Here’s an interesting thought: when ornamental gardening became popular in Middle Eastern countries, the areas were initially referred to as “death gardens” – a representation of what the owner hopes his afterlife will look like.
This is obviously ironic, since gardening is all about nurturing life. Though gardeners’ individual tastes range from strict and formal to laissez-faire jungles, the last thing you want is for it to look sterile. This usually means working with the local wildlife instead of trying to drive it off, especially bugs and birds. Who doesn’t like hearing and seeing our feathered friends enjoying our little patch of nature?
While the first step towards this is to select plants that these critters will love, providing them with a safe place to nest doesn’t hurt either. If you’re lucky, they might even choose to lay their eggs there, giving you a chance to witness a miracle of life most people only see on Youtube.
We’d like to recommend two types of birdhouses, very different in their way but both undeniably cute. The set we display here blends in beautifully with tree trunks or branches; they somewhat resemble finch nests. Handwoven from natural fibers, the texture and overall feel of these birdhouses are very attractive to several types of birds, though you might find that some pull them apart for material to build their own nests elsewhere.
To increase the chances of birds using the actual nest itself (and not its parts) you may want to place it somewhere out of the way so your potential tenants won’t be disturbed. Hanging it close to the trampoline of your kids probably isn’t a good idea.
If you have children, you might want to go with something else instead – Oojami Birdhouses. Although this option is less attractive right out of the box, the idea is that you can let your painting and crafting skills loose on it, allowing each child to “adopt” their very own bird family. Disappointingly, though, these birdhouses are very small and not easy for most birds to enter. If you want a project that the whole family can participate in this is a good choice, but if sheltering birds is your priority the hand woven and teardrop shaped birdhouse would be the better choice.
