Pollinator puddles

One way to make your garden more hospitable for butterflies is to provide a puddler. Many butterflies, especially members of the swallowtail family and sulphur butterflies, gather at wet spots and puddles to sip water, along with extracting important salt and minerals found in mud and sand. It is often the male butterfly seen puddling, and frequently they puddle in groups.

What is a butterfly puddler?

A butterfly puddler is a shallow bowl where butterflies can gather to get these elements. The bowl should be no deeper than 2 or 3 inches with sloped sides and filled with sand, compost, manure or even better, a mud mix of these materials to provide the minerals butterflies need. The bowl should be filled to the top with mud and wetted so water just barely covers the mix. Butterflies cannot land on open water, so there is no need to have a deep puddle; they can gather enough moisture just from damp mud. You can also place small stones in the mud mixture to provide a place for them to perch.

Food and Water Station

Butterflies also benefit from bowls of overripe, fragrant fruits such as bananas, oranges or apples, where they can get additional nutrients. Combine a puddler and a fruit bowl, and you have a one-stop feeding station for butterflies.

You Might Also Like:
Fall Container Garden Butterflies Will Love
Butterfly Identification Guide
Gardening for Butterflies

How to make a butterfly puddler

A single bag of premixed concrete is all you need to create the butterfly puddler and feeding station in the photo above. Here's how to make it:

Materials & Tools

• Bag of premixed concrete (we used QUIKRETE Sand/Topping ready-to-use mix)
• Packing Tape
• Box cutter
• Latex gloves
• Hose Spray Nozzle with Mister settings
  
• 2 bowls of desired size for puddler

Step 1: Tape up the concrete bag

To create your butterfly puddler start by setting a bag of dry, premixed concrete in place in the garden and tape the edges of the bag with packing tape to help the bag hold its shape.

Step 2: Cut the concrete bag face

Cut open the bag face from corner to corner with a box cutter, and peel back the paper, leaving an open rectangle.

You Might Also Like:
DIY Stepping Stone Project
How to Identify Common Butterflies
Best Flowers for Butterflies

Step 3: Create indentations in concrete for bowls

Press indentations into the exposed dry concrete mix with a pair of bowls. This project used 2 sizes of bowls, a smaller one just to shape the puddler on one side, then a larger bowl to hold fruit that will sit in the other indentation and can be removed for cleaning.

Step 4: Mist the concrete bag with water to set

With the bowls in position to keep the shape, use the mister setting on the hose nozzle to saturate the mix until it looks like water will seep out if you add more.

Project tip

Twist and loosen the bowls to ensure they won’t stick, but leave them in place to make sure the indentations keep their shape as the concrete hardens.

Step 5: Cure concrete & remove bag

After the concrete has cured for four days, peel the bag off.

You Might Also Like:
Hanging Butterfly Feeder
Hummingbird Feeder
Seeds for a Butterfly Garden

Fill your DIY butterfly puddler

To fill your butterfly puddler, put a mix of half sand, half compost or manure in one indentation and dampen it for butterflies to get moisture and minerals. Place food sources like overripe bananas or oranges in the other bowl.

Butterfly tip

Plant colorful, nectar-rich flowers like zinnias (Zinnia hybrids) nearby to help attract butterflies to your feeding station.

A decorative way to feed the birds

The weather may be getting cooler and the landscape quieter, but that doesn’t mean your garden’s interest is finished for the year. Birds eat from shrubs and trees with berries still hanging on, adding beauty, movement and color as they visit. Attract more, and keep them in your yard longer, by building a pretty bird-feeding obelisk covered in other important energy sources, just like you see here.

Start with a good base for your bird-feeding obelisk

To create this buffet, I used a metal garden obelisk, a handful of items from a local craft and hobby store and a few market finds. The obelisk makes a good base because it’s easily portable, which works well when you first set it out in your yard and birds become familiar with its presence, and this one even fit into a garden container for added height.

If you need to, you can move it around every few days to find the location that gets the most bird visitors. The obelisk may eventually freeze into the ground, but that actually helps anchor it in the spot you settle on, securing it in place for the rest of the season. If you don’t live in an area with cold winters, though, you can bury the obelisk’s legs, depending on its height, or use stakes to hold it in place. And while an obelisk provides a good landing surface for a variety of birds, the design of the ornament naturally deters house sparrows — they don’t like to feed surrounded by a lot of objects.

You Might Also Like:
DIY Bird Feeder Wreath
Best Plants with Berries for Birds
How to Attract More Birds to Your Garden
Gardening for Birds Collection

How to assemble a bird-feeding obelisk

As long as you use fresh birdseed and fruit, there’s really no wrong way to put together a tower that will attract and feed birds for the rest of the season. Follow along with these steps for the foundation of your ornament, but feel free to try different seedheads or fruit! Watch our short video to see how we created this one.

Materials list

• Garden obelisk or other structure to use as a base
• Floral foam
• Floral wire
• Terra-cotta saucer
• Wood floral picks
• Birdseed wreath (premolded)
• Cut seedheads of broomcorn, foxtail millet and/or ornamental millet
• Evergreen branches
• Fruit, such as apples, oranges and cranberries
• Pine cones
• Peanut butter
• Birdseed
• Lotus pods

Step 1: Add floral foam

Start by inserting a piece of floral foam — the kind used for dried arrangements, which you can find at any florist or craft store — inside the point of your obelisk. For my 4-foot-tall obelisk, I used half of a 3×4×8-inch block. This will be hidden away when you stick in stems and other pieces of wood or wire later on, so you want to make sure it’s secure. I fixed my block of floral foam by weaving floral wire around the obelisk’s legs underneath it, creating a platform, just like you see here.

Step 2: Add a saucer

I used this same wiring method to attach a terra-cotta saucer to the bottom of the obelisk. This catches seeds from above, and you can even fill it with birdseed to attract ground-feeding birds, such as juncos and mourning doves.

You Might Also Like:
Best Kinds of Birdseed for Your Feeders
2 Easy Ways to Refill Bird Feeders
DIY Flower Pot Birdbath

Step 3: Prep the wreath

A premolded birdseed wreath — common at bird-feeding supply stores around the holidays — is a convenient way to provide a consistent supply of seed in cold weather. Simply slip it into the included mesh bag, which helps hold the seed to the form, and put the whole thing over the obelisk’s point.

Project revision for bird safety:

For the safety of any visiting wildlife, be sure to remove any netting material from pre-purchased birdseed wreaths or any decorative items so birds don't get caught or ingest the netting.

Step 4: Add seedheads for the birds

Once the wreath’s on, poke bird-favorite seedheads, such as broomcorn, foxtail millet and ornamental millet, into all sides of the floral foam. If these plants don’t grow in your garden, it’s easy to find fresh branches at the farmers market. Sticking in a few evergreen branches from your own garden such as this Colorado spruce and creeping juniper, adds even more winter interest and gives your visitors a little shelter while they peck at the buffet.

You Might Also Like:
6 Plants Birds Love
DIY Terra-Cotta Bird Feeder
Octagonal Birdhouse Woodworking Plan

Step 5: Don't forget to add fruit!

To offer the most variety, pierce orange halves and apple wedges, as well. Secure the orange by sticking bent floral wire into the skin and through the fruit, like you see above left. Wood floral picks will hold pieces of apple in place. To add vibrant color, and even more fruit, fill lotus pods with cranberries. To brighten the rest of the obelisk, I strung cranberries on a length of wire, just as you would a garland, and wrapped it around the obelisk’s legs like you see above.

Step 6: Add a pine cone treat

For a high-energy offering, smear pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them in birdseed. The pine cones I used were already attached to a wood pick — you can find them this way at a craft and hobby store. Just be sure to choose the natural pine cones, without the glossy varnish coating. If you want to attach your own pine cones to a wood pick or twig, use wire to bind the two, or use hot glue.

Step 8: Add to your garden & invite the birds!

Your finished bird-feeding obelisk will have striking interest anywhere in the yard — even when birds aren’t perched and feeding from the birdseed, seedheads, fruit, peanut butter or berries. Now just carry it outside and enjoy the show!

DIY Bird feeder

Terra-cotta pots aren’t just for plants. They can be used to make all kinds of cool things, including bird feeders. It’s a cinch to make this garden-themed bird feeder out of a simple terra-cotta flower pot and a couple of saucers. Look for an orchid pot like this one with holes in the sides. You can size this up or down to suit your fancy. And this is a great project to personalize: Decorate it with mosaic seashells or pebbles or paint it with chalkboard paint so you can change it up as often as you like. Watch the video above or follow the steps below to see how to make one yourself.

Project Revision As our Savvy subscribers have noted, this design is improved by switching the larger 10 in. terra-cotta dish to the top position of the feeder as a shield against rain and snow.

What you will need to make a terra-cotta bird feeder

Materials

• 6-in. terra-cotta orchid pot
• 8-in. terra-cotta saucer
• 10-in. terra-cotta saucer
• All hardware is stainless steel:
• 12-in. (¼-20) threaded rod
• ¼×2-in. eye bolt
• ¼x20 coupling nut
• ¼-in. lock nut
• ¼x20 wing nut
• (3) ¼×1½-in. fender washers
• 1 decorative steel lamp finial
• Adhesive epoxy (E6000)

Tools

• ¼-in. masonry drill bit
• 7⁄16 crescent wrench
• Drill

Terra-cotta bird feeder assembly

How to create a DIY terra-cotta bird feeder

Step 1: Drill holes in the saucers

Soaking the terra-cotta saucers first overnight in water will help prevent chipping and cracking and keep the drill bit cool, too.

Before you start drilling, mark the center of the bottoms of the two saucers with masking tape to help prevent cracking. Drill a ¼-in. hole in each using a ¼-in. masonry drill bit.

To add drainage so water doesn't collect in the 8 in. saucer, drill several drain holes circling the saucer using the smallest masonry bit size you have so that only water and not birdseed will fall through.

Step 2: Attach the pot to a saucer

Spread an epoxy, such as E6000, on the bottom of the orchid pot, then center it onto the 8-in. saucer, lining up the holes. Let dry overnight.

Step 3: Prepare the rod

Thread the ¼-in. lock nut onto the rod, taking care to stop with plenty of room to spare at the bottom. (If you go too far, it's difficult to go backward.) Temporarily attach the finial to the end of the rod to make it easier to hold the rod while threading the lock nut.

Step 4: Attach the rod

Slip a washer under the lock nut, feed the end of the rod through the holes in the pot and saucer. Then attach a washer and the finial to the bottom. Tighten the lock nut with a longer handled crescent wrench.

You Might Also Like:
How to Choose the Best Bird Seed for Your Feeders
How to Make Your Own Suet for Birds

Step 5: Add a funnel (optional)

Invert a small plastic kitchen funnel onto the threaded rod and let it rest inside the orchid pot. This will help direct the birdseed to the holes near the base of the pot and into the saucer.

Step 6: Attach the lid

Invert the 10-in. saucer and slide it onto threaded rod; add a washer, then secure it with the wing nut.

Step 7: Add the hook

Thread the coupling nut halfway onto the threaded rod. Thread the eye bolt into the coupling nut.

Step 8: Fill & hang feeder

To fill your feeder, unscrew the top wingnut enough to lift the top saucer and pour in bird seed. Retighten the wingnut after filling. Hang your DIY terra-cotta bird feeder from a branch, bracket or a pole where you can see it from a window and reach it easily to refill.

Bird feeder tips

• Look for a seed mix that includes black-oil sunflower seeds, which is rich in calories and attracts cardinals, chickadees, house finches and nuthatches.
• Spend the money for a high-quality mix (a low-quality mix will contain milo, wheat, flax seed and other filler grains).
• Fill the feeders late in the day or first thing in the morning, just before or after a cold night.

You Might Also Like:
DIY Bird Feeder Wreath
Attract More Birds to Your Garden with These Tips
Best Plants with Berries for Birds

Easy DIY birdseed cakes

A great way to invite birds into your garden is to make these super-easy birdseed treats. Birds especially benefit from birdseed cakes during the winter months, when food sources are more limited. Making your own birdseed cakes is a cinch and can be done in your own kitchen with some simple ingredients and tools. You can even customize the mixture to attract specific species of birds. Before you know it, birds will be flocking from miles around to feast in your garden.

You Might Also Like:
Best Kinds of Birdseed for Your Feeders
DIY Bird-Feeding Wreath
Suet Recipes to Attract Specific Birds

Birdseed cake ingredients (This recipe makes 4 bird seed cakes)

• ¾ cup white or wheat flour
• 3 cups bird seed mix
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup raw peanuts
• ½ cup water (brought to a boil)
• ¼ ounce unflavored gelatin
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Materials

• Mixing bowl
• Glass measuring cup
• Disposable cups
• Wooden spoon
• Sticks
• Twine

How to mix and form the birdseed cakes

1. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl
2. Microwave water until boiling in a glass measuring cup
3. Add gelatin to boiling water and stir to dissolve
4. Stir in corn syrup
5. Pour liquids over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
6. Spoon the mixture into cups (This recipe makes 4 cups)
7. Poke hole in middle of cake for hanging
8. Let cakes dry overnight
9. Remove cakes from cups
10. Use sticks and twine to hang cakes

Birdfeeding Products We Like:
Shepherd's Hook
Platform Birdfeeder
Birdseed Cake Feeder

Decorate your garden with birdseed ornaments

Whip up a batch of these delicious ornaments and the birds will thank you! This easy project looks great dangling from the branches of the conifers in your garden. It doesn’t take much time, and the ingredients are easy to find. You might even have them on hand already!

Customize your birdseed ornaments

Feel free to swap up the nuts and dried fruit with some that you have on hand to keep the process easy. Personalize each ornament or make it festive by choosing specially patterened ribbon. Or use neutral-colored raffia, as in the photo above, for a look that will last all winter long — as long as the birds don’t gobble them up first!

You Might Also Like:
How to Make Easy Birdseed Cakes
DIY Suet Recipes to Attract Specific Birds
[DIY Bird Feeder Wreath](https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/projects/all/diy-bird-feeder-wreath/ "DIY Bird Feeder Wreath")
Best Plants with Berries for Birds

Materials

• Microwave safe bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Ribbon or raffia
• Muffin tin

Ingredients (makes 6 birdseed ornaments)

• ¾ cup white or wheat flour
• 3 cups birdseed mix
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup raw peanuts
• ½ cup water (brought to a boil)
• ¼ ounce unflavored gelatin
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup

How to make birdseed ornaments

Step 1: Mix up the ingredients

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Next, microwave the water until boiling in a glass measuring cup or bowl, dump in the gelatin and stir it until it dissolves. Stir in the corn syrup, then pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Step 2: Mold the birdseed ornaments

Spoon the “dough” into a muffin tin. You should have enough for about six ornaments. The dough should be thick enough that you can’t pour it — see how it’s sticking to the spoon? While the mix is still moist, poke a hole with a wooden spoon handle. This will make it easy to hang the ornaments.

Step 3: Finish the ornaments

Allow the mix to harden for at least three hours before dumping the cakes out of the muffin tin. Let them dry thoroughly overnight, add a colorful ribbon or raffia for hanging and you’re done!

You Might Also Like:
Bird Feeder Project Plans
Best Types of Birdseed for Your Feeders
6 Plants Birds Love

Create a beautiful bird feeder wreath

Who says attracting birds has to be done with boring old feeders? They do like the easy access to seed in a tube or hopper feeder, but there’s no reason you can’t put together something prettier to serve them, like this DIY bird feeder wreath. Maybe the birds will find it more fun, too!

Use your imagination to utilize materials from your garden that your feathered friends will eat. Then add extra treats they can’t easily find in the garden to keep them happy and well-fed. Make sure you can quickly refresh with new feed as it runs out, and the birds will be sure to come back for more.

Scroll through for step-by-step instructions for building and decorating an evergreen wreath with tasty tidbits the birds will love!

You Might Also Like:
[6 Plants Birds Love](https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/flowers-plants/bird-butterfly-friendly/six-plants-birds-love/ "6 plants birds love")
See More Garden Projects
The Best Birdseed for Your Feeders

What you'll need for your DIY bird feeder wreath

Tools & materials

• 18-in. wire wreath ring
• Florist paddle wire
• Pruners
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue and glue pot
• Cable ties
• Wilt Stop^®
• Assorted pine and willow branches
• Birdseed
• Dried pods
• Millet sprays
• Sunflower heads
• Dried flower accents
• Fruit (orange halves, small apples, cranberries)
• Raffia

How to make your DIY bird feeder wreath

Construct the wreath

Start by building a wreath as the backbone. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), a common windbreak tree, makes a great foundation. It also has berries that birds will eat in late winter, though they’re not their first choice. The cedar branches hold up well in a wreath without losing needles, are easily pruned without damaging the rest of the tree and will last from fall into late winter. Other good evergreens for this project are white pine (Pinus strobus), arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) and fir (Abies spp.).

How to use wreath rings

Wreath rings are available at any craft store. This one is 18 in. in diameter, with four rails in a cupped shape. Fasten the end of a roll of florist paddle wire to one rail on the ring, twisting the wire end tight so it won’t come loose. Make bunches of cut cedar branches 6 to 8 in. long and as full as you want the wreath to look. Position the ring so the cup faces up, and one at a time, place a bunch inside. Wrap the paddle wire around each bundle’s stem end as tightly as you can, fastening it to the frame like you see in the photo above. Add overlapping bunches and work your way along the wreath ring, wrapping the wire to a rail on the frame between each bundle so they don’t slide out of place. When you get around the circle, tuck the stem ends of the last bunch in under the first bundle so there’s not a gap. Cut the wire, then wrap the end around the frame multiple times to secure it.

Protect the wreath

If you want the wreath to last the whole winter season, spray it with a nontoxic antitranspirant, such as Wilt Stop^®, to keep the greenery from losing moisture. Spray to the point of runoff, then let it dry for 24 hours before you start to decorate.

Gather materials from the garden

While the wreath base is drying, gather up things birds like, such as dried sunflower heads, millet sprays and coneflower seedheads. A lot of these, like the sunflower, you can harvest from your garden in the fall and save for feeding later in the winter. Plan ahead and grow plants specifically with birds in mind.

Include fruit

Don’t forget fruit — birds will enjoy this addition, especially out of season when fruit is hard for them to find. Favorites include oranges, cranberries, apples, blueberries and grapes.

Wire-on seedheads and sprays

Green florist wire can be used to attach almost anything, but be sure to tuck the ends into the wreath so a bird won’t get poked by a sharp wire. In the photo above at left, see how to bend it into a U-shape and pierce through a seed-packed sunflower head. Simply wrap the ends around the wreath and twist them together to anchor it. Short pieces of wire (2 to 3 in. long) can be used to fasten stem clusters to the cedar branches in several spots. Make a bundle of millet by wiring the stems tightly together first, like in the photo above at right, then attaching it to the branches of the wreath.

Glue in seed pods for food

Hot glue works great to attach decorations, but be sure to remove any “glue webs,” the strings that are left behind, so they won’t catch on and cling to birds’ feathers. Clean webs off any edible parts too, so they don’t accidentally ingest the glue. Hot glue pots make gluing a breeze — just dip the ends of your decorations in the melted glue and stick in place. The lotus pod will stay attached to the cedar branches all season with a healthy blob of hot glue to hold it.

Craft stores have all sorts of pods like the lotus shown here. They make great mini-feeders. Just drop in a handful of loose birdseed or a few cranberries, as in the photo above.

You Might Also Like:
[Make Your Own Suet](https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/projects/all/48suetrecipe2/ "Make your own suet")
Bird-Feeding Obelisk
3 Ways to Make Your Winter Garden Better

Skewer the fruit

Simply pierce a small apple with a wooden floral pick (or a kabob skewer) as shown in the photo here and hot glue the pick in place. Replace the apple when needed by pulling it off the skewer and popping a new piece of fruit back on.

Tie on oranges

Orange rinds are easily pierced with a plastic cable tie, like in the photo, making them quick to fasten to the wreath and to replace as the fruit is eaten.

When you're finished, hang the wreath in a prominent place, like a gate, so you can enjoy the beautiful wreath and the happy birds without disturbing their mealtime!

You Might Also Like These Products:
Wreath Peanut Feeder
Birdseed Star Ornaments
Wreath Hanger

How to host a toad in the garden

The American toad (Bufo americanus) or one of its many cousins can be found from coast to coast. Most gardens can support several. If you don’t have toads already visiting your yard, making a hospitable environment will likely attract them in no time. As long as a toad has shelter, food and moisture, it could stay for many years. Here’s how to provide these in your garden:

Shelter

Toads feed mainly at night, and they need shelter and moisture during the heat of the day. They take cover by burying themselves in damp mulch or hiding beneath low-growing plants. Make a toad home by stacking flat stones in a cavelike arrangement or use an old clay pot, like the photos above. This clay pot already had a chip, so it was easy to enlarge the “door” with a pair of tile cutters (putting duct tape on the outside and inside of the pot helps control your cut). Adult toads will need an opening at least 2 in. wide and 1½ in. tall. In late fall, toads burrow 3 ft. below the soil’s surface to hibernate until emerging again in spring.

Moisture

To cool off, toads can drink through their skin. Set a shallow saucer of water level with the ground so a toad can easily jump into it. If the saucer is deeper than 3 in. or has straight sides, add a few stones in the water to help them climb out. Make sure to keep it fi lled on hot days, and dump the water, rinse the inside and add fresh once a week to prevent bacteria from growing in the water.

Food

Patiently lying in wait, toads use their long, sticky tongues to quickly grab their food. Anything that’s smaller and slower moving than they are is fair game. Even as tadpoles, toads eat mosquito larvae in the water. Adult toads feed mainly on insects, so it’s wise not to use insecticides that take away their food supply. Many pesticides are poisonous to toads. Always use the least-toxic organic insecticide or a cultural control, such as hand-picking insects off your plants.

Sand-cast creativity

This DIY sand-cast birdbath is easy to make, works with any large leaf and it can be finished lots of different ways. For a large birdbath, like the one in the photo above, use plants like rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum), gunnera (Gunnera manicata) or ‘Sum and Substance’ hosta (Hosta hybrid) work best. This one’s rhubarb.

You’re not limited to big leaves either. This process will work with just about any type and there are lots of ways to use them throughout your home and garden. Check out the gallery of sand-cast ornament ideas below for some inspiration.

You Might Also Like:
DIY Potting Bench
Garden Gate's Best Hostas
4 DIY Vegetable Garden Trellises

Sand-casting tips

• When it comes to concrete, even though its more expensive, I like Quickcrete^® Vinyl Patcher. When it’s dry, its fine consistency preserves the details of the leaf clearly. Less expensive concretes are just as strong, but they look coarser.
• You can do this project on the ground, but I’d recommend using some kind of table — it’s easier on your knees and back.
• Leaves can wilt quickly so keep them in water until you're ready to use them.

Who’d have guessed that with just a few hours of work, you could have such a unique garden ornament? Are you ready to make your own? Let’s get started.

What you’ll need to make your sand-cast birdbath

Materials

• 1 medium to large leaf
• 1 50-lb. bag of sand
• 1 10-lb. bucket of Quikrete^® Vinyl Concrete Patcher
• Water
• Paint or concrete dye
• Eco-friendly sealer, such as AgraLife Kennel Seal
• A sheet of plastic large enough to cover sand and concrete (we upcycled an old shower curtain liner)

Tools

• Mixing tray for concrete
• Garden trowel
• Disposable gloves for mixing
• Garden pruners
• Plywood or large tray for holding sand
• Stiff-bristled brush
• Paint brush

How to make a sand-cast birdbath

Step 1: Start with sand

Start by making a dome-shaped pile of sand that’s big enough for the entire leaf to rest on plus a couple of inches to spare. This rhubarb leaf used all of a 50-lb. bag of sand — any type will do. Covering it with plastic keeps the mess down and prevents sand from sticking to any concrete that might leak through or run over the edge of the leaf but it's not essential.

Step 2: Bring in the leaf

Many leaves wilt quickly, so wait to harvest yours until you need it or keep it in a bucket of water until you’re ready. Lay the leaf face down on top of the sand like the one above. Cut the stem off close to the base of the leaf. If the leaf you want to use has a hole or a tear, no problem. Just cut a piece from a different leaf and use it as a patch.

You Might Also Like:
How to Make a Kokedama
Homegrown Lavender Sugar Scrub
6 Plants Birds Love
DIY Bird Feeder Wreath

Step 3: Time for concrete

Pour the dry concrete into a mixing tray and add water until it’s the consistency of a thick brownie mix. Scoop some concrete onto the center of the leaf and begin working it toward the outer edges as in the photo above. Make it about ¾-in. thick in the middle (or whatever it takes to cover the leaf veins) and taper it to ¼-in. at the edge. Once the leaf is covered with concrete, cover it with plastic. If it’s really hot outdoors, a piece of moist burlap on the plastic can help the concrete dry evenly. Give it at least 48 hours to dry.

Step 4: Cure & clean

After at least 48 hours, you can remove the plastic and turn your concrete leaf over. In my experience, if it hasn’t dried thoroughly, a chunk along the edge is the most likely part to break off as you pick it up. To be on the safe side, have a friend help you turn it over or work your hand through the sand and lift it from the center.

You can start pulling out the leaf now or wait a few more days if you're concerned it's not completely dry yet. Most of the leaf comes out easily, but as you can see in the photo, you may have to scrub a bit with a stiff brush. Even though the concrete is dry, it needs to cure for a week, so wait to paint or apply sealer.

Step 5: Paint your sand-cast leaf

To use your leaf as it is, just add a coat of eco-friendly concrete sealer, such as AgriLife Kennel Seal, for protection. In the photo, I’m painting on several coats of a thin wash of acrylic paint. This wash was about three drops of paint to two cups of water. It dries quickly and you can begin another coat almost as soon as you finish the first to create a layered look with different colors. By keeping the paint thinner, you preserve the finer details, such as slender leaf veins. You can also use concrete dye or spray paint. Whatever you use, finish it off with a coat of sealer.

You Might Also Like:
Garden Woodworking Projects
A Cozy Small Space Garden
10 Plants to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden

Get creative with your sand-cast creations

There are a lot of other cool things you can do with sand-cast leaves to add color or show them off. Here are some of our favorites. Share your sand-cast creations with us on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #GGSandCastProjects

Pick an empty place in the bed or border and just turn the container upside down, set the saucer atop the base and fill it with water. Birds like the robins below, will enjoy visiting, and it’s a pretty, natural accent in the garden.

For more tips on how to bring birds to your garden, read our article [Six plants birds love](https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/flowers-plants/bird-butterfly-friendly/six-plants-birds-love/ "Six plants birds love").

Suet cakes are easy to make and provide insect-eating birds something to eat in winter when they can't eat the berries and seeds in your garden. Of course you can buy suet cakes prepackaged at almost any grocery or hardware store. But it’s fun and satisfying to make your birds some homemade treats. And did you know that different birds enjoy different ingredients? Customize your recipe to feed your favorites! We’ll start by showing you the basic process, then scroll down for three different recipes below.

What is suet?

Suet is rendered beef fat and is the ingredient that holds all suet cakes together. You can find it at the meat counter of your local grocery store. (If you can’t find it, lard is a good substitute.)

How to make a basic suet cake to feed to birds

Making a basic suet cake is easy and a great way to feed your bird friends. Look below for materials and tools you will need as well as a simple step-by-step process!

Supplies (makes one 4x4x2 inch suet cake):

• 1 lb. suet or lard
• 1 cup oatmeal or cornmeal
• 1 cup peanut butter

Tools:

• Knife
• Cutting board
• Saucepan or double boiler
• Wooden spoon or spatula spoon
• Measuring cups
• Milk carton, plastic food storage container or an ice cube tray to use as a form for the suet cake

Step 1: Combine suet ingredients

Melt suet in a double boiler over low heat until it’s clear. Using a double boiler will prevent smoking or scorching. Then stir in additional ingredients until well combined. Make sure your ingredients are chopped into small pieces — it’s much easier for the birds to enjoy.

Step 2: Add suet to a form

Scoop the mixture into a form — the bottom of a wax lined milk carton, a plastic food storage container or an ice cube tray all work well. If you’re concerned that the mixture will stick to the container, line the container with some wax paper first. And don’t forget that the mixture will be hot! Use caution to avoid any burns.

Step 3: Let the suet cake cool

Let the cake cool in the refrigerator for a few hours before you put it outside or store it in the freezer until you’re ready to put it outside.

Suet cake recipes to attract specific birds

Want to attract a certain type of bird to your garden? Check out the three easy recipes in the slideshow below that you can make and the type of bird it will attract.

Chickadee delight

• 1 lb. suet
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup peanut butter
• ½ cup blueberries
• ½ cup shelled sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp. grape jelly

Nuthatch suet recipe

• 1 lb. of suet
• 1 cup of cornmeal
• ¼ cup shelled sunflower seeds,
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts
• ¼ cup chopped peanuts

Woodpecker suet recipe

• 1 lb. suet
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1 apple, peeled and cut into small pieces
• ½ cup shelled sunflower seeds
• ¼ cup raisins

You Might Also Like:
Bird Feeder Wreath Project
How to Make Birdseed Ornaments
How to Attract More Birds to Your Garden