Innehållsförteckning för April - May 2017 från Birds & Blooms

Cheri Brandt’s Croatian grandmother said this to her 50 years ago, the day after an epic and frightening spring thunderstorm. Grandma Ruza, only about 4-1/2 feet tall and wearing her usual printed dress with an apron, went on to say that Cheri should be thankful for lightning because it wakes up the seeds in the garden. Today, Cheri, who lives in Minnesota, tells her own grandchildren not to fear thunderstorms because the plants need them. In this garden kickoff issue, read heartfelt tales of wisdom from mothers and grandmothers on page 34. The stories are bound to give you the warm fuzzies and maybe inspire you to share your own lessons learned in the garden with the next generation. (Psst! Don’t forget Mother’s Day is May 14. Moms love flowers…

Say Yes to the Nest Birds gather twigs, twine and anything they can get their beaks on to create a cozy home for their families this time of year. With an increasing loss of natural habitat, it’s only a matter of time until a budding brood moves into your backyard. Where a bird chooses to build a nest is not always convenient for its human hosts. But remember, it isn’t every day that you’re given a front-row seat to one of the most exciting cycles of nature. If possible, be hospitable and find another way to enter your home. Your feathered visitors stay only for a handful of weeks. Alert anyone who might frequent the door, and keep pets away from the nesting area. If there’s no alternative way to…

I t’s possible to reduce outdoor water use by 20 to 50 percent with a few easy changes. To keep your water bill low and plants in their prime, try these tips from the National Garden Bureau and the Gardener’s Supply Co 1Use organic matter, such as compost, chopped-up leaves or composted manure, to supplement your soil. These organic materials increase the water-holding capacity of soil. A good rule of thumb is to add 1 inch of compost per year. 2 Give your plants a solid soak. While sprinklers get the job done, a soaker hose is even better. It applies the water directly to the soil by the roots, so up to 90 percent is actually available to plants. 3 Spread mulch. It prevents weeds from growing and soaking…

“The one-on-one time we shared in the garden was not just about growing food. It was about growing the appreciation and love we had for each other. DeAnne Beyer” Whether in the kitchen or the garden, my mom and I made quite a team. She was always on board with my harebrained ideas. I started keeping a journal of my gardening adventures in 2002, and I carefully recorded everything from temperature variations to pest problems. My journal entries also tell of hard-fought battles, with my mom and me joining forces against weather and wayward wildlife. One memorable August entry said, “We found out what was chewing our cabbage and tomatoes. A groundhog! Mom was picking tomatoes and it was hiding in the tomato plant. Scared her to death!” For a…

F rom lovely melodies to raucous squawks, birds make all sorts of interesting sounds. Of course they aren’t making that variety of sounds just to entertain you; they have more practical reasons for belting their hearts out. Birds use songs and calls to communicate with other birds, particularly their own kind, and when you dig deeper, the reasons get even more complex. A few species, like turkey vultures, are almost always silent, but most birds are chatterboxes and have several different calls. This is especially true for birds that live in flocks for part of the year, such as chickadees. Black-capped chickadees have at least 15 distinct calls that they use in various situations. If their flock is foraging in treetops, they make short, light “contact” calls and a louder…

19 A DANDY DRINK Pharmacists in 19th-century England made tea from roasted dandelion roots. The drink is still trendy today, thanks to a coffeelike taste and color without caffeine 112 A cup of chopped raw dandelion greens provides 112 percent of the daily requirement for vitamin A (at only 25 calories). 1957 Ray Bradbury’s 1957 novel Dandelion Wine gets its title from the wine the characters make and drink in summer 300 A single dandelion head consists of up to 300 ray flowers that look like tiny petals at first glance 1,620 Dandelions are part of the daisy family, one of the biggest in botany with more than 1,620 genera of plant types. 24 Dandelion flowers reach heights of 6 to 24 inches, and roots go as deep as 10…

Join the Birds & Blooms team as a volunteer Field Editor. Find more info at birdsandblooms.com/fieldeditors. 1 Capture your firsts! San Juanita Cespedes of Harlingen, Texas, takes photos of the first blooms on her magnolia tree each year. She missed the daylight, but her husband held a flashlight and together they took this photo. 2 Clean out your birdhouses. Attract your favorite nesters with the guidelines at birdsandblooms.com/ birdhouseguidelines 3 Join the Birds & Blooms team as a volunteer Field Editor. Find more info at birdsandblooms.com/fieldeditors. 4 Soak up spring migration on the East Coast at New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Spring Festival (May 19-21).…

Last May, I dedicated myself to a big month of birding, going out for at least one hour a day every day. To accomplish this, I often went bird-watching at a nearby cemetery over my lunch hour. Toward the end of the month, this brown thrasher posed nicely for me on top of a hedgerow. Travis Bonovsky BROOKLYN CENTER, MINNESOTA Painted buntings never fail to catch my eye with their brilliant array of colors. This particular bunting was perched on a thistle. I took its photo two springs ago in the Texas Hill Country. Bill Draker BANDERA, TEXAS I took this picture of a young killdeer at Peaceful Valley Ranch in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. I used my Nikon D5200 camera to get the shot. Albert Myran DICKINSON,…

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City WHY I LOVE IT My city is full of what you’d expect from a metropolis (art museums, restaurants and a vibrant community), but it has surprises, too. It hosts tons of public events and festivals, like the Memorial Marathon in April. There is also a lot of birding here. During the 2015 Christmas Bird Count, volunteers spotted 116 species! THE FEATHERED LOCALS Our state bird is the scissor-tailed flycatcher, so it makes sense that they would be easy to spot in our capital city in summertime. You can usually see them perched on telephone lines. Search a little more and you’ll find painted and indigo buntings, too. Spring and fall bring migrating raptors, such as osprey and peregrine falcons, and winter means bald eagles…

BRING ON THE BEES Add a touch of romance to your garden with garlands of American wisteria in Zones 5 to 9. Pollinators love to visit its long, fragrant vines. TO-DO LIST April • Prepare your backyard for an eastern bluebird family. These birds start house hunting early, so clean out last year’s birdhouse and make sure it’s mounted about 5 to 10 feet off the ground • Prune summer-flowering shrubs, including American wisteria and blue spirea, to encourage masses of nectar-laden blooms. • Fill your bird feeders daily with sunflower seeds. Natural food is in short supply in early spring, but migration is in full swing.…

1 Cool Wave Morpho pansy VIOLA X WITTROCKIANA, ZONES 5 TO 9 Beautify the growing season with cool-season pansies. With delightful color and a spreading and trailing growth habit, they’re perfect for spring and autumn containers. One of the first plants you see in spring, it’s among the surest signs that winter is on its way out. Why we love it: These colorful pansies bloom for a long time. That’s just one of the benefits of the Cool Wave brand. 2 Lemonade cosmos COSMOS BIPINNATUS, ANNUAL Quench your thirst for all things citrus with a cosmos in a rare, delicately faded yellow shade. The very first yellow cosmos bipinnatus on the market, this beauty bursts to lemony life with a lush mass of flowers on strong 24-inch stems throughout the…

For a backyard full of SCARLET-HUED FLIERS and their mates, GROW PLANTS THEY LOVE to eat and shrubs to shelter their families. S etting out a bird feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds is a surefire way to attract northern cardinals—but ambitious gardeners shouldn’t stop there, because the right plants bring in these ruby red beauties and other songbirds, too. The key is to focus on the trifecta of providing food, cover and places to raise young, says Gary Ritchison, an ornithologist at Eastern Kentucky University and writer of the bird guide Northern Cardinal. A deep dive into the life of cardinals unveils clues to help you attract the ubiquitous backyard birds. clue#1 A BILL BUILT FOR SEED The shape and structure of a cardinal’s bill reveals the birds’…

Q When a brown-colored thrush visited my platform feeder, it gobbled up the food. In it was a mix including berries, nuts, sunflower seeds, milo, millet and suet cake. The bird didn’t touch the suet. What should I serve in the feeder to lure this bird back? Kirk Klag TIMKEN, KANSAS Kenn and Kimberly: Thrushes aren’t common visitors to feeders because they don’t eat seeds. Their typical diet is mostly insects and berries. Since your mix included berries, it was probably going for those. If you want to attract thrushes and other birds that don’t typically visit feeders, add a water feature with moving water. Even a small fountain or dripper can work like a charm if it has an area large and flat enough for birds to splash in.…

When I was a new birder, I saw a male rose-breasted grosbeak. I was horrified to see that the bird was bleeding from his breast. I had a good laugh at one of my first lessons in identification when I realized that’s the nature of the bird. Mary Ann Groat TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN I planted onions and garlic next to my beans to keep bugs away. They stunted the beans’ growth, and those were the shortest pole beans I’ve ever grown Mary Anne Thygesen PORTLAND, OREGON After I moved into my small cottage, the first thing I did was get rid of the unsightly, obnoxious shrubs. As I was digging, pulling and yanking, a neighbor walked down her driveway and sweetly asked what I was doing. “Why, getting rid of…

True or False? A. Despite the name, western bluebirds are found along the East Coast. B. The brighter the male blue-footed booby’s feet, the better its chances of attracting a mate. C. The blue morpho butterfly isn’t blue. The hue is actually a trick of the light. answers on the bottom! ANSWERS 1 PLUMBAGO; 2 INDIGO BUNTING; 3 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS; 4 AMERICAN ROBIN EGG; 5 IRIS; A. FALSE; B. TRUE; C. TRUE…

In each issue, we hide a hummingbird like the one above left. In the February/March issue, we hid it on page 60. If you find it, enter at birdsandblooms.com/contests. We’ll draw winners to receive Birds & Blooms seeds. HIDDEN OBJECT GUIDELINES No purchase necessary to enter to win. Purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes is open to legal residents age 18 years or older of the U.S., its territories and possessions, or of Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec). Sweepstakes begins on March 1, 2017, and ends on May 3, 2017. Find official rules at birdsandblooms.com/contests. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Sweepstakes sponsored by RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC. Contact Us! CUSTOMER CARE For subscriptions, renewals, gifts, payments, account info and inquiries Email: customercare@birdsandblooms.com Visit: birdsandblooms.com/customercare Write: BIRDS & BLOOMS…