Permaculture & Tea Cup Birdfeeders
Jun. 28th, 2010 09:42 pmI picked up a book at library on permaculture called "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture" by Rosemary Morrow (illustrated by Rob Allsop). I've only just started reading it and have found it interesting so far. I'll do a better, more thorough post about it later. It challenges some of my thinking and ways of looking at my garden.
A couple weeks ago I picked up a couple teacup bird feeders. I'd been thinking about getting a couple and we went to a monthly craft faire/bake sale when I saw some. These are nice ways to recycle/reuse old crockery, make your garden look nice and, perhaps very importantly, provide an incentive for birds to come into your garden for food. They are nice for your own garden or really nice to make or get for gardeners you're looking for gifts for.
These are pretty easy to make (I'll post some info links for you). I wish I'd known that before I bought mine but that's ok, at least I supported a local craft person. I hadn't thought about making them because I thought I'd have to try to drill (my drill isn't really going anymore) but you don't have to necessarily, you can use 'liquid nails' or 'gorilla glue'.
You can mix/match your cups and saucers and can also use small bowls (note: small bowls as medium to large ones will be too heavy). If you are picking up colourful mixed-matched sets at the 2nd hand shop they'll be fairly inexpensive. If they have any chips use some sandpaper to carefully buff these so they don't have any sharp edges.
Links first, then some really bad pictures I took. Seriously. Y'all don't usually get to see my photos when they are this bad. Usually I just delete them. But I want you to see the birds and the tea cups, and given I was perched precariously on the kitchen bench, shooting through a dirty window and with greyish light what do you expect??
If you do make your own, I'd suggest wood, aluminum or pvc dowels/sticks. You want something strong. Despite what many of these links will suggest, I suggest you not glue the saucer onto the dowel directly so it's easier to empty rainwater out of and clean. You can use a pipe cap or something similar, try to fit it closely to your dowel.
My feeders have had a wooden 'round' (and the other has a wooden cone) glued onto the bottom of the saucer and there's a hole drilled in this that the metal dowel sits in. This is also a clever idea if you can get pre-cut (or cut your own) wood blocks. Perhaps a 2nd hand shop has some old wood toy blocks you can drill big enough to put your dowel into and glue onto your saucer.
And definitely give it a clean about once a week or so. This will prevent disease from spreading and keep the...solid gifts....to a minimum.
Thrifty Fun instructions using PVC pipe
Little Chief Honeybee instructions with an interesting idea to use spare spoons for bird perches
Little Birdie Secrets instructions, similar to the previous one
Better Homes and Gardens instructions which require drilling and why do they recommend gluing buttons on?? Is it to help the birds perch????
Now, if you are just not too crafty and prefer to support an artist, there's at least one person selling hanging ones on Etsy. I did a search on "outdoors bird feeders" and found several of them at different prices. (Edit: these butterfly/hummingbird feeders are kind of neat, might have to think about some saucer butterfly feeders with something for butterflies to sit on while drinking??
Now, pictures! Yes, I've bumped contrast and colour on these. Shooting through the dirty window made them very dull and the weather didn't help. Sorry! I did want to share our winter friends with you since![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holyschist inspired me in her post on birds.
Native Silvereye, or Waxeye. These little buggers are small and fast! They love fruit and bread and are the ones who eat my guavas (which isn't a huge deal for me since they're kinda cute). They LOVE bananas and if we have some too brown to eat & don't have enough for banana bread then I impale pieces of banana on the bamboo posts.
Here's one of the Silvereye eating some of my stale home-made bread
( Read more... )
A couple weeks ago I picked up a couple teacup bird feeders. I'd been thinking about getting a couple and we went to a monthly craft faire/bake sale when I saw some. These are nice ways to recycle/reuse old crockery, make your garden look nice and, perhaps very importantly, provide an incentive for birds to come into your garden for food. They are nice for your own garden or really nice to make or get for gardeners you're looking for gifts for.
These are pretty easy to make (I'll post some info links for you). I wish I'd known that before I bought mine but that's ok, at least I supported a local craft person. I hadn't thought about making them because I thought I'd have to try to drill (my drill isn't really going anymore) but you don't have to necessarily, you can use 'liquid nails' or 'gorilla glue'.
You can mix/match your cups and saucers and can also use small bowls (note: small bowls as medium to large ones will be too heavy). If you are picking up colourful mixed-matched sets at the 2nd hand shop they'll be fairly inexpensive. If they have any chips use some sandpaper to carefully buff these so they don't have any sharp edges.
Links first, then some really bad pictures I took. Seriously. Y'all don't usually get to see my photos when they are this bad. Usually I just delete them. But I want you to see the birds and the tea cups, and given I was perched precariously on the kitchen bench, shooting through a dirty window and with greyish light what do you expect??
If you do make your own, I'd suggest wood, aluminum or pvc dowels/sticks. You want something strong. Despite what many of these links will suggest, I suggest you not glue the saucer onto the dowel directly so it's easier to empty rainwater out of and clean. You can use a pipe cap or something similar, try to fit it closely to your dowel.
My feeders have had a wooden 'round' (and the other has a wooden cone) glued onto the bottom of the saucer and there's a hole drilled in this that the metal dowel sits in. This is also a clever idea if you can get pre-cut (or cut your own) wood blocks. Perhaps a 2nd hand shop has some old wood toy blocks you can drill big enough to put your dowel into and glue onto your saucer.
And definitely give it a clean about once a week or so. This will prevent disease from spreading and keep the...solid gifts....to a minimum.
Thrifty Fun instructions using PVC pipe
Little Chief Honeybee instructions with an interesting idea to use spare spoons for bird perches
Little Birdie Secrets instructions, similar to the previous one
Better Homes and Gardens instructions which require drilling and why do they recommend gluing buttons on?? Is it to help the birds perch????
Now, if you are just not too crafty and prefer to support an artist, there's at least one person selling hanging ones on Etsy. I did a search on "outdoors bird feeders" and found several of them at different prices. (Edit: these butterfly/hummingbird feeders are kind of neat, might have to think about some saucer butterfly feeders with something for butterflies to sit on while drinking??
Now, pictures! Yes, I've bumped contrast and colour on these. Shooting through the dirty window made them very dull and the weather didn't help. Sorry! I did want to share our winter friends with you since
holyschist inspired me in her post on birds.Native Silvereye, or Waxeye. These little buggers are small and fast! They love fruit and bread and are the ones who eat my guavas (which isn't a huge deal for me since they're kinda cute). They LOVE bananas and if we have some too brown to eat & don't have enough for banana bread then I impale pieces of banana on the bamboo posts.
Here's one of the Silvereye eating some of my stale home-made bread
( Read more... )
