Sunflower power...
AUTUMN is a beautiful season – a walk in the sunshine on a crisp cold morning does wonders for your spirits. As we head into winter, caring for and watching garden birds is a great way to bring joy and a sense of wellbeing into our lives.
Keen to attract more feathered friends into my garden, I had a chat with fourth-generation farmer Nicholas Watts, who has been working the land at Vine House Farm in Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire, since he was a boy.
Nicholas grows acres of food for birds but his farm is also a haven for them. He does all he can to help birds thrive including creating different habitats, installing bird boxes and digging ponds.
His interest in ornithology has led to an MBE for his wildlife conservation work and wildlifefriendly farm management.
In summer, the fields at Vine House Farm are awash with sunflowers. Nicholas grows 100 acres of these show-stopping blooms, which are harvested to make bird food every autumn.
“It all started when my wife and I went on holiday and my wife took a fancy to some rogue wild sunflowers,” Nicholas says. “I was dispatched to pick a couple of heads and we brought them back and sowed them in the garden.
“That autumn the garden was alive with birds. I said to my wife, ‘Look we want to be growing sunflowers’ – so the next year we had our first crop and it’s gone on from there.”
So how does Nicholas transform his acres of flowers into bird seed?
“We harvest the sunflowers with an ordinary combine. Then we clean the food and make it pure.
“The birds wouldn’t mind the bits of chaff and that sort of thing but we are not selling birdseed to birds – we are selling it to discerning customers.”
Nicholas says that a wide range of birds enjoy sunflower hearts, peanuts (not salted), fat and live mealworms, but which birds we see in our gardens will depend on where we live.
“It is no good trying to attract something that’s not in your neighbourhood”, says Nicholas,
“But with the right foods you could see blackbirds, robins, chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches blue tits, long-tailed tits and great tits in your garden.”
Nicholas has been looking after wild birds for many years but he still looks forward to seeing the new generation visiting his farm.
“When you’ve been feeding birds and they bring their young back, it really puts a smile on your face.”
Every purchase of bird food from Vine House Farm raises money for conservation charity The Wildlife Trusts. See wildlifetrusts.org/vine-housefarm for more information.