Outdoor Bird Baths
Outdoor Fountain Curb Appeal
Author: Brook Kavanugh
It doesn’t matter how much time and money people spend on fixing up the interior of a home when the exterior doesn’t compare. An old car here, a rusted front porch swing, or growing weeds will turn away guests, neighbors, and potential buyers quickly.
Curb appeal is crucial for many reasons:
1) It says something about the owner’s ability to care for property. A perfectly manicured lawn complete with flowers full of life and water fountains that gleam in the sunlight can highlight not only the residential property but also a home owner’s bragging rights.
2) Curb appeal can increase the value of the property. It is amazing to see how a trim here and there and some simple planting can change the entire look and feel of a residential or commercial property. Add a garden statue or outdoor fountain to existing or new landscaping and everyone will be driving by to view your hard work.
3) Maintaining the lawn and landscaping provides a new arena to entertain guests and provide opportunities for a little rest and relaxation. The sound of trickling water from a customized water fountain and the beauty of lush lawns and growing gardens emulates both refreshing sounds and scents of the season.
While it is still important to update the interior of a home, know that it is just as important to maintain and improve the beauty of the surrounding outdoor landscapes. Be proud of the inside and out with a little help from professional fountain distributors and landscaping professionals, such as PlazaFountains.com.
Plaza Fountains is an independently owned and operated distributor of water fountains, bird baths, garden statues, and pool fountains. For a complete selection of outdoor fixtures to liven up your curb’s appeal, log on to PlazaFountains.com.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/outdoor-fountain-curb-appeal-498926.html
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As long as you use the yard sprinklers, they will not use the baths much. Consider that they have to “work” by splashing themselves with water vs. standing under the sprinklers. Putting the baths in an area without sprinklers will help, as will hanging a feeder nearby.
In general there are specific houses for specific bird species. What I recommend is find out what kind of bird will use the houses that you purchased, then what you can do is find out by google searching what the parameters are for the houses. Just like there are different houses for different birds they like to be in different places and different heights, i.e. Black Phoebes love to be near moving water like a fountain that is always on or a backyard pond with a pump so the water is in motion, they also nest under a overhang. What I have done is, I bought a platform type nest “box” thought it isn’t a box and I hung it on my house under an eve that was adjacent to my fountain. Because Black Phoebes don’t mind nesting where humans are present you can hang the platform on or near your home. If you need more help e-mail me via my Answers profile and I will be glad to help—Good luck with everything, if you can encourage birds to nest on you property it is a wonderful sight to see.
gypsum, the stuff plaster is made of, can last for centuries – it was put into Roman coffins and there are examples still in existance wher details have been retained long after the body has decayed. Outdoor scupltures though can vary a lot. It can depend on how sealed they are, how exposed to rough weather, how long is a piece of string really. You can get plaster specifically for outdoor use but not the stuff you buy from craft shops. See the link below. Advice would be to put it in a sheltered spot, shaded from sun. Not sure though, maybe what you have isn’t plaster. It might even be marble but without seeing it, it is difficult to guess.
That is a conundrum and a great example of “be careful what you wish for”.
I would suggest if you have a large enough yard, to put feeders all around your house. Seperate them as much as possible. It will make it harder for you to fill them, but if you want to be feeding something besides grossbeaks, it’s the best thing I can think of.
Or you could stop feeding all together for a few weeks, hoping they will move on, but this only works before nesting. I think it’s a little late now for that.
grossbeaks are as much bullies as blue jays are. They also know a good thing when they find it.
Container gardening – You need to start by thinking what you want to grow. Carrots, onions, beets, dont need a large contain, but one at least 6-8″ deep. Tomatoes and peppers need at least 12″ deep for the roots to get enough room. You can best start with some 5 gallon buckets, and drill overflow holes about 4 inches up from the bottom. Large plastic pots you get in the store work well too. You may want to raise them up off the deck floor, so as not to leave water spots. Also,,Yahoo has a group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ediblecontainergardens that you can join for free, that will help you out so much, and there are photos so you can see what many people use.
hanging outdoor bird houses?
I have a few bird houses to hang outside. How far away should I have bird feeders and baths from the houses? Should I put any straw, sticks, or anything in the empty houses to start them off?
Question for bird people. (outdoor wild bird people)?
I’ll try to keep this short. I keep bird feeders and baths year around. I live in Western Kentucky. I saw a very pretty bird last year and didn’t know what it was as I had not seen one before so I looked it up. It was a Rose breasted Grosbeak and shown to migrate and spend summer months north of our area. I only saw it once so that looked about right, it was just passing through. This spring there are at least six pairs that have moved in to stay. I was thrilled about this, at first. Now they have completely taken over the feeders. Even when not feeding they post a guard and keep other birds away. Is any one familiar with this bird and might have some advice about how I could get my other birds coming back? The only bird they don’t seem to bother are the hummingbirds. Any advice would be appreciated.
How do you attract birds to an outdoor bird bath?
The birds love the yard sprinklers. We put us two baths an so far, no takers.
How long does plaster last as a material for outdoor sculptures generally?
have an outdoor ormanment that sits on top of a bird bath that is i think made of plaster and is hollow inside for a hose to go through.
how long should it last generally ?
why so for this?
Thanks for your answers!
it is intricatley carved, greek style statue, and is very smooth. it looks to be the same material the bird bath bowl is, which is very solid smooth feel and very heavy.
Making the most of my backyard- questions about bird viewing, container gardens, and childrens’ outdoor play?
My family and I have recently moved from the US to the UK and we’ve found ourselves with alot of questions about how we can make the most of our backyard.
Bird Viewing-
We’ve made about a dozen plastic bottle bird feeders and hung them around the yard. We’ve also hung several fat balls from the trees. The bird feeders are not getting much attention, however we’ve had to replace the fat balls twice already, they are being eaten so fast. Is there a reason our feeders might not be getting the same attention as the fat balls?
We’ve also set up a bird bath, however no birds seem interested in it. We’ve read that birds are more drawn to the sounds of gently splashing water and so a bird fountain might be more successful, is that true?
We would like to set up a nesting bag in our yard, with supplies for the birds to make nests out of such as string. What common household items should we put or not put in the nesting bag? We’ve been told to put our pets excess hair (after we clean out their brush) into the nesting bag, however that seems more like it would scare the birds away, to smell a predator?
Container Gardening-
We’ve never had a garden before, though we’ve always wanted to. Since we are renting the property, we don’t want to mess up our landlord’s grass with a garden, however the patio is large and we thought we could manage a nice container garden outside, but we don’t know where to start. How do we know which plants would thrive well in our climate? How do we know how often to water them? What are good beginner plants and what size containers would they need?
Basically any advice to get us started on the right path would be greatly appreciated, regarding container gardening.
Childrens’ Outdoor Play-
We have a 14 month old, as well as friends/neighboors with slightly older children who may play in our backyard. We’ve already purchased a sandbox & small pool, we also have some outdoor balls and such. How can we make our backyard more child-friendly environment? safe as well as fun?