[aura]

Hello everyone,
I love to garden, for me it's a stress breaker! We are renting where we are at but that didn't stop me from putting in flower beds everywhere. My husband actually complains because he is running out of lawn to mow!! I live in Montana so our gardening season is short but I make the most of it. Thank goodness our landlord likes gardening too, she loves the yard! I also enjoy feeding the birds, we have about 10 feeders up as well as birdbaths, it is so relaxing and my 2 year old loves watching the birds, she's even starting to learn the names of the birds and recognize them. If anyone likes to talk gardening or birds here I am!!! Aura

[annharth]

I love to talk gardening and this could be an interesting discussion as I live the tropical Australia. At the moment, it's springtime and I have just planted beans, peas and lettuce. I haven't put a fence around the agrden yet and am crossing my fingers that the bandicoots don't get in. I grew up in the US and must say that i really miss the seasons, but I do love being able to garden all year round. Instead of Summer and Winter, we have a wet and ry season. In the wet, we have two to three months of intense rain. The grass grows over our heads and the weeds take over. There isn't a lot I can do about it then, but as soon as March rolls around (fall) I start reclaiming my garden. Then it stays together through the cold months and around now I start to prepare for the wet again.
At this time everything starts to get very dry and a couple of bird baths are all that is needed to attract all kinds of birds. We had four cockatoos in the tree next to our house last week. Beautiful birds, but they do horrific damage to flowering trees. Worth it though, they have to eat.
If I ever moved back to the US, I always said that Montana would be one of my first choices. Oregon, second. What kind of birds do you get? When I was there, we were camping and quite worried about bears. Do you see many where you live?

[aura]

Dear Annharth,
I love Montana and it is so beautiful here, I have lived here most of my life and even when I moved to California and Idaho, I had to move back here, it's home!! I have seen a few bears in my time but have never had a bad encounter with one, thank goodness, and actually, I had to go to Yellowstone National Park to see one. West Yellowstone has a wolf and bear discovery center that lets you get up close, it's amazing. I love gardening too, our season here is short but I make due, sounds like yours is wet, how cold do your winters get there? We can get as cold as -40 below zero here, brrrrr! I like it better than the 90-100 degree heat though. It's weird that you are getting ready for spring and we are getting ready for winter. I would love to visit where you are, I have heard that it is beautiful there. We have all kinds of birds, I think my favorites are the black capped chickadees, they are so funny to watch at the feeders and birdbaths, we also have robins and hummingbirds, sparrows, blackbirds and crows, nuthatches which are also intersenting to watch and this year I had two sets of the most beautiful colored pigeons raise their young in our neighborhood, I also love the morning doves, it is so neat to wake up in the morning and just listen to the birds welcome the day!! I love it!!! Your name sounds familiar, do I know you from the adoption forums?? I would love to learn more about gardening and am excited to hear more. For me, gardening is a big stress reliever, I love getting my hands in the dirt and then watching my hard but enjoying work bloom and grow into beautiful flowers that the birds enjoy as much as I do. My husband still complains that I'm taking up all his lawn but I have watched him get just as excited as I do when something blooms. Our two and a half year old daughter likes it too, she is learning the names of the flowers and birds that are in our yard. I look forward to talking to you again, what kinds of flowers to you grow there, we are zone 3 and 4 so we need hardy plants here!! God bless! Aura

[annharth]

I think gardening and children are a beautiful match. My eleven year old son just got a job as the gardener at a Doctor's office. He's so excited. 2-4 hours a week and paid! It's his passion, and even as I write, he's up in his garden, filling an old bathtub with tadpoles and lillies and wrapping a wire around it to grow vines on. Whne he was 8 we gave him part of our yard as his own. He has landscaped, planted, weeded, watered and has made it a place of beauty. he's got quite a few birds visitng as well. Parrots, honeyeaters and even a mating pair of curlews. These are long legged birds who wail with deep sorrow every night under the bedroom window. Kind of spooky for the uninitiated.
I think garden is much better than lawn. You do have to maintain it, but you don't have to mow it every week!

[aura]

I have to agree that mowing isn't the same as weeding and deadheading, there is something about tearing weeds out that is stress reducing!
It is cold here today and the wind is blowing pretty good so I'm not going to garden too much, the birds seem to enjoy the fact that I haven't had a chance to deadhead lately, they like the seed heads! I'm sure I will have bachelor buttons and sunflowers popping up in strange places next spring. That's okay though, I like the little surprises my bird friends leave me, sometimes they plant in better spots than I would have. I can tell the birds are getting ready for winter, they are starting to wipe out the feeders daily and fatten up for their journey south, some will stay here because we offer food all year round. My neighbors think I'm crazy when I'm filling feeders in 20 below weather but the birds need to eat too!
It sounds like your son is off to a good start, I didn't start gardening until I was in my twenties. Some people are born with the knack for it, it just takes some of us longer to realize we have it. It's nice that he is tending to his skills now, and that it's something he loves to do. The pond sounds wonderfull! If your ever in Great Falls, I will have to have him stop by, I would love a pond!!! Talk to you soon! God Bless! Aura

[annharth]

I'll tell ym son. I'm sure he'd be glad to help.
We used to feed the birds all winter when I was growing up in New England. I remember my dad told me that if I fed them after a certain month (September I think)I was responsible for making sure that they had food all through the winter because they wouldn't move south if they thought they could eat in my backyard. I was very careful to keep that bird feeder filled for many months.
Do you know if this is true?

[aura]

I think so, I was told the same and the bird books I have say that if you feed birds into the winter they rely on that as their main source of food for the winter. If you are going to leave for a while or move, you are supposed to decrease their food to nothing over a 4 week period so they can find other food sources to survive. I have about 10 feeders going and will add 2 more suet feeders come October for them. We offer different kinds of food and I make a bird cake also for them, they seem to like it! It's a basic receipe and you can add nuts or fruit or whatever you like. My issue of birds and blooms this month had a good receipe for extra fruit preserves also, I will have to try it out and see what the birds think-! God bless! Aura

[annharth]

I bet your house is the bird Hilton of the area. Why go for seeds when you can have cake and preserves?
I have requested that my family give me a terra cotta plant dish (the plate that goes underneath to collect water) and a length of wire. I'm going to make a plate that hangs off of our veranda for the rainforest birds. A friend nearby does this and she has parrots, honey eaters and rainforest birds eating nearby when she ahs breakfast. It's amazing. They love bananas and stone fruit, but occasionally watermelon doesn't go astray either.

Can't wait!

[aura]

I love all the birds we have here and it does get exciting around here. I like your idea, you'll have to let me know how it works out. We also have some fox tail squirells here, and yes we feed them, I find if I feed them they stay out of the birds food. My daughter has named them all "Nibbles" and she has to introduce us to them each time they visit. We put out corn on the cob and apple slices for them, the problem is the birds fight them for it, it's not like they don't have 10 feeders of their own! They are quite the little pigs and to watch them fight with the squirells is hillaroius! My daughter starts jumping on the couch yelling FIGHT! FIGHT!, which just scares all of them off! Aura

[annharth]

What a great visual! To think of a little girl cheerleading for all of the 'nibbbles' in her life.
I was mulching yesterday afternoon and saw, for the first time, a quail in our garden. I really hope it's nesting. There is a huge problem with feral cats in my area and they kill native birds and fauna constantly so a quali is a rarity. Some of the cats get quite huge and all are very aggressive(though they disappear when humans are around). There is an awareness campaign these days to keep cats inside especially at night but it doesn't seem to be working. I've had to rescue more than one sugar glider or young possum from the attack of a neighbor's cat.
Finger crossed for the quail!