During the Labor Day weekend, we invited company to our house for a pot-luck cookout. That Saturday was perfect. Temperatures were in the mid-70s, humidity was low, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The worst part were the mosquitoes who seem to have set up their own private Alamo-type seige at our house. I blame the house next door that sat empty for 5 years – along with a swimming pool filled with green water, toads, and other scary things. Now that people live there, the mosquitoes have moved to our place to stalk our red veins.
Even with mosquitoes, the presence of hummingbirds had our guests oooh’ing and ahhh’ing. We love watching the territorial males fighting over the nectar. It’s also quite enjoyable seeing the birds splash in the bird bath.
I plan to expand the number of birds we attract in our yard by building a bird feeder wreath. The Old Farmers Almanac has a how-to tutorial, but briefly here’s how you do it.
- Get a base for the wreath (you can make your own using grapevines or buy one from you local hobby store), and pick up some sunflower heads, herbs, tall grasses, and flowers with seed heads.
- Starting with the sunflower heads, attach using floral wire.
- Poke the other flowers (e.g., coneflowers, black-eyed Susans) in between.
- And according to the almanac, finish by putting in the herbs and grasses.
The Almanac assures that the birds will find this beautiful wreath. I hope while they’re dining on the flower seeds, they’ll also take out a mosquito or a thousand.
