Ask the Experts

Backyard buffs solve your garden and birding puzzles.

Q Do you have any tips for planting sunflowers early in the season? Joy Chanin MARIETTA, GEORGIA

Melinda: Consider covering young seedlings to protect them from birds, small mammals and cooler soil temperatures in early spring. Place lightweight floating row covers over new plantings. These fabrics allow air, light and water through, but trap heat around the plants. This speeds seed germination and helps protect young seedlings from unexpected cold weather. The covering also keeps out birds and discourages other animals that may try to snack on your sunflowers.

Q What’s the name of this flowering tree in my yard? Julie Williams BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA

Melinda: Your tree is the invasive princess tree (Paulownia tomentosa). Its ability to produce millions of small winged seeds that are easily spread by the wind helped it spread in the eastern and southern U.S. Its seeds land in forests, stream banks and rocky slopes, where this fast grower crowds out native plants that wildlife depend on for food and shelter. I know removing a beautiful specimen tree is a difficult decision, but you will be helping to preserve natural spaces that are important to birds, bees, butterflies and other beneficial wildlife. Some gardeners severely prune their trees with a technique called pollarding to eliminate the flowers and seeds while encouraging large leaves. This would need to be done yearly to manage this invasive tree. Q What can I use to fix my plastic birdbath with a crack in it? Kathlene Freitas AURORA, COLORADO

Kenn and Kimberly: We applaud your interest in repairing your birdbath rather than simply throwing it away and buying a new one. We’ve had success sealing cracks in birdbaths with clear waterproof silicone glue. It comes in a tube and is available at most hardware or home improvement stores. It’s safe for home use and, as long as you allow ample time for it to dry before refilling the bath with water, it will not pose a threat to birds or other wildlife. Ask a sales associate for guidance in selecting the right product.

Q Can I use the ashes from our winter firewood to improve my veggie garden? Mike Murnock MCKEAN, PENNSYLVANIA

Melinda: Ash does not improve drainage in garden soil. It has a high ph so it should not be added to alkaline soils or worked in around plants like blueberries, red maples, rhododendrons and others that require acidic (low ph) soils. Have your soil tested before adding it to your garden. If the ash is from untreated wood, you can add it to the compost pile. Sprinkle some on each layer as you build your pile. The wood ash helps neutralize the acidic nature of compost. Do not use ashes from charcoal briquettes or treated wood. Q How do I discourage pigeons at my feeders? Vivian Tester BRISTOL, TENNESSEE

Kenn and Kimberly: Pigeons can be a nuisance, especially when they arrive in large flocks, gobbling up loads of seeds. Taking your feeders down for a while is sometimes effective, but there are other options, too. Hanging feeders, especially tube style, are more difficult for pigeons to access. There also are tray-style feeders with cagelike baffles that fit over the top, designed to keep large birds from reaching the seed. Since pigeons prefer to feed on the ground, be sure to keep the area under your feeders clean as well.

Q Why do woodpeckers peck at metal chimney caps, and can I prevent it? James Gates LEMOYNE, PENNSYLVANIA

Kenn and Kimberly: While many birds sing to claim their territories, woodpeckers have a different method. They find a dry, brittle tree limb and drum on it, hammering with rapid bursts. If they find a metal object to drum on, like your chimney cap, it may echo even more loudly than a dead branch. This is usually seasonal behavior and shouldn’t last more than a few weeks. But if you want to take action, buy flexible foam or plastic padding from a hardware store and wrap it around the metal cap. The muffled sound should encourage woodpeckers to drum elsewhere.

Q My sister moved to a new home and found this plant in the backyard. What is it? Lynn Washburn CLEARFIELD, PENNSYLVANA

Melinda: Your sister has a healthy sedum plant. Its height, mature leaf size and shape, and flower can help her narrow down the exact variety. Sedums grow best in full sun with well-draining soil. Some of the taller varieties like Autumn Joy can become floppy when grown in too little sunlight or rich, poor-draining soils. If plants tend to flop, cut them back halfway when they reach 8 inches tall. This supports more compact growth and smaller (but more) flowers that create an impressive display. Q I found something interesting on my shrub. What is it? Marie Kondakor PLANT CITY, FLORIDA

Melinda: That is the fruit of your Surinam cherry shrub. This popular evergreen has long been used in Florida landscapes. Unfortunately, it has escaped from gardens and invaded nearby natural areas in southern Florida. Gardeners in central and northern Florida may continue to grow the plant but should monitor for future invasive problems and warnings. Just to be safe, prune your plant to prevent any fruiting and remove the fruits that do appear. However, gardeners in southern Florida should remove this invasive plant and replace it with a native or noninvasive shrub.

Q Should I remove the empty sunflower shells under my feeder and, if so, can I use them as mulch? Paula Ruelius ENOLA, PENNSYLVANIA

Kenn and Kimberly: Sunflower seed shells may collect on the ground under your feeders, and there’s no need to remove them right away. Many birds are more comfortable feeding on the ground, and they’ll rummage through the shells looking for morsels that other birds have missed. But if the debris is more than an inch or two deep, you should remove it since it can get moldy or spread diseases.

Melinda: Sunflowers, including their seeds, are allelopathic. That means they contain chemicals that stunt or kill some sensitive plants that may come in contact with them. I often would recommend removing the shells and adding them to your compost pile. Once they’re fully decomposed, they will not pose a threat to other plants.

Q There are vines that grow in my rose bushes every year. How do I get rid of them? Leonard Belson LUBBOCK, TEXAS

Melinda: Sounds as if a perennial vine has made a home in your rose garden. Cutting it back at ground level as soon as growth appears can eventually kill the plant, but you will need to be more persistent than this weed. If allowed to grow and form leaves, it will produce enough energy to keep itself alive. Applying a total vegetation killer that affects above and below ground growth is an option, but you must protect your roses since these products kill any plant they touch.

I often cut aggressive weeds back to the ground. When one sprouts, I cover it with a soda bottle or milk jug with the bottom removed and spray the weed through the opening on top, containing the weed killer to the weed. Let the solution dry before removing the covering to avoid spreading chemicals to a desirable plant. Always read directions carefully before spraying.

Q I came across this oriole look-alike. What is it? Kelly Schmitz CHILTON, WISCONSIN

Kenn and Kimberly: You’re right to tag it as an oriole: It’s a young male orchard oriole. In their first year, male orchard orioles look like females, sporting yellow-green feathers. Sometime that fall, they develop a black mask and they’ll look like the bird in your photo for the next 12 months.

In the fall of their second year, they molt their feathers again, finally donning their rich chestnut and black mature feathers. Orchard orioles used to be rare in Wisconsin, but in recent years they have been extending their range northward, so you may start to see them more often.

Q I divided my purple toadflax and had an amazing color variation last spring. How do I propagate it? Trish Elemont DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MICHIGAN

Melinda: Purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea) is a vigorous perennial that readily self-seeds. Its seedlings may look exactly like the parent plant or exhibit other traits, like the color variations you observed. It’s also possible your original plant mutated and flowers are now a different color. Allow the unique plants to grow, watch for the desired flower color and mark the plants you want to propagate. Divide these plants to start new ones in an effort to maintain the color variation.

Q A bird a little larger and darker than a robin was checking out a nest on my grill. What kind of nest could it be? Judith Jackson DOVER, PENNSYLVANIA

Kenn and Kimberly: Nests and eggs are almost always much harder to identify than adult birds and, in this case, we can’t know for sure what species is involved. But only a few kinds of birds are likely to nest on a grill. House finches have a similar-looking nest and bluish eggs, but those eggs usually have fewer dark spots. Carolina wren eggs usually aren’t so blue and have significant reddish spotting. Chipping sparrows, house sparrows and starlings are other possibilities that don’t quite match. The bird you saw by the grill probably wasn’t the bird that laid the eggs; it might have been a cowbird coming to check out the nest.