Wild Bird Food

Although birds have a variety of taste, for the most part they want black oil sunflower seeds. When you buy inferior bird seed mixtures you may find that the birds scatter most of the seeds on the ground trying to get at the sunflower seeds. If you do end up with cheaper bird seed it is better to place these mixtures on a flat platform feeder instead of a hopper style feeder. By doing this less of the seed will be wasted and on the ground.

Note: Seeds on the ground attracts some types of birds and squirrels, but also bring in the raccoons, mice and other critters.

Placement of Wild Bird Foods: Birds vary in size, shape, and everything else including where & how they like to feed. As a result, these two things are important to attract the largest variety of wild birds to your yard:

1- Variety of Seeds (the more varied the more different birds). 2- Vary how you place the seeds.

Some birds like to eat high up off the ground and others like to feed on the ground. Some birds like tube feeders and others like to eat off of a flat platform.

Seeds that Wild Birds Love:

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds: Cardinals, Finches, Goldfinches, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, Juncos

Thistle Seeds: Goldfinches, Purple Finches, Indigo Buntings, Pine Siskins, Redpolls

Millet Seeds: Sparrows, Chickadees, Cardinals, Juncos, Towhees, Bunting, Mourning Doves, Pine Siskins

Cracked Corn: Blue Birds, Bobwhites, Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Juncos, Indigo Buntings, Grosbeaks, Nuthatches, Towhees

Safflower Seeds: Cardinals, Chickadees, Brown Thrashers, Nuthatches and Evening grosbeaks

Peanuts: Blue Jays, Titmice, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Chickadees, Blue Birds, Kinglets, Mocking Birds, Indigo Buntings, Juncos, Warblers, and Towhees

Niger Seeds: Goldfinches, House Finches, Pine Siskins

One of the higher quality bird food seed packager and distributors is a company called Coles Wild Bird Seeds located in Georgia. One of their catchy slogans is” If you want cheap bird seed, buy any brand… If you want birds, buy Coles”. A few of their special mixes include the following:

Premium Blend: Black Oil Sunflower, Sunflower Meats, White Proso Millet, Cracked Corn, Canary Seed. If you only want to use one feed and attract the greatest variety of wild birds, then it's Premium Blend all the way. I guarantee you'll get the best combination of perch and ground feeding birds with this one. So, just fill up your feeder and stand back!

Special Feeder: Black Oil Sunflower, Sunflower Meats, Black Stripe, Sunflower, Raw Peanuts, Safflower, Pecans. Special Feeder has all of the good stuff. This unique mix is a high-energy treat for many birds. It's our most popular blend because it attracts the greatest number of wild birds than any other mix out there. Plus woodpeckers absolutely love the pecans!

Finch Friends: Sunflower Meats, Niger Seed, Canary Seed. Finch Friends is simply fantastic. It's the only finch mix developed for use in a regular tubular feeder! That's right, no special "thistle feeder" needed. Just fill up your everyday feeder with Finch Friends and soon beautiful goldfinches, purple finches, and pine siskins will be dining at your door.

Oil Sunflower: Our Oil Sunflower is the absolute highest-grade black oil sunflower available. It's over 99% pure and cleaned four times to ensure that you get more seed and fewer sticks. Plus it's positively chock full of oil. You want as much oil in your sunflower as you can get because that's what attracts the birds. So, our high-grade, high-oil sunflower means more birds at your bird feeder.

The key to attracting lots of wild birds is to provide them with a variety of food in different presentations. Have fun!!!

Virtual Rocks

• Put plants or flowers around the object
• Erect a fence around the object
• Use a hollowed out manufactured rock

Using a hollowed out manufactured (synthetic rock) is a great and very easy option. Many new subdivisions have these throughout them covering up and hiding pumps and other garden type objects. Unfortunately, most of the manufactured rocks look cheap and definitely don’t look like a real rock. There is one company out there, however, making a line of synthetic rocks that do look very real. They are called “Virtual Rocks”.

The Virtual Rock Story (in the words of the inventors…):

We invented Virtual Rocks in 1999 and vowed they would be "The Best Manufactured Rocks On Earth". Our Virtual Rocks have set the standard for quality, durability and most importantly, appearance. Shortly after we started we heard of a plumbing inspector who refused to sign-off on a permit because he couldn't find the well. He was quickly informed about Virtual Rocks and their ability to hide things.

Virtual Rocks Incorporated is located along Michigan's rocky western shore. When a new Virtual Rock design is being considered, we search for a natural rock that has all the features we are looking for and a mold is cast. At Virtual Rocks, being true to nature's creation has always been our first objective.

Each of our designs has been selected for its size and shape to cover the widest range of objects found in yards, gardens and pond areas. We have had countless satisfied customers who keep finding new uses for our Rocks.

At Virtual Rocks, our goal is to provide a natural solution to common landscaping problems by allowing our customers to Rock On!

Sincerely,

Brothers, Wally and Mark Morton (inventors & owners of Virtual Rocks)

Four of their Virtual Rock Styles include:

The Adirondack

This Virtual Rock was named after the majestic Adirondack Mountains. It is our largest rock and has a wide range of uses. This rock is great for covering larger fixtures, pumps, manholes or even a satellite dish.

The Ozark

Use the Ozark to cover electrical boxes, wellheads, irrigation controls, pond fixtures, cameras, and yes, even keys. Four granite color choices.

The Sonora

The Sonora was created to cover the worst landscape offender: the wellhead. It's also great for hiding irrigation pumps, plumbing fixtures and electrical control panels.

The Garden Cave

The Garden Cave is the ultimate storage solution for your hose, garden tools, gloves, pest controls and fertilizers. The bottom is shaped like a bin to keep everything neat and tidy.

You can find this great company on the internet by going to www.virtualrocks.com

Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum peat moss is used as a soil conditioner by gardeners. It is the dead material that accumulates in the lower levels of a sphagnum bog. Harvesters of the horticultural peat moss remove the top few inches of the live sphagnum moss before harvesting the peat from the lower levels of the bog.

Peat moss grows in wet swampy bogs. It likes cold temperatures, even below freezing. Peat moss can grow up to 50 centimeters tall. Peat moss grows the most during summer months. It grows close together and forms a thick mat. Its leaves are spear or cup shaped some are thick and swollen with water others are thinner. Leaves can be clear, green, reddish, or yellowish. Peat moss has no flowers or roots.

Sphagnum Moss adapts to its environment by creating its own habitat. It holds rainwater so it cannot drain and that creates a bog. Sphagnum Moss is not endangered because it can grow in a variety of places and does not need to have a lot of water to survive. Peat moss is also dead and alive at the same time. It is alive on the top but on the bottom, under the water, it is dead because there is so little light and it is even partially decayed.

NOTE: Peat moss takes in more nutrients than it needs, leaving the rest of the bog with little nutrients. So it is hard for other plants to grow in bogs. Peat moss also gets nutrients from photosynthesis.

Bogs are challenging environments for plant life because they are low in nutrients and very acidic. Carnivorous plants, such as the Venus Fly Trap, have adapted to these conditions by using insects as a nutrient source. The high acidity of bogs and the absorption of water by sphagnum moss reduce the amount of water available for plants.

Extensive numbers of bogs cover the northern areas of the U.S. states of Minnesota and Michigan, most notably on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. The world's largest wetlands are the bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia, Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe. Ireland was more than 15% bog; Achill Island off Ireland is 87% bog. There are extensive bogs in Canada (called muskegs), Scotland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (26% boglands), and northern Germany.

Knock Out Rose

Details on the Knock Out Rose:

• Hardiness: Zones 4-9
• Sun Exposure: Full sun
• Size: 4 feet high and about 4 feet wide
• Blooming Time: Spring to Frost
• Soil: Fertile and well drained soil
• Maintenance: Minimal

Note: The Knock Out Rose will grow in a wide range of soils (even highly alkaline clays) and is very heat- and drought-tolerant once established.

How did this incredible rose come into being?

Knock Out rose was developed by Wisconsin rose breeder William Radler who has been growing roses since his youth. He was the long time director of the Boerner Botanical Garden in Minneapolis and has recently served as consulting rosarian for the Chicago Botanical Garden.

His breeding efforts began about 20 years ago and focused on developing repeat blooming, cold hardy roses that didn’t get disease, especially black spot. There is much more to the story but in the end an incredible rose was developed.

Just think… A rose bush that has these traits:

• Disease Resistant
• Blooms from Spring to Frost
• Drought & heat tolerant
• Minimal maintenance
• Etc…

Musk Thistle

Musk thistle infest the following areas:

• Pastures
• Timber Lands
• Roadsides
• Ditch Banks
• Rangeland
• Other…

Musk thistle is a biennial weed that reproduces only from seed (it is an annual in cooler climates). Mature plants range in height from 1-1/2 feet to 6 feet tall and they have multi-branched stems. Musk thistle is unpalatable to wildlife and livestock and crowds out other plants animals might graze on.

BACKGROUND

Musk Thistle is a native of western Europe and was introduced into the eastern United States in the early 1800s. It has a long history as a rangeland pest in the U.S., was first discovered in Davidson County, Tennessee in 1942, and has been declared a noxious weed in many states.

Musk Thistle Control

Mechanical control - Musk thistle will not tolerate tillage and can be removed easily by severing its root below ground with a shovel or hoe. Mowing can effectively reduce seed output if plants are cut when the terminal head is in the late-flowering stage.

Cultural control - Maintaining pastures and rangeland in good condition is a primary factor for musk thistle management. To favor pasture and rangeland grass growth, do not overgraze.

Chemical control - Several herbicides are registered in pasture, rangeland and non-crop areas to control musk thistle.

Biological - Two weevils have been introduced from Europe and released in the United States as a biological control for musk thistle, the thistlehead-feeding weevil and the rosette weevil. These weevils have been released in a number of western states with some notable successes achieved. However, recent observations of unintentional and unanticipated impacts of the thistlehead-feeding weevil to native thistles, including some rare species.

Note: The single best way to control Musk Thistle is to control seed production since this is how they spread and grow.

Mosquitoes

Note: There are over 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world and more than 170 species in North America.

Mosquitoes and Disease

Malaria and yellow fever have plagued mankind for thousands of years and are transmitted by mosquitoes. Other disease include West Nile and versions of Encephalitis. In addition to the annoyance and pain of being bitten you need to be aware that mosquitoes can cause serious problems beyond just the annoyance.

You can run but you cannot hide… Mosquitoes can find you by using highly advanced sensors to track you for a meal. These include:

Chemical Sensors

People, animals & birds give off carbon dioxide (and lactic acid) up to 100 feet or 36 meters away. If you are in a high mosquito concentration area you are in trouble if not protected. Note: Sweat also seems to be a factor in attracting mosquitoes.

Heat Sensors

Mosquitoes can detect your body heat which helps them to further find mammals and birds to bite.

Visual Sensors

Interestingly mosquitoes can detect color contrast and movement. If you are going to be out in the woods wearing clothing that blends in is a good strategy.

With all these ways to find you, you can see why going out without protection is just inviting multiple mosquito bites. Your only defense is to use some kind of a repellent that confuses their chemical receptors. There are hundreds of products out there that include both chemical and natural. These include ones you apply directly to yourself and ones placed around in the general area you will be. Note: All have different levels of effectiveness depending on the amount of natural versus chemical.

Mosquito Life Cycle Eggs – All mosquitoes lay their eggs in water which can include:

• Swimming pools
• Old tires
• Gutters
• Ponds
• And Much more

Larva – The mosquito eggs hatch into larvae (wigglers) and they live at the surface of the water and breathe through a siphon air tube.

Pupa – Mosquito larva next change into pupae (tumblers) that live in the water until the final adult stage.

Adult – The adult uses air pressure to break out of its pupal case and crawls out of the water to dry and harden its external skeleton. The next step is flying off for a good meal… maybe you. (Actually they look to mate first, then feed).

Female versus Male Mosquitoes

One of the first things an adult mosquito will do is look for a mate. After mating, they go off to feed. The male mosquito feeds on plant nectar because they have short mouth parts that don’t allow for mammal feeding. The female mosquito has a long mouth part for penetration into mammals. They actually need the extra protein found in blood for laying their eggs.

Fighting Mosquitoes

As mentioned above, there are many methods to repelling and killing mosquitoes but the number one effective control is this… Remove or control their breeding places which include all forms of standing water. You can do a lot by just eliminating standing water in places not normally though of like old tires, small pools, and gutters.

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