This is how you can lure chirps into the garden

Sunflowers - cold buffet for flying garden guests

Thanks to the comparatively large and very productive seed heads, sunflowers are particularly suitable as natural feed dispensers and can even replace an extra bird house. The huge flowers also provide nectar-collecting bees with plenty of food throughout the summer. How to dry the sunflowers and properly preserve the flower heads for the winter, we have in one detailed article described for you in the garden journal. But there is another method that is used very often.

The second life of the sunflower

Even if the plants are close to wilting and the leaves are turning brown, they would be far too good for the compost. Apart from that, the seeds would take root with the beginning of the following growing season and the Compost soil withdraw valuable nutrients. So cut off the flower heads just below the stem, later you will need some binding wire and a screwdriver.

• The removed heads can be dried in a sunny place outdoors or in a well-ventilated room so that mold cannot develop later. The flower heads will turn dark brown and the reverse will turn yellow.
• After successful drying, two holes are drilled into the heart of the flowers with a screwdriver, about two to three centimeters apart.
• Finally, always place two flowers with their backs against each other and stabilize them Carefully like a noose, tying the two ends of the wires together will.

Finally, hang the sunflowers on a hedge or a tree that you can watch from the house. It won't be a long time before the first feathered guests arrive at the sunflower seed buffet and enjoy the delicious kernels.

Grain amaranth - was already good for the Aztecs!

The small seeds of the foxtail family are particularly suitable as bird food in winter due to their high protein content and are very easy for the animals to digest. Although the amaranth is one of the undemanding plants, it looks very decorative in the garden and can reach heights of between 30 cm and several meters. The millet-like seeds are located in a capsule that can be easily opened at the top. Not on them harvested seed heads Wild birds enjoy the whole winter, so you can do without a planned autumn cut of your amaranth hedge with a clear conscience. The fruit bunches can also be cut off in mid-October when they are ripe, dried and later, in winter, similar to the sunflower seed buffet described above, hung in the trees.

Confident natural gardeners let thistles stand

And if you prefer it to be "tidy" in your garden, you should at least have the mature fruit clusters or Collect flower heads and dry them so that the birds can use them as a source of food over the winter. For this reason, natural gardeners even plant certain varieties with very intense colors purposefully and thus ensure a particularly beautiful display of flowers and additional bird food over winter. The following are very suitable:

• Field goose thistle
• common scraper
• Vegetable and rough goose thistle
• Globe thistle

Most of these species can withstand extremely dry locations without damage and, due to their strong colors, are very decorative, especially in smaller rock gardens.

Marigolds: natural health for humans and animals

How do you Marigold as Edible and medicinal plant A very interesting article in our gardening journal describes the possibilities that natural medicine has successfully used for centuries. The cultivation of the daisy family is very easy and works on almost all soils, the location can be a little sunnier. From June to October you will be pampered with very colorful flowers, and you will do something particularly good for the songbirds in the garden with the fruits. Just leave some of the marigolds in the garden for the birds to serve themselves. Otherwise, the flower seeds can be dried after harvesting and later scattered in the bird feeder.

Buckwheat, the whole fruit for garden birds

Due to their slightly nutty taste, the buckwheat grains are the favorite food of the feathered fellows. With 71 percent carbohydrates mixed with 9.8 percent protein as well as 1.8 percent fat and 4 percent fiber, the seeds of the Knotweed to the particularly nutritious feed, which, however, contains a lot of moisture. After the harvest time in September, it is therefore important to dry it very thoroughly to prevent mold growth.