Since the Rural Missouri magazine article has been published, I'm creating this post with links to some of the articles I've written for new or hopeful purple martin landords.
You may find these articles helpful:
Attraction Techniques for New Sites: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/03/attraction-techniques-for-new-sites.html
Dealing with English House Sparrows and Starlings - Trapping & Shooting Techniques: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2015/02/trapping-and-shooting-strategies-for.html
English House Sparrow Control Myths: https://www.purplemartin.org/uploads/media/22-3-housesparrowmyt-415.pdf
Offering Calcium to Purple Martins and Other Birds: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-incredible-edible-egg-shell.html
Stopping Ground Predators from Killing Your Purple Martins: https://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2020/04/predator-guards-story-of-love-and.html
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Friday, February 14, 2020
Feed the Bees: Because You Can Never Have Enough Wildflowers
Last November I shared some pictures of the area we were planning to convert to all native wildflowers & grasses (Link here: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2019/11/tell-it-to-trees.html). Bob ran over this area several times with a disc to help kill the grass, but with our Yellowstone vacation and other activities, we weren't able to spread the seed during December or January as originally planned.
Realizing we were running out of time, we started watching the weather at the beginning of this week, and finally decided that today - if the ground had frozen hard enough that we didn't sink up to our knees in mud - we would finally hand-spread it all. This area was just too small and cluttered with trees to try to use a seed drill.
Yesterday, we found some vermiculite at Menards in Rolla, MO that was perfect to mix with all the seeds so that we could get a more even distribution when flinging the seed. An added benefit of adding that stuff - it also helps you see where you've already spread seed as you walk through the field.
Over 6 pounds of seed to spread - and when you consider how small some of the seeds are, that's a lot of seed!
The freezing & thawing process, along with the snow, ice & rain over the next month will not only help stratify the seeds, but also naturally "plant" them, just as nature does it when left to Her own devices.
One Bonus - with a resident Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl, there won't be a lot of mice trying to steal the seed. At least, there won't be a lot of mice that get away with it anyway in this wide-open area! HA!
Realizing we were running out of time, we started watching the weather at the beginning of this week, and finally decided that today - if the ground had frozen hard enough that we didn't sink up to our knees in mud - we would finally hand-spread it all. This area was just too small and cluttered with trees to try to use a seed drill.
Yesterday, we found some vermiculite at Menards in Rolla, MO that was perfect to mix with all the seeds so that we could get a more even distribution when flinging the seed. An added benefit of adding that stuff - it also helps you see where you've already spread seed as you walk through the field.
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| Vermiculite, ready to be mixed in with the seeds. |
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| Bob 'flinging' seed. |
The freezing & thawing process, along with the snow, ice & rain over the next month will not only help stratify the seeds, but also naturally "plant" them, just as nature does it when left to Her own devices.
One Bonus - with a resident Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl, there won't be a lot of mice trying to steal the seed. At least, there won't be a lot of mice that get away with it anyway in this wide-open area! HA!
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| A panoramic view of 1/2 of the field we planted. |
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