Birds of a Feather
Bird feeding is in. More that 50 million Americans already have season tickets!
To attract the widest variety of birds, landscape your property with plants that offer cover, natural foods and provide a source of water. You can use a submersible heater or a thermostatically controlled birdbath to provide a reliable source of water. There are various styles of feeders to choose from. Websites like www.BirdWatcherSupply.com are a good resource. Place feeders in areas that offer nearby cover for the birds and allow you to view them from inside your homes. Having dense ground cover shrubs or trees close by will help protect birds from predators.
With appropriate yard habitat and the proper combination of wild bird seed and feeders, you should be able to attract a good assortment of birds. Having neighbors who feed the birds will help as birds tend to make the rounds of ‘food patches’, and a neighborhood smorgasbord is great incentive for feathered friends.
Go to BirdZilla.com to find out the 35 most common birds of Colorado.
Why do the pine trees look so bad?
Evergreen trees will cycle their material in the same fashion as deciduous trees drop their leaves each fall. This process is known as abscission in trees and is triggered by hormones in the trees. Pine trees have different cycles among them varying from every 2-4 years. This year needle drop seems more accentuated. The abundant moisture this summer produced a more robust stock of needle tissue, and the trees are unable to support the new tissue so they are shedding it.
Holiday Lights Repair Primer
A normal incandescent bulb lasts between 2,000 and 3,000 hours, but that depends on the quality of the filament.
Use a special voltage sensor pen that tells you where the short is or where the bulb needs to be replaced. These pens can be found at your local hardware store. Check a bulb every foot or so to try and figure out the area where the short is, then backtrack, going from bulb to bulb, to find out which one needs to be taken out.
The lights won’t work if the fuses won’t work. Each light set usually has two fuses in each plug. If a fuse blows, just replace it!
Watering
Be sure to winter water trees and shrubs at least once a month. If you have a spigot stop valve that reaches back behind the foundation wall you can deep root water with a hose on a sunny after noon. You can even use your sprinkler for 20 to 30 minutes to soak your lawn if temperatures stay above 50 degrees!
Recycle Christmas Trees
After the holidays you can chop the branches off your Christmas tree and lay them over bulb beds and perennial gardens. The added insulation helps protect plants against fluctuating soil temperatures and early warm-up.
South Suburban Parks and Recreation will again recycle real trees at the yard over on Holly Street through mid-January. Call SSPR @ 303-798-5131