

More ideas of what to plant along that fenceline (almost full shade, some filtered sun) and what to do beneath the birdfeeder, if anything, are welcome!



This message was edited Jun 1, 2007 10:23 AM

Hi - I have this dilemma for my birdy area. For one this it is real shady spot and the other the birds can get a little messy. I planted 3 sedums in the spring and vincas around the circle. I noticed today when I took the photo the bird seed is sprouting. I put a small amount of mulch around the circle too.

don't mind the weeds, its been too hot/stormy to do much in the garden this week. :)

I am also attaching a photo of a little finch perch my son and I made a couple of days ago. A finch feeder sock is hanging down and if you look real close you can see a yellow warbler or an oriole (we are having a family debate about it) on the feeder.

We also made that little bird bath next to it. Under that feeder is all moss, but I put the finch feeder there because they are shy and that is the farthest from the house.

The messy feeder with the cracked corn and sunflower seeds is over the compost pile. They can make all the mess they want there.

I bet that's a Goldfinch on your finch feeder.

Yes -- looks like a goldfinch to me, too! :-)

Susannah, if you would like a slightly different population for your feeder than the doves and pigeons (in Phoenix they were quite thick) try using a bird feed that does not contain millet - it's the little, light tan seeds - evidently they attract the two.

I'm thinking anything with a broad leaf is probably a no-no there, just 'cause it would show up the poo awfully well - like hostas, etc. I think your small gravel area is a great idea - you can do circles, waves, even larger rock "islands", etc, a la Japanese dry gardens. It has a neat effect and would give you opportunity to kinda clean the area.

This might be the ONLY situation where you might want to use black plastic or a little of the "weed stopping" cloth - personally I hate it all and have never seen it last for more than a few years, but with you maintaining it fairly often, you can always re-cover it with rock and trim any ends that turn up.

The only other suggestion I might have would be to use pots in that area, so if the droppings are bad you can move it out or spray them off with a hose. Asparagus ferns do well in shade as do Ivy, and you can mix them with flowering annuals (i'm thinking Impatiens although there's probably more) and Coleus to brighten up for the birds.

But all of the above will keep the seeds that dropped from germinating and just giving you more weeding to do.

Thanks for caring for the feathered babies...

What about some flagstone. We were fortunate enough recently to get a good load of discarded flagstone and now I'm using it in all kinds of places where grass won't grow for various reasons. It should be easy to clean by sweeping and hosing it down. One of our feeder hangs over the cement slab by the garage door and it is so easy to cleanup.

Here's a picture of an especially big piece we got. It's perfect under the birdbath. I haven't used any yet for feeders but it's in my plans.

Lucky you!!!! That looks great!

Suzy

My son has had great luck finding free materials on Craig's List. So far he has gotten a huge load of paving bricks. He did have to spend $50 to rent a truck but he got several hundred bricks. He has also got a truckload of rocks like flagstone but more rounded (I don't know what to call them). We're near Chicago and when people are removing old materials it costs a lot of money to have it hauled away so if you'll come and get it they are happy to give it away. And he has gotten plants, too. He has also traded plants for flagstone.

My Dad poured a small cement pad for his bird feeders. It eliminated the need to trim about posts and made clean up easy. I would be tempted to see if some pretty outdoor safe colored tile could be put down over the cement to liven it up. Maybe a pretty mosiac even? The photo with the flagstone was really nice too!
Pat