A Birdseed Garden and a Duck Cafeteria

This spring I'm planting food for the birds, both the wild birds and my ducks, as part of my Unity Arts practice. 

Unity Arts is designed to open the doors of creative healing, to heal our connection to the earth - to Creation. We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn.

Unity Art includes these parts: 

1. Set an intention
2. Collect seed and plants
3. Observing
4. Prepare the beds
5. Plant the beds
6. Creating

7. Sharing and giving thanks.

1. Set an Intention: 

The first step in any Unity Art process is (usually) to define the project: That requires some research, meditation, and discernment. I might start by listing or naming the subject(s) of my Art, then dive into the science and folklore to figure out the importance of the subject, and then meditate on my relationship with the subject. After this discernment, I can set a complete intention for how I want to heal our relationship, and some ideas for how I might start to do that.

I've already defined this project as a Birdseed Garden (an addition to all the native planting I've done to attract bird food insects). I've read that growing birdseed ensures safer seeds without unknown chemical enhancements or pesticide treatments. Also, shyer birds can harvest from a garden without visiting a busy feeder, and disease won't be as easily spread.

And I also want to create a Duck Cafeteria in our duck yard, with plants the ducks like to eat - with fencing so the ducks can reach in to nibble the tops without digging up the roots.

I need to learn about what seeds to grow and when to plant them, and I want to build this process into the wheel of my year so it becomes an automatic part of my garden habit. And I also want to figure out a way to witness about this process for other gardeners.

Some notes on growing birdseed:

• You can’t sow seeds from a commercial birdseed mix, because often they are heat-treated to prevent germination.
• Once you have your birdseed garden going, you can harvest and store your own seed for sowing in spring, and for filling your feeders. To harvest, cut the seed heads when they start to turn brown and plop them into a paper bag to finish maturing. After a few weeks, shake or crumble the seeds free. Or pick them out individually (some seed heads release their seeds more reluctantly than others). Store harvested seed and shovel it into your bird feeders as needed.
• Or leave your birdseed plants standing in the fall and winter, to let the plants self-sow (many will) and allow birds to come and harvest the seeds themselves.

My intention:

This spring I intend to devote one bed in my garden to growing bird seed, and one bed to duck food, in order to re-wild the birds that come to my garden, so they are not fed only from a tube on my porch, but are able to forage for themselves more effectively; and also to create more variety and interest in our ducks' diet. Furthermore, I will document this process and share it with others.

2. Collect seeds and plants:

Unity Art collecting has 2 parts; first exploring, and next sustainable gathering. In the case of this project my collecting is pretty straightforward - I need seeds and plants.

I've purchased two kinds of bird seeds: I got a packet of Black Oil Sunflower seed from Nichols Garden Nursery, and White Proso Millet from Natures's Seed. (I was going to buy Nyjer seed, but I found a blog that says birds won't eat the seed unless it's heat processed.) I've started two six-packs of sunflowers and they are ready to plant out.

I've also collected some duck food for the Duck Cafeteria: A beautiful variegated comfrey plant, millet seed, and oat seed (I haven't found the leaf chicory yet - this has tall upright leaves that you can cut about 5″ above the ground and they’ll grow back within weeks). I got some good advice from this Tyrant Farms post. (Note to self: Read it again for fall planting!)

3. Observing:

I use a few days to take a crucial pause: Sit down, take a breath, and really notice and recognize what I am doing as being amazing and significant.

I've also observed the sites of the two new bed, and noticed how they are lacking: One is hard-packed clay, and the other is mostly straw. It occurs to me that if we combined them somehow, they would be improved.

4. Prepare the beds:

I use the French cooking phrase mis en place (pronounced ​mi zɑ̃ ˈplas) to describe the Medicine Art way to prepare your collected supplies; it means "putting in place," and refers to the setup, chopping, and arranging you do before cooking, and also a state of mind of being prepared: Do all your preparation, including preparing yourself, before moving on to creation (in this case, the planting). 

I've been preparing two beds - the big Birdseed Bed, which is hard-packed clay, and the new Duck Cafeteria Bed, which is just straw-covered ground in the duck yard. First I forked both beds to loosen them, then removed some of the clay from one to build up the other, added leaf mulch from under the Hawthorn trees, and some powdered organic fertilizer.

Then I watered both beds, let them rest, and set an intention to honor the beds and the birds by giving them what they need to survive. I created a love connection.

5. Plant the beds:

Black Oil Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus): In Greek, helios means sun and anthos means flower. They are native to North America, and were grown as a crop by indigenous tribes over 4,500 years ago. 

They are a great asset for vegetable gardens, for a variety of reasons: First, they double as natural trellises for climbing vegetables such as beans, and even though sunflowers need a lot of water, they improve soil aggregation, which helps the soil retain moisture through the winter. Also, they can act as a pest trap because they are so attractive to pests; rather than attacking your vegetables, pests such as the leaf-footed bugs will be drawn to the sunflower where they are easy to pick off. Sunflowers are packed with pollen, so they are a real feast for pollinators, and the birds love the seeds!

Plant seeds 1-2 inches deep and 8-12 inches apart in loose soil and full sun. For the best results, plant sunflower seeds only when the spring is warm and all danger of frost is past. I planted about 15 starts that I grew from seed, and I planted more seeds in and around them.

White Proso Millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a small-seeded cereal, thought to be one of the earliest cultivated grains, likely preceding wheat. It was probably first domesticated in one or more regions of China. It was cultivated in what is now Turkey and southern Europe since prehistoric times. Proso millet is adapted to marginal lands with limited fertility and water availability during the growing season.

Sunflowers and millet seed, mulched with duck straw.

Plant in late spring after soil is warm. Broadcast and lightly rake the area with a hard metal rake to mix it into the surface layer of soil. Spread a thin layer of straw over the soil to deter birds from feasting on the seed and to conserve soil moisture. Soak the area with a sprinkler to encourage germination and continue to keep the area moist (but not soggy) until the seedlings have emerged. If in doubt, water whenever the top inch of soil is dry.

Oat (Avena sativa) is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed. Oats date back about 32,000 years when wild oats were hand ground by paleolithic hunter gatherers. The popularity of oats grew when the Roman’s introduced it to the British Isles, especially Scotland, where they flourished.

Oats can be grown as a spring cover crop to increase soil organic matter, or sow in late summer to grow a cover crop that forms its own mulch when it is winterkilled, or as a companion crop for slower-growing legumes. Broadcast seed into cultivated soil so that the seeds are about 3 inches apart and one-half inch deep. No thinning is required.

6. Sunflower mural:

As I said earlier, my intention with Unity Art is to use my creative fire to forge a stronger connection between me and the subject. All of the steps up until now have been working on me to form connections, and now I'm ready to honor my subject with my creativity.

I use every skill I have: Creative gardening, preservation, crafting, writing, and painting. I decided to engage my grandsons in some garden art to welcome the birds, so we are painting a small mural of sunflowers on an old board, which I will use to help protect the seeds from greedy ducks!

6. Thanksgiving and sharing:

The culmination of a Unity Art project is to give thanks, and share. At the end of this process, I feel a great gratitude for the seeds, the garden, and the birds.