It’s Time to Invite the Birds Back to the Sun Bed

Readers of this newsletter might recall that on March 1, I published a post called, “My Sun Bed is Going to the Birds.”  It tells the tale of the bird feeder I purchased last year to add vertical interest to my sun bed.  Without revisiting all of the details (certainly you memorized that post along with all the others in the archive), I reported that I was thrilled with watching the birds swirling around the feeders and eating the seed, but less thrilled with the smaller birds that were gathering under the feeder to eat the leaves off my autumn joy sedum, a succulent that is a fall bloomer with beautiful red flowers.  My solution, which I don’t claim was overly intelligent, was to 1) move my autumn joy sedum over to the firepit bed in hopes the birds wouldn’t find them at their new location, and 2) stop feeding the birds until I could get some plants growing that wouldn’t be disturbed by the birds and squirrels rampaging through the bed seeking seed that had fallen to the ground. 

I thought I owed you an update on the bird situation, and the very good news is that the early returns look pretty good.  Let’s start by reviewing the bed of iris that I planted under the feeder. It was supposed to be strong enough to withstand an onslaught of hungry, uncaring birds and squirrels, looking for seed on the ground. The iris plants have bloomed with beautiful yellow flowers that stand maybe 4 feet tall, almost as high as the squirrel baffle on the feeder.  Aside from looking beautiful, they seem to be able to handle their secondary mission of coexisting with squirrels and birds. 

Iris survived the winter and were just beginning their spring growth.  Photo by: Me. March 31, 2024. 

This is what I’m talking about!  I’m probably the only beginning gardener to be this enamored with the beauty of yellow iris flowers.  Photo by: Me.  May 2, 2024. 

Look how tall they are!  Probably the height of the baffle on the bird feeder.  I’m betting these flowers are hardy enough to withstand the squirrels running through the bed.  Photo by: Me. May 2, 2024. 

Next, you might be interested in how the autumn joy sedum are doing this spring in their new location by the firepit bed.  You may recall (of course you do) that I transplanted two tall, healthy sedum plants I had purchased at Sun Nurseries to the firepit bed, and I bought two more autumn joy sedum for $5 each at Home Depot.  As you can see, the transplants seem to be doing great with leaves bursting from the basal growth below.  I’m also embarrassed to report I still haven’t pruned the stalks from last year.  Autumn joy sedum are fall bloomers that do a great job of adding spectacular colors to flower beds after your summer flowers begin to fade.  There’s a strong possibility I’ll get around to pruning these plants sometime before…maybe September?  Just joking about September, but most of the growth in these plants happens in late summer and I want to be absolutely sure I’m not cutting down flower stalks that could yield buds later this year.  Gosh, it would be nice to know what I’m doing. 

Autumn Joy sedum I moved from the sun bed last year.  The plants flowered nicely even though the birds ate all the leaves.  It will be interesting to see if the birds find these plants in their new location.  I have no idea how the plant grows new stalks and new flowers.  These stalks clearly need to be cut back, maybe.  Photo by: Me. May 2, 2024. 

Here’s the other one.  Looks pretty much the same except that I must have cut back a few of the stalks in early spring.  I don’t remember.  (Full disclosure: I’m still terrified of cutting back plants. Can you tell?) Photo by:  Me.  May 2, 2024. 

You might be asking yourself, so what happened to the actual bird feeders?  We see the stand and squirrel baffle, but where are the feeders?  For most of the winter the bird feeders stayed where I left them after I decided I wasn’t going to feed the birds anymore, which was on the bottom shelf of my rolling table outside on my screened patio.  I’m pleased to report that the feeders did very well, mostly due to our mild winter this year, and partly due to the fact that the gardening gods didn’t feel like punishing me for being so lazy and stupid as to leave the bird feeders outdoors with no shelter.  I’m further pleased to report that just this weekend, my wife, Linda, was doing spring cleaning on the porch and stashed the bird feeders in the garage. While I appreciate that someone in this family finally came to their senses in terms of a more appropriate storage location for the bird feeders, I find it sad that I will be cleaning the feeders and rehanging them outside on their stand early next week.  I intend to use soap and water to clean the feeders in anticipation of filling them with bird seed and suet, which falls far short of the recommended cleaning techniques you will find on the internet, but there you go. 

Seed feeder to the left and suet feeder to the right, carefully stored in my immaculately clean garage.  It’s time for both feeders to be taken out of mothballs so we can feed some birds this spring.  Photo by: Me. May 2, 2024. 

I anticipate that it will take a few weeks before the birds find the feeders and begin endlessly entertaining me by jockeying for position on the feeders to get their breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  I was really getting into trying to identify the birds that swooped in from the woods with my fancy binoculars.  With a little luck, the iris will do their job, the plant-munching birds won’t find the sedum in their new location, and we can enjoy the spring with just a little less bird drama. 

Next week I think I will take a close look at another question that is outstanding from last season.  All I can say is, “Let the best groundcover win.” 

If you enjoy this content, you should check out the archives, where you will find more than 20 posts about my journey to be a perennial gardener.  Just click on the small image of me at the top of this post and the archives should pop right up.  And if you have a mind to do it, you might share a link to the newsletter with a family member, friend, or associate by clicking on one of the many share buttons on the page.  Thanks.