Platform Bird Feeder & Reveal Update #3

I wasn't planning on planting anything around the bird feeder until I mowed the lawn and realized that I would have to mow around the feeder.  If I make the area around trees and obstacles grass free (larger radius) it speeds up my mowing time.  It currently takes me 5 hours to mow the front and back yards on the riding mower and R takes about 1 1/2 hours to push mow areas I cannot get to with the rider.  So all that to say I planted stuff around my bird feeder.

The black walnut trees in my yard pose a problem to other plantings due to the toxicity in the roots, leaves, hulls, and stems. 

www.groworganic.com

Black Walnut Tree Toxicity What Plants are Immune

So if I was going to plant around the bird feeder I would need to go with plants I already knew would grow when planted close to a black walnut tree.  Plus, they have to be plants that I love.  I've lost too many plants to try something new.

This time of year is the perfect time to buy plants because they are on sale.  So I decided to go to my local nursery to look around and if something caught my eye then I would buy it or them.  OK I'll admit it...I was going hosta hunting.  

Hostas were 50% off so now was the time to buy an expensive hosta.  So I started at the beginning of the hosta area, they are arranged A through Z.  Right away I found a hosta called Abiqua Drinking Gourd.  I already have one that I planted last year so it isn't mature yet.  

This particular hosta has almost round leaves that curl up to form a cup (collect rain water).  The leaves also have a waxy coating that if planted in full shade will keep the leaves blue (my other one is planted in full shade). This plant will get partial sun in the early morning and until noon or 1PM.  So this hosta will display as green.

I looked over all the pots they offered and found one that could be divided into three plants making my per plant price $3.34.

Original price $19.99

50% off -$10.00

New plant price $10.00

Divided by 3

$3.34

I washed off as much potting soil as possible and took my time cutting through the root ball.  Cut a little and then gently pull the roots apart keeping as many attached as possible.  I was able to divide the plant into 3 very nice plants.

Missouri Botanical Garden

No self respecting hostaholic would ever buy just 1 hosta.  I bought two more. They are outside and it is pouring rain so I will need to *update this tomorrow.  But I do remember something about Blueberry and the other is a large yellow hosta.  I should be able to divide those hostas into multiple plants, too.

*Blueberry Muffin and City Lights

 I didn't want just hostas so I also purchased a red cone flower called Sombrero and a lower growing sedum called Pure Joy.  It is like Autumn Joy except it will only grow to 10 inches tall and has bubblegum pink flowers.

Why cone flower and sedum?  The bees love them both and they will give me colorful blooms in late summer and into fall.  They are also drought resistant and the dried seed heads, of the cone flowers, are favorites of the finches in the winter.

On to the reveal.  I gave the post a final 2 coats of Behr Ultra White in semi gloss.  This is the paint that I use on my shutters, doors, and house trim.  I edged a circle around the post using my flat nose shovel and then removed the sod and about 4 inches of soil.  I replaced the removed soil with 2 bags of good top soil that have been sitting in my garden shed for 2 years.

I planted the three drinking gourd hostas on the back side of the post.  Depending on how big they grow I can either remove the middle one which leaves one on each side or just leave the middle one and remove the two outside hostas.

The sedum plant was planted in the front on the right side and the cone flower on the left side.  This left an open spot in the front for a solar spot light.  The solar light will highlight the bird feeder and can be seen as people drive by on the driveway at night.  Plus, our property is very very dark at night so any little pops of light helps.

I also added a wooden black cat that was at one time a door stop but I cut the door stop part off and I will screw it to the post after I buy a five inch screw tomorrow at the hardware store.

Now comes the good part.  It took both of us to lift the bird feeder high enough to slide the pole on the bottom of the bird feeder into the hole that R drilled into the end of the post.  We could have cut costs by buying a 4X4 post, but the scale of the post and that of the feeder, just would not look right.  Plus, 4X4 posts can twist as they dry out and that would look very bad.

AND then it started pouring rain so my photos are NOT Pinterest worthy at all.  But here is a before and after photo.

'Before' and as found at the curb.

'After' but before planting.

Cost breakdown

Original feeder Free @ Curb

Paint for feeder and post- Already had

Package of L brackets- $2.99

Strap Hinges- Already had

Black satin spray paint- Already had

2 feet of hardware cloth- $5.00

Screws for straps- 24 X $ .07=$1.68

Metal bracket with short length of pole- Free @ Curb

8ft 6X6 Post- $31.99

Trim boards on post- Our scrap pile

Plants Cone flower- $10.00

Sedum- $8.50

Hosta- $10.00

Black Cat- Already had

Solar spot light- Already had

Total cost for feeder, post, and plantings $70.16

We love our birds and some birds prefer platform feeders.  Also, we are hoping to attract crows to the feeder.  We have 6 crows that scavenge for dropped fruit in the afternoon.  Crows are a favorite for both of us.  It is a bit unusual because some people do not like them at all.  But they are highly intelligent birds and I hear that they can be trained.

The girl who gets gifts from birds - BBC News - BBC.com

Could Wild Birds Reciprocate Our Kind Actions? | Psychology Today

Grudge-Holding Crows Pass on Their Anger to Family and Friends ...

From a design standpoint the feeder was already designed and constructed.  I disassembled the feeder and reassembled using glue and screws and eliminated the plywood bottom and replaced with hardware cloth.  I painted the feeder using the same paint that the house is painted with and added design elements that mimicked those on the house, in the hope that the feeder would look original to the house and not something purchased at the store in 2018.  The plants also repeat the existing plantings in the landscape.  

And there you have it.  The bird feeder is probably a little 'extra' as they say but we love these kind of projects.  

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We might need to start building an Ark

At this time of year it is always better to have rain than snow but come on now, this is day three of rain.  I'm not talking about sprinkles or on/off rain but constant steady rain.  All the ACE fetilizer/weed killer has dissolved and the grass is already dark green which is good.

We have been busy with spring clean up.  There were two 12 inch in diameter, box elder trees that needed to be cut down.  A lot people do not like box elder trees but we don't mind them.  The reason we had to remove them was two fold.  First there was something going on with them and the top of each tree would die back and then regrow the next year.  Since we knew that they would not last we purchased sugar maples last fall when they were on sale and planted three of them along the drive way.

R and I cut down one tree last week and have already cut it up and burned the branches and cubed up the trunk for our wood pile.  Once the tree was cut down we noticed the beginning of rot in the very center of the trunk.  That actually made of feel better about cutting it down.

Yesterday R dropped the other tree when it was just sprinkling.  It is so much easier to deal with the tree remains when there are no leaves on the branches.  This tree also had some slight rot in the center of the trunk.

Later on in the spring or summer we will rent a stump grinder and deal with all of the stumps in the yard. It's not difficult just noisy and monotonous.  If you rent late Friday afternoon around 5pm you can get it all weekend if you return by 9am on Monday and they only charge you for one day.

We have been to two Flint Firebirds playoff games.  Exciting games but I will be surprised if they win on Friday night's away game. They are without their leading scorer and the team that they are playing is one of the best in the league.  But we are still very happy that in only their second year they were able to make it to the playoffs.

The SOO Greyhound's head coach (Sault Saint Marie....Sault is pronounced SOO...here in Michigan it is just call The SOO) had on polka dotted socks.  Very snazzy.

I was at the local wild bird supply store this last week to buy Baltimore Oriole food.  I want to have it on hand so when they show up they can eat.  The lady at the store told me that based on their sightings, they should be here in two weeks.  Based on last year's bird count, they used two bottles of the grape jelly formulated just for birds and did not eat even one orange so I won't bother with that this year.  Also we tried our best to count and we think we had about 10 pairs which was double what we had the year before.

This year we are going to try to build up the blue bird population and try to lure in the crows/ravens.  I know it sound weird but we have quite the group of crows/ravens and I have read how smart they are and if you feed them they will leave behind gifts like stones or shiny bits.  I actually know someone who's grandmother had pet crows/ravens.  Several years ago I purchased a wood platform feeder with a mesh bottom so we need to set that up for them.  I know they love the small fruit that falls off of my fruit trees so I will probably feed them fruit at fruit and then go from there.

We brought out the new large black ceramic pot that I purchased at Ollie's Bargain Center a couple of weeks ago.  I purchased bunny rabbit pot feet off of eBay to keep the pot up off the porch.  Plus they are so dang cute I just couldn't resist.  Looks like I need to readjust the pot and the feet.

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