Category: Home & Garden

Today we’re off to California to visit with Kathy Sandel.

I am a landscape designer, now retired, and I want to show you pics of my garden in Calabasas, California. This is a property I lived at for more than 20 years while I was doing other people’s gardens. I moved from there about three years ago to be nearer my daughter. However, I loved my garden so much I often look at pics of it.

I lived in a small house overlooking a man-made lake in Calabasas. A terrace hung out over a hill of about 12 to 15 feet in height. The slope beneath was planted and bordered a walkway around the entire lake. The gardens adjacent to the terrace all around the house were paved with Saltillo tiles, and I built a series of planters the better to see my planting from inside the house. It was an ideal environment and something I never thought I would leave. But life is full of changes.

The terrace at night

Looking out at the lake at dusk

My kitchen garden

View of the garden from inside the house

Peonies (Paeonia hybrid, Zones 3–8) are growing happily beneath a Melaleuca nesophila (Zones 9–11) tree.

Red valerian (Centranthus ruber, Zones 5–8) is spilling out of the bed with flowers.

A rose blooms amid the red valerian.

Clematis (Zones 4–9) surrounded by Polygonum capitatum (Zones 8–11), with leaves of a potted blood orange tree (Citrus × sinensis, Zones 9–11)

A Chinese magnolia (Magnolia × soulangeana, Zones 5–9) in bloom

The blooms of the rose ‘Climbing Dainty Bess’

This is one of the David Austin roses, but I don’t remember which.

The climbing rose ‘Eden’ with the rose ‘Othello’

The roses ‘Polka’ and ‘Angel Face’ were trained as climbers on the wall next to the fountain, with alstroemerias (Alstromeria hybrids, Zones 9–11) underneath.

Kathy shared so many beautiful photos that we’ll be back to see more of this garden tomorrow!

 

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Annuals do more than just look good in the garden; they also make excellent cut flowers for floral arrangements—especially in fall as they give it their all and put out their last blooms before the end of the growing season. As with creating captivating combinations in garden beds and containers, a bouquet needs balanced and hardworking elements. Focal-point flowers and foliage give a strong visual anchor. Use color echoes and contrasts to evoke dramatic excitement and harmony. And don’t forget to include dynamic fillers and textures, which also help the leading players to stand out.

Here are the plant ids for a beautiful fall bouquet that was featured in Fine Gardening Issue 215, in an article on unusual annuals to grow from seed by Michelle Gervais.

1. Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum, Zones 3-9)
2. Golden bluebeard (Caryopteris × clandonensis cv., Zones 5-9)
3. Graceful Grasses® Vertigo® purple fountain grass (Cenchrus purpureus* ‘Tift 8’, syn. Pennisetum purpureum ‘Tift 8’, Zones 8-11)
4. Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus cvs., annual)
5. ‘Mahogany Splendor’ hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella ‘Mahogany Splendor’, Zones 9-11)
6. ‘Tilt a Whirl’ coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides ‘Tilt a Whirl’, syn. Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Tilt a Whirl’, Zone 11)
7. ‘Van Houttei’ salvia (Salvia splendens ‘Van Houttei’, Zones 10-11)
8. Goldenrod (Solidago sp., Zones 3-9)
9. ‘Queeny Lime Orange’ zinnia (Zinnia elegans ‘Queeny Lime Orange’, annual)
10. ‘Queeny Red Lime’ zinnia (Zinnia elegans ‘Queeny Red Lime’, annual)

* These plants are considered invasive in some areas. Please check invasiveplantatlas.org or your state’s list of invasive plants for more information.

Coleus plants are easy to care for, low-maintenance, and grow quickly, which makes them ideal for beginners.

But the first step toward adding the colorful foliage to your garden is learning how to care for them properly.

This detailed guide is designed to help anyone successfully grow coleus, no matter your skill level. Discover the best location and soil type, plus how to water, fertilize, prune, and much more.

Quick Coleus Care Overview

Scientific name:	Coleus
Classification:	Tropical plant
Common names:	Painted Nettle
Hardiness:	Zones 10-11
Temperature:	60-100°F (15.5-37.7°C)
Flowers:	White or bluish-purple, blooms late summer
Light:	Full sun to shade
Water:	Keep soil evenly moist, never let it dry completely
Humidity:	Average to high
Fertilizer:	General purpose plant food spring-summer
Soil:	Rich, loose, well-draining
Common pests:	Mealybugs, aphids, spider mites

Information About Coleus Plants

Coleus is a tropical tender perennial native to Asia that is popular for its colorful foliage. It’s part of the Lamiaceae, or dead nettle family, which is how it got its second common name, ‘painted nettle’.

The plants range in size from 6” to 3’ tall, with a spread between 1-3’ wide, and leaves that are between 1-6” in length.

The foliage can be oval, pointed, scalloped, or serrated, and feature a multitude of colors such as orange, burgundy, green, red, pink, orange, maroon, and white.

Different Types Of Coleus Plants

There are two main types of coleus plants – trailing and mounded – and the care requirements are the same for all.

The mounded varieties are more common, have upright compact growth, and are mainly used as border or filler plants.

Trailing types have long tendrils, and are ideal for hanging baskets or ground covers. There are many cultivars to suit your specific garden needs, here are a few of the most popular.

• Coleus ‘Wasabi’ – This full sun variety has serrated chartreuse leaves and grows 30” tall.

• Coleus ‘Lime Time’ – The arrow-shaped lime green leaves of this variety prefer partial shade, and can reach up to 3’ in height.

• Coleus ‘Alabama Sunset’ – The red-pink leaves of this cultivar prefer full sun and can reach up to 26” in height.

• Coleus ‘Lava Rose’ – This trailing option features tendrils up to 24”. The arrow-shaped leaves have deep burgundy borders and a bright, rose-colored center.

Hardiness

Though they are technically perennials, coleus is not a cold hardy plant. So you can only grow it outdoors year-round if you live in zones 10-11, where the winters are mild.

Temperatures below 40°F (4.4°C) will damage the foliage, while anything below 32°F (0°C) will kill the plant.

But if you live somewhere cold, you can easily move your coleus indoors for winter to keep it alive.

Flowers

In the late summer coleus plants will grow flower stalks with rows of small blue or white flowers. The blossoms are insignificant, but bees and other pollinators love them.

If you don’t like how they look you can cut them off, which will help encourage the plant to redirect energy toward producing more foliage.

Toxicity

Coleus plants are toxic to cats and dogs, according to the ASPCA website, and can cause skin irritation as well.

If you’re concerned about this, it’s best to grow this plant out of reach of your pets and children.

How To Grow Coleus

Before we jump into how to care for coleus plants, let’s first chat about the best place to grow them. Choosing the right location affects how quickly they grow and the vibrancy of the foliage.

Where To Grow Coleus

The best place to grow coleus will depend on the specific variety you choose. Some prefer full sun, while others do best with partial shade.

Either way, choose a spot that’s protected from wind, which can break the stems, and that has well-draining, fertile soil.

They do great in containers too, just make sure you use a pot that has drainage holes so they don’t get waterlogged.

Coleus Plant Care & Growing Instructions

Now that you have the best location in mind, it’s time to learn about how to care for your coleus. The tips below are key to a maintaining a thriving, healthy plant.

Light

The specific amount of light your coleus needs depends on the type you grow. Certain cultivars are bred to tolerate full sun, while others will wilt or scorch with too much and they need more shade.

A good rule of thumb is to provide at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. Choose a spot that has lots of bright morning or evening exposure where the plant will be protected in the afternoon when the sun is hottest.

Too much shade, however, will slow down growth and cause the colors to be muted or less vibrant. So be sure to give it plenty of bright light.

Water

Coleus plants do not tolerate very wet or very dry conditions. Too little water will cause slowed growth, wilting, and browning, while too much can lead to rot or fungal diseases.

Keep the soil moderately damp, but not soggy or wet. To maintain the perfect balance, water when the top 1-2” is dry.

A moisture gauge probe can help you get it just right; look for a reading between 5-6 before watering again.

Humidity

Average to high humidity is ideal for coleus. Most regions won’t have an issue with that for outdoor plants.

If you live in an arid climate or deal with heat waves, keep your plant well watered and protect it from the harsh afternoon sun.

Temperature

Coleus plants do not like the cold, and they’ll grow best when it’s between 60-100°F (15.5-37.7°C).

Once it drops below 60°F, the plant will slow down or stop growing, and anything below 40°F could damage the foliage. Many varieties can survive down to 32°F (0°C) for a short period of time, but will die if it lasts very long.

Though they’re very tolerant of hotter temps, prolonged heat waves can cause wilting and scorching for some cultivars. Provide afternoon shade and water your plant more often to help prevent that.

Fertilizer

Coleus are not heavy feeders, especially in fertile soil, but regular feedings as part of your regular care routine can help them grow stronger and give the foliage a boost.

Apply a slow-release granule at planting time and once more mid-summer. Or, use a diluted general purpose liquid fertilizer, like compost tea or fish emulsion, once a month from spring through fall.

Avoid any that are high in phosphorus, which will encourage the plant to flower rather than put on more foliage.

Soil

Coleus plants are not too picky about soil. But they grow best in rich, loose, and well-drained mixes that are neutral to acidic, which you can check using a pH probe.

Amend your garden beds with compost in the spring to improve drainage and give the plants a boost of nutrition. This is especially important for heavy or clay-based or overly sandy soils.

For containerized plants a general purpose potting soil will work well, or you can mix in some perlite or pumice to improve drainage.

Transplanting & Repotting

The best time to transplant your coleus is in the spring. Wait to plant them into the garden until all risk of frost has passed and the temperature is consistently above 60°F (15.5°C).

Mid-spring is the best time to repot containerized plants that have outgrown their current pot.

Prepare the new location or container ahead of time, then gently dig up the plant. Trim away any damaged or rotted roots, and replant it at the same depth it was before. Fill in with soil and water well.

Pruning

You can prune your coleus plants regularly to encourage bushier growth and control the shape. Pinch the tips off or use sharp, clean precision pruners to snip the stems just above a leaf joint.

Trim back bloom spikes as they appear if you’d like. Pollinators love the flowers, but it takes a lot of energy from the plant. Cutting them off can help redirect that energy to more foliage growth.

Pest Control Tips

Healthy coleus plants don’t have many issues with pests, but mealybugs, spider mites, aphids, and whiteflies can be a problem on occasion, especially indoors.

Treat the leaves with neem oil or a natural insecticidal soap. It’s easy to make your own by combining 1 teaspoon of mild liquid soap with 1 liter of water.

Deer can sometimes enjoy snacking on the foliage as well. You can try a deterrent spray, or simply grow your plant in a hanging pot or other out-of-reach container if furry pests become a problem.

Coleus Propagation Tips

It’s very easy to propagate coleus from stem cuttings, or you could grow by starting seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before your last frost date in the spring.

Take healthy cuttings before the cold weather hits in the fall. Remove all but the top set of leaves, then dip the cut end into rooting hormone.

Plant it in a loose, well-drained medium. Keep it lightly moist, warm, and in indirect light until roots have formed, then pot it up. You can learn how to propagate coleus in my step by step guide.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Coleus are generally very easy to care for, but no plant is problem free. If you run into one of these more common issues, my tips can get you back on track.

Coleus Plant Not Growing

A coleus plant that won’t grow usually indicates lack of light, temperature issues, or heavy soil.

Make sure the plant gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day and the temperature stays above 60°F.

If you have clay-based, sandy, or compacted soil, amend your garden with compost to improve the nutrients and help loosen it up. Use a good quality mix in containers.

Yellow Leaves

Yellow leaves on your coleus are a symptom of improper watering, lack of light, bugs, or cold exposure.

Make sure your plant is getting at least 6 hours of sun, and keep the soil evenly moist but never wet.

Check for signs of insects and treat any you see right away. If you live somewhere cold, then move your plant indoors before it drops below 60°F to prevent damage.

Brown Leaves

Brown leaves could mean too much sun, improper watering, or frost damage. Rot is a common issue for overwatered coleus, so make sure you don’t saturate the soil, but don’t allow it to dry out completely either.

Direct sun, especially on hot days, or exposure to frost can also cause brown, curled leaves. So always protect your plant from extreme temperatures.

FAQs

More About Flower Gardening

Share your coleus care tips in the comments section below.

You can buy seeds or harvest them from an existing plant. Either way, you can sprout them and start new coffee plants to enjoy.

Maybe your goal is to start a mini coffee farm or perhaps you just want more plants to enjoy –and share!

Here’s the process:

The coffee bean that you grind and process into coffee is botanically a pit or seed, and what we call the coffee berry is technically a drupe.

Cherries and peaches are drupes, as well. There is no coffee “berry” or “bean,” but we all commonly refer to them that way, so I will continue to do so in this guide.

This process can be started in winter, anytime from late November to early February in the Northern Hemisphere, though you can begin it at any time and just plan to keep the plant indoors until the weather is perfect – which might mean waiting until the following year to plant out.

If your plant will stay inside full-time, you can start this process whenever you want.

If your hope is to grow your own beans to produce your own coffee, know that plants produce the best tasting beans at a high elevation. Low-elevation beans are typically mild to bland in flavor.

Once you move above 3,000 feet or so, the beans start to take on a sweet flavor. Above 4,000 feet, and you get those chocolate and citrus notes. Top 5,000 feet, and the fruity, berry, and spicy notes happen.

Terroir matters, and commercial growers spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to nurture the flavor that we love so much in our morning coffee.

You can probably grow enough plants to supply yourself with some coffee, but it probably won’t taste like the beans you’re accustomed to unless you garden at a high elevation.

Source Your Seeds

You can’t plant the processed coffee beans that you use to make your morning cup of Joe. Those beans have been roasted, killing the seeds. They sure taste good, though.

Instead, you can either harvest a ripe drupe if you have access to them, or you can buy the seeds.

If you have a coffee plant and it isn’t blooming already, you can encourage it to do so.

Coffea species grown as houseplants don’t always bloom and produce fruits. A plant that is five years old or younger isn’t mature enough to bloom, either.

If your plant is old enough, you need to give it the same conditions it would have in the rainforests where it grows indigenously in order to encourage fruiting.

These plants are self-pollinating, but pollinators will increase the number of fruits produced, so plants growing outdoors are typically more productive.

The temperature should be between 65 to 75°F with humidity between 50 and 75 percent. The exposure should be dappled shade outside, or bright, indirect light indoors.

In either case, some direct morning sun won’t go amiss. Too little light is the main cause of a lack of flowering.

Once the flowers, followed by berries form, let the berries turn dark red. If the skin starts to wrinkle, it’s definitely time to harvest.

To harvest the seed, peel away the fleshy exterior of the drupe and wash the seed in water to remove any of the yellowish pulp. There should be two seeds per drupe – these are the “beans” that would be roasted and turned into your favorite flat white or cortado.

If you harvested your own seeds, place the viable ones on a screen or cloth and put them in a warm spot out of direct sunlight. Allow them to dry until they feel like they weigh about a third of what they did when you harvested them.

You can also use a fingernail or your teeth to gently press on the parchment, which is the outer skin around the seed.

The outer skin should feel dry, but the inside of the seed will still be soft. At this point, you can store them in an airtight container for a few weeks.

If you can sow right away, even better.

Once you’re ready to sow, soak the seeds for 24 to 48 hours in room-temperature water.

How to Sow

Before the seed meets the dirt, there’s just a little more work to do.

Fill some four-inch pots – one for each seed – with equal parts seed-starting mix and sphagnum moss, and moisten it.

Press the seed into the soil so that the long, flat side is facing down. Don’t cover it with too much soil, the seed should be sown no deeper than it is long.

Place the pots in an area with bright, indirect light and keep the medium moist at all times. It should always feel like a well-wrung-out sponge, and the top of the soil should never be allowed to dry out.

You can cover the pots with clear plastic to help keep the moisture inside. If you do this, you might find that you rarely need to water.

Watch for any mold or fungus formation. If you see any, lightly spray the soil surface with a 10 percent bleach solution – a mixture of one part bleach to nine parts water – every other week.

Don’t let the temperature drop below 65°F at any point. If you need to, you can use a heating mat.

Coffee seeds take a long time to germinate, fresh seed can take about eight weeks to pop up, but older ones might need a full 24 weeks to sprout.

How to Grow

The moment you see green shoots emerge from the soil, after you finish celebrating, remove the clear plastic if you used it. No more spraying with the bleach mixture, either.

A little direct morning light won’t go amiss at this point.

At first, the baby plant will have two oval-shaped cotyledons, followed quickly by a terminal bud. That bud will turn into a stem from which two true leaves will emerge. Be patient, this can take anywhere from 10 to 25 weeks.

When this happens, it’s time to start feeding the seedlings. Use a mild, balanced fertilizer once a month until the plants are large enough that they are outgrowing their containers.

You’ll know it’s time to transplant if you see roots coming out of the drainage holes or circling the pot. If the plants are a foot tall, it’s definitely time to transplant.

To transplant, gently remove the seedling from its container and set it in a larger pot filled with standard potting soil.

Or, if you’re planning to grow the plants outside, harden the seedlings off for a week before planting in their permanent homes.

Hardening off is a simple process of taking the plants outside to an area that has the same light and wind exposure as the future growing area.

Leave them there for an hour and bring them back in.

For years we’ve been growing various types of true yams (Dioscorea spp.)

This year we had a good harvest of roots and have been able to share some of them with others. On Sunday we gave a couple of purple ube yams to a Filipino friend who was amazed to see that we’d grown them ourselves.

Here’s a pile of yams we harvested some years ago:

We have more than that sitting in a pile on our porch right now… and we haven’t even dug them all.

Yams are Easy Calories

Those big, root-covered tubers are a lot of calories gained for very little work. The biggest effort is raising the yam hills and then planting and later staking the yams.

This is how Grenadians make yam hills:

If you were to till with a tractor and use a bedmaker, it would be really easy, yet we don’t have that kind of a setup here right now so we just make a long bed and plant it.

That trellis to the right of the wheat is one of our yam beds from this year.

Our yams have had no pest or disease issues and are easy to grow, making them a very good survival crop, as I cover in Florida Survival Gardening, Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening, and in the new, massively expanded and illustrated 2nd edition of Create your Own Florida Food Forest.

The yields are decent, too, especially if you start by planting larger pieces. You can make a lot more plants by using smaller pieces via the minisett method or starting yams from cuttings or bulbils, but bigger yams grow from larger planting material.

The bulbils that grow on D. alata look like this:

Larger ones grow into larger yams.

If you plant small bulbils or small pieces or cuttings, you’ll still grow yams, but they won’t be a good size and you’ll have to let them grow another year to get good-sized roots. Since yams are perennial, this is easy, so plant what you have and know that good things come to those who wait. This yam took two years to reach this size from a bulbil:

On the up side, it took almost no work to grow, since I just planted a bulbil at the base of a dogwood tree and ignored it for two years.

Yams Aren’t Sweet

Another benefit of true yams is that they’re starchy, not sweet, making them an excellent stand-in for the common potato. You can boil them, mash them, and put them in a stew, just like a “normal” potato.

We made mashed yams for Thanksgiving one year as a substitute for mashed potatoes and a visiting friend couldn’t tell the difference.

Someone commented on YouTube the other day that “white sweet potatoes make a good substitute for regular white potatoes.”

This isn’t really true. They are still sweet, which is less useful than having something starchy. I don’t know about you, but I often get tired of sweet things and prefer to just eat white potatoes, cassava, yams, green bananas, etc., as a side with some meat.

Yams Have a Wide Growing Range

Though most yams are tropical, many can be pushed up into zone eight. Others, like the Chinese yam (D. polystachya) will grow all the way into zone five.

Name yams have grown well for us here, though their tubers haven’t kept through the winter, either in the ground or in storage.

Basically, you can grow some variety of true yam from the equator all the way up into the Midwestern United States.

Recently we got a new variety that we’re going to try, though it took us some time to track down what it was! You can read about our search for the name of that mystery root here.

Conclusion

Part of the joy of being a garden writer and teacher is learning about new plants and crops and new ways to grow them. Lately I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos from African yam farmers so we can improve our own harvests.

There are so many great plants out there that we’ll never get to the end of them, and that’s a great part of the fun of gardening.

If you haven’t tried growing yams, I highly recommend giving them a shot. There are lots of articles on the blog covering yams and other interesting crops. We’re up to 2,983 posts on The Survival Gardener so far.

In an era where most gardening sites are overrun with junky articles lacking info – or worse, written by AI (heyo, Sports Illustrated, we’re looking at you!) – this site is a place where we share real research and real tips for growing, not just re-hashed material from Wikipedia written to drive clicks.

We’ve been posting since 2012 and aren’t about to stop. This year we’ve managed to put up a gardening post for every weekday, and regularly answer the comments we get.

Thanks for sticking with us. Now go find some yams and plant ’em!

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We’re back in East Berlin, Pennsylvania (Zone 6b) visiting with Barb Mrgich today. We’ve visited her flower-filled garden before, but yesterday we got a different kind of tour of the butterflies that visit her garden and the plants they need to thrive. Today is the second part of the tour.

I came upon this beautifully marked black swallowtail one day while working in my garden. It had obviously emerged recently from its chrysalis and was waiting for its wings to dry before it could fly. I don’t know the significance of the colorful markings on the underside of its wings, but it sure was a beauty!

I was thrilled to come upon this unusual guy in my garden one day. I looked him up and found that he is a giant swallowtail. Giant he was! The article says he hosts on citrus and is actually considered a pest in the Florida citrus groves. He is a long way from home! He liked the zinnias and hung around all day. Then he left, and I’ve never seen another one. (Editor’s note: In cold climates where citrus doesn’t grow, giant swallowtail caterpillars can feed on other plants, including rue [Ruta graveolens, Zones 4–8] and prickly ash [Zanthoxylum americanum, Zones 3–7].)

Here are two common buckeyes. They have no connection to the Ohio buckeye tree. They are so named because of the large eye spot on their wings. Among other plants, buckeyes host on snapdragons. They are said to especially like nectaring on purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea, Zones 3–8). Buckeyes fly south in the winter, usually to Florida.

The first time I ever saw a red admiral, I got very excited because I really didn’t know any butterflies then. I Googled “dark butterfly with red stripe down wing,” and it came right up. Here he is on sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile, Zones 3–9). Butterflies tend to like flowers with a wide landing zone, and sedum certainly provides that! This butterfly’s favorite host plant is stinging nettle, a vicious plant I don’t want anywhere near my garden. I have only ever encountered stinging nettle in Florida, and brushing against it was worse than a bee sting! Surprisingly to me, the red admiral is rather prevalent in my Pennsylvania yard. Like the painted lady, he packs it up and flies to warmer climates in the winter months.

Here is a butterfly that can fool a lot of people. It looks almost exactly like a monarch, but it is a resident butterfly for me. This is a viceroy butterfly. This viceroy is also nectaring on sedum. For me, the distinguishing mark to tell it from a monarch is the thin black line that runs across his hindwing. I call it his necklace. This butterfly hosts on native willows like pussy willow (Salix discolor, Zones 3–8) and actually winters over in its caterpillar form! The immature caterpillar rolls itself up in a leaf of its host plant as winter nears, then drops to the ground with the leaf. There it stays until spring, when it crawls back up the tree and begins to eat.

For a long time I had no interest in the little brown butterflies that are so plentiful in my garden. They are not flashy and eye-catching like the others, so I just ignored them. Finally, as my interest in gardening for wildlife grew, I realized that although they may not be the flashiest, they are valuable pollinators and important for biodiversity. I learned that they are called skippers. As with butterflies, there are many different species of skippers. They have different host plants and nectar on the same flowers that large butterflies prefer. Some go south for the winter, while others winter over in the protection of the leaf litter. Skippers are considered butterflies, although they have fuzzy bodies that are more mothlike. As a general rule, moths fly at night, and butterflies and skippers fly during the day.

Here is a silver-spotted skipper, a species that is easy to identify because of the white spot on its wing. He is so small that it’s easy to miss him completely! He is nectaring on a hardy Agapanthus. Agapanthus, sometimes called lily of the Nile, is prevalent in warmer states, and most plants are not hardy in Pennsylvania. Although I consider myself a wildlife and native plant gardener, I just had to have one. I was delighted the day I found one of these plants in a small, backyard nursery for sale. It has grown here for years and has created a rather noticeable patch. The flowers are smaller than the ones I have seen in California, and the blooms don’t last as long, but they do attract pollinators!

I was at a friend’s house one day, and she was showing me her Tithonia plants, which she had grown from seed. As we were admiring the flowers, a monarch fluttered in to nectar. As I snapped the camera, a hummingbird photo-bombed the picture!

One very popular nectar plant I haven’t yet mentioned is the Brazilian verbena (Verbena bonariensis, Zones 7–10 or as an annual). An annual in my climate, it will reseed itself prolifically all over your garden. It is one of those “see through” plants that can mingle with just about any other plants and be beautiful wherever it goes. Butterflies absolutely love it. Here it is serving its nectar to a painted lady butterfly. Painted ladies host on a good many weeds, such as thistle and nettle. They also use rose mallow, which is also known as hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos and related hybrids, Zones 5–8). I see quite a few of them in my gardens.

I love to take photos in my garden. This one has always been one of my favorites: an eastern swallowtail on liatris.

 

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Getting through winter comfortably is hardly possible without home heating solutions. However, standard electric bar heaters and fans promise to create warm, cozy homes, but these heaters consume a lot of power and hardly provide much heat.

Image source

So, if you’re searching for ways to heat your home this winter that won’t break the bank and harm the planet, here are a few green home heating solutions to consider. 

Infrared Heating Panels

Infrared heating panels create heat through infrared radiation. This form of heating is commonly used outdoors, although it can also warm the inside of your home. Infrared panels are an incredibly energy-efficient solution. Not only do these panels provide warmth with minimal power consumption, but they also generate heat pretty fast, and they are silent and low maintenance. But are infrared panels the future of heating? In short, these panels are an incredibly eco-friendly way to heat your home without compromising warmth. 

Replace Your Home’s Insulation

While you can reduce your power bill by using infrared panels in your home, you can lower your power consumption even more by improving your home’s insulation. Because proper insulation will help keep heat in, insulation can decrease your power bill substantially even if you aren’t using other eco-friendly heating measures. 

Invest In Energy-Efficient Windows

Energy-efficient windows can also improve insulation dramatically. These windows are designed with double panes to effectively keep your home warm in winter and cool in summer. Moreover, investing in these windows will also increase property value, and eco-friendly home upgrades are increasingly popular among home buyers. 

Energy-efficient windows are also great when it comes to preventing sun damage on your furniture because these windows block out harmful UV rays. 

Get A Few Area Rugs

Using area rugs in your home is a decorative way to keep your home warm. While cold tile and wooden flooring will keep your home cool, rugs and carpeting will offer the opposite. But because it’s not recommended to install carpeting simply because tiles and hardwood floors are better options for upholding property value, it’s wise to get a few area rugs instead. 

 

I wanted to be sure we’re keeping wild birds safe as they dine at our feeders – and I’m sure you do too.

In this article, I’m going to share 19 tips for feeding wild birds in winter, with advice gathered from wildlife biologists as well as insights I’ve garnered from my experience caring for our feathered visitors.

Not all fans of wild birds will need to implement all of these tips – though you might just be surprised at how many of them you’d like to try this winter!

Ready for a sneak peek?

Here’s what I’ll cover:

1. Skip the Crackers and Bread

You may have grown up saving stale bread or crackers to feed to ducks or other birds in winter.

So if your plans for feeding wild birds include giving them your stale baked goods, it’s time for a reset – right now!

For wild birds, foods like crackers and bread do not make nourishing treats during the winter – or at any time. As far as our feathered friends go, these should be treated like junk food rather than healthy meals.

Instead, this winter, plan to purchase food formulated specifically for wild birds. We’re going to look at exactly what that means next.

2. Offer 3 Types of Foods

There are essentially three types of foods that are appropriate for feeding wild birds in winter – or at any time of the year – small seeds, large seeds, and suet or peanut butter.

Small seeds include canary seed, millet, and nyjer.

These small seeds will attract buntings (Passerina spp.), cardinals (Cardinalis spp.), doves (Columbidae), goldfinches (Spinus spp.), house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), jays (Corvidae), juncos (Junco spp.), purple finches (Haemorhous purpureus), quail (Phasianoidea), pine siskins (Spinus pinus), sparrows (Passerellidae), titmice (Baeolophus spp.), and towhees (Melozone and Pipilo spp.).

Large seeds include safflower, black oil sunflower, peanuts, shelled corn, and striped sunflower seeds.

With black oil sunflower seed being the real crowd pleaser, these larger seeds attract species such as cardinals, chickadees (Poecile spp.), goldfinches, grosbeaks (Fringillidae and Cardinalidae), house finches, jays, juncos, nuthatches (Sittidae), purple finches, sparrows, titmice, and woodpeckers (Picidae spp.).

Suet and peanut butter will attract species such as bluebirds (Siala spp.), chickadees, goldfinches, jays, mockingbirds (Mimus spp.), nuthatches, titmice, and woodpeckers.

Are you wondering about offering ingredients like milo, oats, and wheat this winter?

Most wild birds ignore milo, oats, and wheat, and the uneaten seeds can cause the rest of the mix to go bad.

Avoid seed mixes that include these ingredients unless you are specifically trying to attract doves, pheasants, or quail.

3. Provide Fresh Water

Another necessity for a thriving community of wildlife in winter is a source of clean, fresh water.

You may have birdbaths for your feathered friends to use during the warmer months – but in winter, water can freeze and remain frozen unless you take action to prevent it.

Looking for a larger selection of options? Learn about the best birdbaths in our guide.

4. Supply a Source of Grit 

If you’ve ever kept backyard chickens, you know birds need grit to help them grind down their food, and that includes wild birds too.

Wondering why this is?

Our feathered friends don’t have teeth, so gizzards and grit do the job of grinding food in the place of dentition.

If you have sandy soil, your feathered visitors may be getting plenty of grit as they peck for seeds on the ground.

However, the soil may be covered with snow in winter.

A simple way to provide wild birds with grit is to sprinkle ground eggshells at the base of the feeder or mix some in with your seed mix.

To kill bacteria, make sure that the eggshells have been heated to at least 170°F first, before grinding them.

Read our article to learn more about drying eggshells, as well as composting, amending soil, and practicing pest control with this natural food waste!

5. Clean Up Under Feeders

You don’t return to your dinner table day after day without ever washing it off, do you?

Likewise, if you commit to providing food for your feathered friends in winter, you’ll need to also commit to keeping their dining area clean for hygiene reasons.

Just like with big crowds of humans, when large groups of birds congregate, it increases the risk of disease spread – even in winter time. Diseases such as avian flu spread through multiple routes, including feces, nasal secretions, and saliva.

So those discarded shells and droppings that pile up underneath the feeder? Periodically you’ll need to remove any piles of debris to keep conditions sanitary.

6. Relocate Food Stations Seasonally

In addition to periodically removing the piles of hulls that accumulate around wildlife dining areas, you should also plan to relocate food stations occasionally.

Once again, this is to keep conditions hygienic for our feathered friends.

Relocating food stations at the start of a new season is a good plan. At the beginning of winter, move the station to a new location.

Do this again at the beginning of spring, and once again at the start of summer and fall, rotating stations between different spots.

This rotation routine is another step designed to help prevent the outbreak of sickness among your flocks of wild visitors.

7. Clean and Disinfect Feeders

While tidying up below the food station will help in the hygiene department, the feeders themselves also need to be cleaned periodically.

Plan to clean and disinfect your feeders at the beginning of winter season, and again at the end of each season if you plan to continue offering food throughout the year.

If bird seed becomes damp and clumped up, it will quickly start to develop mold, so you may need to clean and disinfect more often if this occurs.

Also, if you have noticed any sick looking birds in your yard, remove the feeders for a couple of weeks. You may also want to reposition them in fresh locations after cleaning.

To clean feeders, scrub them with soap and water. They can then be disinfected with a mixture of one part three percent hydrogen peroxide to nine parts water.

Rinse them well and allow them to dry before refilling.

8. Offer Different Feeder Types

If you’d like to attract a diverse assortment of avian wildlife to your yard this winter, try setting out a selection of different types of bird feeders.

The different types include tubular models, trays, window units, and hoppers.

When you are using multiple feeders, spread them out in various locations to prevent large numbers of birds gathering in the same spot.

This is another tactic to help reduce the risk of disease spread during the winter and throughout the year.

Learn more about different types of bird feeders in our guide.

9. Hang Feeders at the Right Height

Have you ever wondered if there’s a best height for hanging bird feeders?

The answer is yes – and that’s about five to six feet high.

This height will keep birds out of the reach of cats as well as keeping the feeder easily accessible for you to refill.

Heights above six feet aren’t a problem for our feathered friends, but you don’t want to have to use a ladder to refill your food station when winter weather has made the ground slick with snow and ice, do you?

10. Locate Food Stations Out of Wind

If possible, arrange your food stations so that they have some protection from cold winter winds.

This means you’ll first need to identify which direction winter winds tend to come from in your location.

If you’re not aware of prevailing wind patterns, it’s quite possible that strong winter winds are a rare occurrence in your area, and you can probably skip this step.

Different structures can provide wind blocks, including buildings, hedgerows, and trees.

Conifers in particular will provide good protection in winter since they don’t drop their leaves, so keep this in mind when positioning feeders.

11. Prevent Window Collisions

Wanting to invite our feathered friends for a feast is a heartfelt sentiment.

Yet, it can be dangerous to these animals because of the hazards they might encounter in our yards during the winter and throughout the year – and that includes windows.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, window collisions kill an average of 600 million birds per year in the US, making windows the second biggest human-caused threat to birds.

Wondering what threat number one is? We’ll get to that later in the article, so keep reading.

Windows reflect both sky and vegetation – and sadly, birds can’t tell the difference between reflected sky and trees and actual sky and trees, making large panes of glass especially dangerous to them.

While big, shiny skyscrapers in cities are the biggest problem, even window panes on houses are responsible for their fair share of bird kills. And large picture windows are particularly problematic.

Thankfully, there are ways for ornithophiles to make the windows of their homes safer for birds – the first is to position food stations wisely.

Most ornithological experts recommend locating feeders within three feet of a window.

At less than three feet, the bird won’t build up enough momentum and will be less likely to hurt itself if it flies into the window.

If placing food stations within three feet of a window isn’t possible, it’s best to place them more than 30 feet away from panes of glass – at this distance, wild birds will be less likely to hit windows as they approach and depart from food stations.

In addition to following these feeder placement recommendations, adding collision deterrents to windows saves lives.

Higher end deterrents include etched window panes and decorative window grills.

Want to make your greenhouse bird-safe too? Consider whitewashing its panes.

But before you get started making your windows bird-safe, there are a few things you should know.

According to the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) Canada, collision deterrents should:

• Be placed on the exteriors of windows
• Be densely patterned with gaps no bigger than two inches
• Be highly contrasting
• Feature patterns that cover the entire surface of the window pane
• Feature patterns that are at least a quarter of an inch wide

And do note – if you’re choosing window decals, according to FLAP there’s not enough evidence yet to prove that transparent, UV-light-reflecting decals are effective, so steer clear of those for now.

Not surprisingly, reviews for those types of collision deterrents are very mixed.

12. Grow Native Shrubs, Trees, and Perennials

Once your windows have gotten the safety treatment, you might want to move on to a more garden-focused project – creating a wildlife-friendly, native landscape.

And if winter has already set in, it may be too late to plant, but it’s never too late to plan – especially with the help of a trusty garden journal!

When you grow native trees, shrubs, and perennials, you’ll provide your feathered friends with sources of homegrown food for winter, as well as habitat for nesting and seeking cover.

Native wildflowers such as coneflowers are an excellent source of winter seed for wild birds.

And native shrubs and trees can offer wildlife an important source of nutrients during the cold winter months, as well as attracting larval insects which can serve as food for bird babies in spring.

Want to discover some of the best winter berry producing trees and shrubs for wildlife? Read our guide!

13. Provide a Brush Pile

If your landscaping is not yet established and doesn’t currently provide much shelter for wild birds, a brush pile is an excellent feature to include for the winter and throughout the year.

And even if you do have established trees and shrubs, a brush pile may be a feature you’d like to consider incorporating into the back corner of your yard as a wildlife-friendly resource that will attract a variety of small animals.

You can use trimmings from woody plant prunings to create and add to the brush pile. It will shrink as twigs and branches decompose.

Make brush piles between three and eight feet tall and six to 20 feet wide.

Keep piles loose, rather than compact. This gives wild birds opportunities for perching safely in the interior of the pile.

14. Offer Mealworms 

Once you have established native trees and shrubs thriving in your yard, adult birds will be much more likely to find plenty of larval insects to nourish their babies.

Until then, though, you might want to supplement with mealworms.

One reason is to prevent your dogs from eating fallen seeds. Another is to help protect birds from outdoor cats – either your own feline companions or strays.

In addition, deer may also be attracted by bird seed on the ground, especially in winter when other resources are scarce.

Preventing them from accessing this source of food can help forestall the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, a malady that is befalling deer in many areas of the US.

Fencing around food stations can be lightweight and moveable, so that when you reposition your feeder at the end of the season, you can easily relocate the fencing as well.

Making a cylindrical, DIY fence around a food station from welded wire fencing is quite easy.

In addition to placing fencing around food stations, there are other solutions for keeping wild birds safe from our delightful but deadly fur babies during the winter and throughout the year.

Of course the ideal solution would be to make outdoor felines into indoor cats – allowing them to watch activity at food stations while safely confined indoors.

But not all cats are amenable to purely indoor life, however, and I have one such feline among my collection of pets.

Thankfully, I found a solution to greatly reduce this cat’s avian predation – a colorful collar cover that alerts birds to his presence.

If you’ve tried placing a bell on your cat’s collar and been frustrated by the lack of results from this warning method, rest assured, colorful collar covers are far more effective.

Cats wearing these collar covers kill an average of 75 percent fewer birds, compared to those without collar covers.

Birds Be Safe Cat Collars are 100 percent cotton and come in bright, contrasting colors that our feathered friends see as warning signs.

Once again, smart placement of food stations can help – place them 10 feet away from trees or anywhere else cats could jump out and ambush birds.

17. Discourage Squirrels

Deer aren’t the only uninvited guests who might show up at your food stations – resident squirrels often decide to enjoy themselves at the winter buffet too.

This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if they didn’t end up hogging all the food, often preventing birds from getting their fair share.

If this has been an issue for you, you probably know that keeping squirrels away from food stations can be an ongoing battle.

Providing food for bears, either intentionally or unintentionally, puts both bears and humans at risk.

So in areas where bears frequently visit food stations or topple garbage cans, we must forego the use of feeders, both for our own safety – and that of the bears.

In many locations bears may be hibernating during the winter months, and homeowners in these locales may be able to safely feed birds by waiting until bear activity stops before putting out food stations.

But for those who live in locations where bears remain active during the winter, it’s best to forego the feeders altogether.

Any food placed outdoors is likely to attract bears, putting both yourself and these large omnivores at risk of a human-wildlife interaction gone wrong.

19. Identify Wild Birds

Finally, once your winter food stations are safely positioned, you have cleanup on your chore schedule, and you know exactly what you want to feed your feathered friends, don’t forget to keep a bird book by your side!

Keeping track of which types of birds show up in your yard over the winter can help inform you as to any adjustments you’ll need to make to your wildlife feeding operation – in addition to the excitement and pleasure of knowing exactly who is showing up at your feeders!

Looking for a guide to wild birds? Read our review of the National Audubon Society’s Birds of North America.