– By Steve Pettis Turning one’s yard into a suitable habitat for birds requires designing landscapes that provide birds with their five essential needs: food, shelter, water, cover, and nesting sites. Birdscaping is a term used to describe the act of creating suitable habitat for avian species through landscaping. By planning landscape designs with birds in mind, gardeners can provide birds with the things they need to survive and birds can provide gardeners with hours of enjoyment. Planning a landscape that is suitable for birds is easy. Start by sketching the existing landscape. Make note of all structures, plantings, and topographical features. Make notes on your drawing of the plants to leave, to remove, or add keeping in mind that birds like edges such as forest and planting borders. Choose areas to plant trees and shrubs that birds can utilize. Mix in plantings of annuals and perennials that flower throughout…
Category: Newsletters and Member Articles
Get Your Soil Tested During The Dormant Season
One of the most important needs of plants is good soil for them to grow in. A soil test from the University of Georgia is the most accurate and effective way to assess the nutrient status and the relative acidity of the soil (pH). Applying fertilizer without a test can lead to applying too much or too little lime and fertilizer needed for optimum plant growth. To collect the soil, take a minimum of ten samples randomly in the area that requires testing and mix the soil thoroughly in a container, like a bucket. Bring two cups of the soil to the Extension office for testing. You will then place the soil in a small bag, and fill out some information on the side of it. For a fee of $8.00 per sample, the Extension office will mail it to the University of Georgia Soil Testing Laboratory with the results…
A Bit of Dirt – Winter 2009
PRESIDENT’S CORNER – By Debbie Bush Hello all! As I write this message to you, I’m looking at my beautiful sugar maple in all its fall glory thinking that the drought has taught me a few good lessons – I have been heavy handed with watering. My sasanquas are stunning and the japonicas are loaded with buds. My flowering trees and rhodies were magnificent this spring. Another lesson is that boxwoods are worth their weight in gold. I should have learned that when I visited George Washington’s Mt Vernon and saw his original boxwood plantings flourishing but it took a drought for me to have my “ah-ha” moment. Boxwood’s are now my favorite plant to buy. But not all is good, I’m sad that the drought has taken a toll on my ground covers. I remember my Great-Grandmothers’ Grandmother’s and Mother’s gardens as a child and the joy of spending…