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The summer sun hammers down from the sky like a forge hammer on an anvil as we sloq our way down the white-hot pavement. We tell ourselves that this really isn't any hotter than last summer and that it "isn't the heat; it's the humidity" bit sometomes it seems that summers now are hotter than when we were kids. We can hardly wait till winter, when we can gripe about the icy cold.
Birdbaths are a popular option. They're decorative (and some can be very inexpensive) and an easy way to add a nice touch to your landscape. But when you're putting out water for the birds, remember the smaller creatures that can't fly to a birdbath for a drink. My favorite way to provide water for our yard visitors is to fill an old piepan with water and set it in a shady spot. I've got an old Teflon pan that I use, since it's got a rough and scarred bottom. It's something that a little lizard can scramble out of easily. It's a surprisingly popular watering hole. In fact, the old piepan seems to attract more birds than the elevated birdbath. It can't be a matter of aesthetics, for the old piepan is only a homely dish set out on the back porch. But some of the birds (like the Mourning Dove) seem more comfortable drinking from a ground-level pool (they're ground feeders) rather than from a birdbath perched above the grass. Not all our visitors drink from pools of water, though. Many creatures get all the moisture they require from dew on the plants or from the plants themselves. Keeping your flowerbeds and gardens well mulched and watered during the summer helps these visitors satisfy their thirst. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, set it up to water in the hour just before dawn. This strategy ensures that more water will end up in the soil rather than evaporated away into the air. The cool, wet soil will help protect plants throughout the hot day. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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