What are the foods that are best for attracting song birds to our gardens? We all want to provide the perfect habitat for our feathered friends, and one food that is very nutritious for birds and easy to grow in your garden is tomatoes. This article will discuss what foods you should grow if you want to attract many different types of birds to your yard.
If you have a backyard pond, bird bath, or bird table you can plant some tomatoes to keep birds eating. Birds are omnivores, which means that they eat both meat and vegetables, and they love tomatoes. Blackbirds, red-winged blackbird, cowbirds, other blackbirds and other small birds will all eat various fruits and vegetables, but they also will also take insect and small animals as their diet.
The berries on a tomato plant are a great snack for birds, and there are a few other foods that are good for attracting these birds as well. Berries are high in carbohydrates and protein, so they are excellent sources of energy for any bird that is looking to stay healthy and active. Another delicious treat for birds is the small pieces of fruit that remain after a tomato has been removed. These are called kipper bits and are wonderful for feeding birds and providing them with an assortment of fruits and vegetables.
Tomato plants should be sprayed each year with an insecticidal soap, and this should be a very small amount. I prefer to use a larger amount at the beginning of spring, and use just a bit less in the fall. Although you may think that spraying is too much, it is actually a necessary part of keeping your tomatoes healthy. This insecticidal soap will kill any aphids, slugs, praying mantis, and beetles that are in your soil, as well as many of the larger insects that feed on tomatoes.
To protect tomato plants from the wind and sun, we always plant them about two feet away from the nearest object, such as a fence or a tree. We also protect tomato plants by using netting to cover the tops of the rows. Netting is very effective at keeping birds from getting to the fruits and destroying them. We have found netting to be especially effective around the time of harvest. We cover the tops with netting so that no natural predators such as birds can get to the tomatoes.
Squirrels, rats, and deer can all damage your tomatoes. There are plenty of repellents available that work effectively against these three critters. We have also found that giving our tomatoes a slight slice with a knife will deter squirrels and rats from handling them.
What birds eat tomatoes? Two species of bats actually eat large amounts of tomatoes in your garden – the fruit fly and the mole bat. These species aren’t native to your area, but have been brought in for the large amounts of food they provide. They tend to seek out the larger fruits in early spring when they are ripe, and then spend the winter storing up to get back in the market for their return to you in the fall. This means that you are probably getting a large portion of their diet from your tomatoes!
In order to attract larger numbers of fruit flies and/or lizards to your garden, you should make sure you clean up any areas of vegetation that you don’t want them eating. We find that if we clear out an area, even a small corner, the number of insects that come to the area will usually increase. It’s almost like giving the birds a free lunch! If you have an area that you want to attract larger numbers of fruit flies and lizards, try using tomato fruit flies and lizards repellents. You can get these sprays at hardware or gardening stores, and many of them don’t cost much.
