Birds are the most amazing little home builders. Their little nests may be simple in that they are constructed with twigs, grass, hair, mud and even dryer lint. But they are architectural masterpieces that can withstand wind, rain and most anything nature can throw at them.
Sometimes they are damaged or blown down, but very few if you were to go by the community of bird homes nested in the trees in our yard. Some of the nests have been there for years and every year a new family of birds moves in, lay their eggs, hatch, feed and then fly away.
Another thing birds are really great at is recycling. Just think of all the materials used to build their nests, most if not all of it is from nature or discarded by humans. Our industrious feathered friends are more than happy to take what we cast off and use it to build there perfect little homes.
After finding this lovely little nest in our crepe myrtle right outside our garage I was inspired to create a nest of my own of sorts. You see, I have all these wonderful wire baskets and I don’t always have the moss or coconut liner needed to hold all the dirt in, and without it all the dirt falls out.
Because I don’t like to look at all the dead leaves laying at the base of the day lilies so I’m always picking up and discarding the dried up scapes and leaves. After seeing that nest it occurred to me that instead of putting all this in the compost pile, maybe it can be put to a better use…right?
So I grabbed my favorite rust covered wire basket, built a birds nest in it then filled that nest with some nice fertile soil…
then planted a couple of ferns it…
and there you have it!
a perfect little nest for my ferns! I’m off to make more bird nests in a few more baskets.
Oh and the sweet little nest I shared at the top of this post is being well tended these days by the sweetest little mama bird.
peace.love.rust.
