As fall arrives not only is it the time of year to do fall gardening chores this is the time of year I remind myself to get ready with the winter's food for our feathered friends. As gas prices soar and everything else with it we senior citizen gardeners (or at least this one) on retirement have got to get pretty creative with our gardening budget and our bird feeding budgets.
About 4 or 5 years ago thistle seed was $7.99 for a large bag at our home and garden center. Today it is $19.97! When it got over ten dollars a bag we had to put it out of our budget.
However, we still find many ways to attract other birds and here are some good and thrifty hints for those of you who are frugal organic gardeners and bird lovers.
You may want to ask your local butcher if they will give you any free suet and if the answer is no then find out what their lowest price is and consider buying that. The birds will love it and it is much better for them than the suet cakes you buy. Suet is the fat around the cow's kidney area and should you get some you might consider rendering it outside either in a pan on your gas grill or in an electric fry pan as it can really smell up your kitchen.
Once you have rendered down the suet then add some treats you think the birds might like such as nuts, raisins, bird seed etc. I would recommend finding a salvage grocery and picking up their nuts, raisins, diced dates and peanut butter as their very reasonable discount prices and the dented cans or boxes will not hurt the birds.
After you have added your treats to the suet then pour your warm mixture into a bread pan and let it cool and harden. Remove from pan and cut into slices that will fit into your suet feeder. Put the slices in the freezer where they will keep for three or four months.
In the event you cannot get suet then consider lard or shortening. However, add equal parts of peanut butter and flour to keep the consistency of the suet cakes the way they should be.
Should you live near a place where hunters bring their fall deer kill then you can probably get venison suet free or relatively cheap.
Planting trees such as mountain ash, crabapple, high bush cranberries will create feeding stations for the birds though out the fall and winter and give you property some nice landscaping all year round.
You don't need expensive bird baths when birds only want an inch or two of water to stand in so consider a saucer or an old bread pan or cookie sheet filled with water. These are easy to dump when the water freezes and can quickly be filled up again from a gallon container of water once you have turned your garden hoses off for the winter. Also consider a garbage pail lid as a bird bath and treat it the same as mentioned above.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime May your day be filled with Peace, Light and Love,
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
