One of our employees offered a great tip yesterday and I was wondering to myself why I hadn't thought of it. Once her hanging annual baskets die in the fall, she removes the plants leaving the soil behind in the basket. She then pours bird seed on top of the soil to feed the birds. I thought it was a great idea, one that we will surely implement in our yard next fall.

Now we can leave our shepherd hooks with hanging baskets full of soil intact in our yard each fall. We only have so many trees to hang feeders from and it seems like we are blessed with more and more feathered friends each year that feeding space becomes limited.

We plan on pouring safflower seed in some of the baskets as squirrels don't particularly like safflower seed.  We will probably try some sunflower seed just to see the commotion caused by the squirrels. I would think any seed would work. The real plus by utilizing the hanging baskets is I don't have to store them through the winter!