“To feed or not to feed?” It sounds like a quote from Shakespeare but it is a question often raised by the gardener trying to attract birds to his or her garden.
It was addressed during a spring workshop on creating a bird-friendly gardens run by the owners of the Inverawe Native Gardens at Margate, Bill and Margaret Chestnut.
The consensus among bird experts is that we should not feed birds, because it makes them dependent on humans – especially in winter – and can create problems for the birds themselves if the householder feeding them suddenly goes away, even for a short break.
Birds not only go hungry, will also get into life-and-death fights with neighbouring birds if they raid their territories.
The Chestnuts follow conventional wisdom in not putting out food for birds but planting a variety and array of trees and shrubs which will provide food year-round, in the shape of nectar and pollen and seeds and fruit.
This botanical bounty, of course, will also attract insects to satisfy not only the insectivores but the honeyeaters like the eastern spinebill which also need insects for protein, especially when feeding their young.
And a garden that has birds in mind can also be a joy to the eye because it will guarantee flowering plants at every time of the year.
Some plants grow round-round, like paper daisies, westringias and some grevilleas, but for an even spread of blooms over the seasons the Chestnuts have the following guide.
Winter might still have been lingering late last month – with snow on kunanyi/Mt Wellington – but it was also the time for wattles to come into bloom, especially the silver wattle which provides the first of the pollen and nectar into the start of nature’s calendar year.
The wattles, including the blackwood which as a softer shade of yellow than the silver wattle flowers, start to fade in mid-September, along with correas and croweas, or waxflowers. From now the flowers of hakeas, grevilleas and some early tea-trees come into play.
Throughout October and November callistemons and their cousins, the melaleucas, are in bloom, along with some of the grevilleas and late-flowering tea-trees.
As spring flowers start to fade in December and January, paper daisies, kangaroo paws and the ground covers, myoporum and scaveola, emerge.
Into February and March paper daisies and kangaroo paws are still in bloom and towards the end of March correas and croweas will continue to flower into the next spring. Native hibiscus has also been in flower, carrying its colour through to autumn.
Next month and into May the autumn hakeas come into bloom and some of the grevilleas come back for an autumn flush. The autumn yellow banksias are also in bloom.
In June and July the correas are at their best, with dainty correas like skye bells, Lydia pink and dusky bells in full colour.
As Bill Chestnut describes it, towards the end of July the wattles “start muscling up” and we’re soon into the new floral year.