Sept. 24 Column: Fall Clean-up for the Birds

fall clean-up, gardening giveaway, survey,
fall clean-up, goldfinches

Do you enjoy seeing birds in your garden year-round? If so, there is something really important for you to keep in mind while tackling your fall clean-up chores. Save flower heads for the birds!

If you’re like me, you probably really like having a very tidy yard going into the fall and winter seasons. But I learned something really important a couple of years ago. If I leave some seed heads behind, they will provide the birds in our garden with a nutritious food source. We have tough winters so I’m happy to help them out.

And that is the subject of my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review. Here’s a link: Dead flowers can be a feast for the birds this winter. (or you can read my column lower in this post)

In my column, I alluded to taking some video of goldfinches nibbling on seed heads. In this week’s “Everyone Can Grow A Garden” video, I share the videos I took in 2015 and 2016. So here is the amazing thing: when I posted the 2015 video on my Facebook page, it went viral! I was stunned by just how many (over 2 million at last count) had enjoyed watching the goldfinches. The second video was also very popular. I hope you will both enjoy it and share it with your gardening and birdwatching friends.

The point of my column and video is to get folks to leave seed heads for the birds this winter. It won’t make your garden look tacky. You’ll have the added bonus of being entertained by the birds’ antics!

Here’s the video:

Garden column: Fall Clean-up

by Susan Mulvihill

We sure had a hot, dry and smoky summer. I can’t blame you for wanting to clean up your yard and move on to other things. But before you get started, I have a request: leave something for the birds to eat this winter.

A few years ago, fall came much earlier than usual. I ended up skipping my yard clean-up and figured I’d catch up in the spring. I’ve heard some gardeners do this on a regular basis. I have to admit I was worried about feeling overwhelmed by the time spring arrived.

Every time I looked out a window that fall and winter, I was met with views of untidy flower beds. I feared it gave testimony to the “lazy gardener” indoors. Were neighbors and other passersby judging my gardening abilities, I wondered?

One wintry day, something wonderful happened. As I glanced out the window, a slight movement caught my eye. To my delight, I saw a goldfinch perched on the top of a black-eyed Susan seedhead, nibbling away. At one point, it had one foot on one spent flower, the other foot on a second. It was precariously close to doing the splits.

I was mesmerized. And, of course, I grabbed my video camera to capture the moment.

While glancing around the yard, I saw more birds on flowers that had long since turned brown. It was gratifying to discover I had inadvertently left them a much-needed source of food.

It’s true we gardeners like everything to be tidy at the end of the growing season. But you can see there’s a very good reason for leaving plants with seed-filled flower heads where they grew this summer. In addition to coneflowers, some of the best ones are bee balm, black-eyed Susan, lavender, globe thistle and sunflower.

You might think lavender flowers aren’t worth saving. But Bill and I made a delightful discovery a couple of winters ago. As we headed outside for a morning walk through a few inches of snow, we detected the scent of lavender.

It turns out birds had been eating the seeds on the flower stalks, which released the lavender essence. Because of this, we now wait until early spring to trim back our lavender plants.

If you are concerned about ending up with hundreds of volunteer plants come spring, I can tell you that hasn’t been a problem for us. That must mean our birds are good eaters, I guess. If it does happen, however, some quick early spring weeding will resolve that problem.

As you walk through your garden this fall, look to see which types of flowers your bird friends would enjoy during the colder months of the year. The seeds are such an important nutrition source for them.

Just in case you worry about feeling behind by leaving those plants in place, remember that there are plenty of yard-tidying projects you can do this fall, without adversely affecting the birds. They include dividing perennials, pruning tree branches that might be a problem during the winter, cutting back raspberry canes that produced this year, and mulching your flower and shrub beds to prevent frost heaving.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, our goal has been to attract birds to our landscape. In addition to being a delight to watch, most birds are insectivores which helps keep our garden healthy.