Attracting Birds - the Great Outdoors @YourNewHouse

Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago

Materials needed:

- Large, thin, flat stones
- Suet feeder
- Pole bird feeder
- Birdbath
- Several berry producing shrubs, attractive to birds; such as Wentworth Viburnum and Cottoneaster. (Check with your local nursery for shrubs available in your area.)

Tools needed:

- Hammer
- Spade
- Block of wood

Five ways to attract birds to your yard

Install a Pole Feeder
When installing a pole feeder there are several things to keep in mind. First, be sure to install it where you can see it from your deck or window. A good tip for finding the perfect spot is to place your spade or shovel in the ground at each possible location. Then simply go to your viewing area and make sure you can see the shovel. Also, remember not to place the feeder near trees or shrubs. This will give the neighborhood squirrels easier access to the feeder.
When hammering the pole into the ground, place a piece of wood between the hammer and the end of the pole. This will help prevent the pole end from bending, which may make attaching the feeder to the pole more difficult.

Place Stones at Ground Level to Attract “Ground Feeders”
Recess stones beneath your pole birdfeeder. Birds are messy eaters, leaving seeds behind on the ground. These seeds can be eaten off of the stone by birds that prefer to feed on the ground instead of directly from your feeder. The reason for recessing the stones is that it makes mowing around your feeder much easier.

Hang a Suet Feeder
A suet feeder is another common way to attract birds to a landscape. There are two things to keep in mind when hanging one of these feeders. First, make sure that your suet is all-season. This will ensure that the suet will not become rancid in summertime heat. Second, make sure that your feeder is coated with plastic. If it is constructed of only metal, a birds eyes may freeze to the feeder in the winter much like a person's tongue might to a very cold flagpole.

Plant Fruit-bearing Shrubs
Consider planting a viburnum in a shady location. Birds will be attracted to its sweet fruit in the fall. Cottoneaster is another fruiting plant. Contact your local extension agent for fruiting plants that will thrive in your landscape and feed all sorts of wildlife.

Install a Birdbath
Birdbaths are a great way to provide water to birds. Plus they can be an attractive addition to most any landscape.

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$Stained Concrete Floors - Building Your New House If you’re in search of a floor treatment that is absolutely indestructible and almost completely maintenance-free, consider an acid-stained concrete treatment. Stained concrete is a technique applied directly to the concrete foundation of your house. The goal is to create a marble or a glazed stone finish at a fraction of the cost. Specialists apply color directly onto the concrete with an acid stain solution. They use a muriatic acid base. It’s the same thing they use in swimming pools, because it’s chlorine-based. Muriatic acid reacts chemically with the lime in your concrete floor. The color base (a liquid solution) also contains particles of steel, so it rusts into your concrete floor. You can choose to stain your concrete floor with a single color wash for a marbleized look, or you can choose a detailed pattern that may involve a number of colors. Depending on the finished look you want, the staining specialists may have to cut into your concrete to outline a specific design pattern. A single design on a brand-new new floor with a large number of cuts (like our three-dimensional kitchen pattern) usually takes about two days, start to finish. The first stain application dries within six hours, then the specialists come back the next day for a second pass. There are four major steps in the concrete staining process. First, the specialists clean and prepare the floor. They clean the concrete with a mild cleaner like TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate) – it’s available in any hardware store or home center. You don’t want to clean with an acid wash, because that acid process will interfere with the acid process that stains and colors the concrete. Next the specialists cut the pattern you’ve chosen into your concrete floor. For patterns that require fine cutting for very defined lines, they first lay out the pattern like a stencil on the cleaned concrete floor. They recommend that you don’t cut any deeper than an eighth of an inch into the concrete, otherwise those cuts will collect a lot of dirt. Cuts for the Compass Rose are scored 1/8” wide and 1/16” deep. Timing is everything. Your foundation has to cure for at least six weeks before the specialists can begin to color. If you know you want to stain your concrete floors before you build your new house, then you can cut your chosen pattern into the foundation as soon as three or four days after the foundation is poured. In the third step, the specialists actually apply the stain mixture to the floor. They use a liquid stain mixed with water. It’s applied with a low-pressure mister, like the kind of mister you’d use to spray for bugs in your garden. The volume of liquid applied to the concrete determines the depth and intensity of the finished color. 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