by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The hot, dry days of summer can be as hard on the birds that live in and around your garden as they are on your plants. A source of water in your garden – something as simple as an upside-down trash can lid with some rocks in it to provide perching spots and keep it from blowing away – helps birds (and pollinators) thrive.
If you want the bird bath/bird and pollinator water supply to be a little more elaborate and decorative use a large terracotta dish often put beneath a flowerpot or some other shallow bowl that fits your garden design.
Be sure to keep it full and clean it out a few times a week and ensure that the water is always as fresh as possible.
Resident birds are not just fun to watch and listen to; they also help control many of the insects that may be chewing on your tasty organic plants about now. Talk about a win-win proposition! (You may need to net berry crops and also some others to keep them for yourself, but that's a small price to pay for the birds' help the rest of the year.)
© 2014
