Evening star., 1948-05-31
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,Uell
@ STREET.

Dear Sir:
Il wish you would tell me how to make bird
bath inexpensively. When go to some of my
friends, they show me their fancy bird baths,
and shudder to think what they would do If
they saw my yard without one.
Il do not feel like inviting them until I get
a bird bath, but at present have no money
to spend for one. Please tell me, if possible,
how may make bird bath at little cost.
1.-THE only requirement is that it look we'll
These people go in for fancy stuff and If they
see mere saucer on the ground, they will
sniff. Oh, not audibly, of course but will get
that sniff, all right
so let me know how to make an inexpensive
bath for the birds, and they and I will thank
you. Very truly, H. NJ"
There are two ways to do this
One is with big flower pot saucer, and the
other is with an ash or garbage can lid.
Maybe friend who has gone in for oil or
gas heat has an old lid around the place
These lids are the right size and especially
the correct depth, not more than inches or
so in the center.
One of these lids. sunk in the ground and
surrounded with a tasty border Of stones,
makes a good bird bath, one liked by the
feathered folk, and also by snooty visitors.
Oh, those snooty garden visitors!
Every one knows two or three, at least.
Fortunately. many of ones visitors are not so.
Most garden visitors tend to enthuse, even
when there is not much to enthuse about.
There will always be a few, however, who
always perform in the same way, in spring or
summer, fall or winter
They start by saying "How wonderful" in
a tone that indicates perfectly that they do
not mean word Of 1t, and then they begin
to tell about the perfection of their own yards.
Nothing one shows equals what they have,
OF course. What they grow is better than Bur-
bank ever knew
They have many cute little ways of remind
ing you that there are bad points to your
flowers and that you should have pruned
when you did not, and that real gardeners
never, never allow nlacs to grow on suckers
All this, and more, in the most polite tones,
not intended to hurt fiy-but just to put you
in your place, place you rapidly 60 into and
stay for the rest of the session.
H*+*
The ash can lid. then, must be camouhaged
perfectly, or these bright ones will spot it
instantly
The stone work around it must be carefully
laid for that uneven perfection which takes
1t out OF the class of q ring into the magic
group of art work.
This is an effect not hard to achieve One
just gets some good stones not too large or too
small, some of one shape and some of another,
and arranges them here bit and there bit,
the end something different from the hard
and fast circle is secured.
few small plants may back up the bath.
Ageratum, petunias, anything low growing,
will do.
Such things have q habit of spreading, 50
they will have to be cut away, from time to
time. Nothing Is worse than to allow such q
bath to be smothered.
Above all, it is necessary to permit it to be
seen from above, where the birds circulate.
That means that the reflection Of water will
pull down not only the birds that summer here,
but also the scores Of warblers. as they pass
over in early spring and in the fall.
These bright spots Of water need not be in
the center Of the yard. however. Few bird
baths look well there. The best place is in q
flower border. sometimes beneath shrubs but
in that case branches must not hang over.
The large flower pot saucer is good, too, and
when sunk in the ground makes an effective
bath. It must be taken up in winter to pre-
vent cracking
One good thing about the can lid is that it
will not suffer from frost At first the water
| should be swept out and changed completely at
| least twice day, to get rid of the excess
| alkali After few weeks this is gone, and the
| bottom takes on an old look. Here is one place
| where that new look" is not desired, so it
| will be q good thing not to invite snooty guests
until the pool bottom looks . little less like
shall We say, . garbage can udf