Time for Annuals!

The weather has been beautiful this week and the flowers are blooming! This is the time to get your annuals planted and we have some great deals on flats. If you would like annuals installed in your gardens so that you can enjoy some gorgeous Spring color, give us a call at 704.504.0980! First-come first-serve!

Great New Bird Pics

Wendy Hope sent these beautiful photos in. Wendy gets plenty of chipping sparrows, chickadees, blue birds, wrens, mocking birds, cardinals and woodpeckers in her yard. What a wonderful site! Thank you Wendy.

Do you have any bird pictures from your yard? We would love to post them here! EMail heather@metrogreenscape.com.

Featured Photos

In this month's issue of the Compass Magazine we asked you to send in some bird pictures from yor yard. We were delighted to get these images from Jason Otte, a professional photographer from Tega Cay -- here is his website: http://http://www.imagesbyjasonotte.com/. Aren't these beautiful?!

Do you have some great bird pictures? We would love to see them and feature them here and possibly in our enewsletter! Please email us at events@metrogreenscape.com

GREEN LIFE PROJECT: Pinecone Bird Feeders

The Green Life was developed as a way for Metro GreenScape to share the fun of outdoor living with families in our area. This month we would like to bring you a quick and easy project to do with the kids.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Materials you will need for each pinecone feeder:

• A large, open pinecone
• Vegetable shortening and peanut putter
• Birdseed
• A few feet of string, fishing line or twine
• Mixing bowl
• Butter knife
• Spoon
• Scissors
• Pie tin, paper plate or cookie sheet
• ½ cup measuring cup
• Optional: High-energy bird foods such as dried fruit (cut in small pieces), chopped nuts, sunflower seeds or millet

Directions

1. Tie a three to four foot piece of yarn around the top of the pine cone for the hanger.
2. Mix two tablespoons of peanut butter with two tablespoons of shortening.
3. Spread the peanut butter and shortening mixture onto the pine cone.
4. Pour some bird seed onto a plate or shallow dish and roll the pine cone in it.
5. Optional: add dried fruit (chopped up), chopped nuts, seeds (especially sunflower and millet) which are high-energy bird foods.
6. Place the seed-covered pine cones in the freezer for about an hour or until it is firm.
7. Hang it outside in a tree!

Tips:
1. Hang your pine cone at the end of a smaller branch so squirrels don't get it.
2. Work with the bird seed over newspaper to help make clean up time easier.
3. The feeders are best when it is cooler outside. If it is too warm, the shortening will melt and the mixture fall from the cone.

*** please send us your completed feeder pictures! We would love to include them on our blog! (send to: heather@metrogreenscape.com)