Good‘s new gardening expert Zoe Carafice is ready and waiting to solve your dilemmas! Each question published on Zoe’s blog or in Good receives a fab prize from Tui Garden. This week: how to attract tui to your garden.
Email your gardening questions to [email protected] and every question answered in Good or on Zoe’s blog will receive a fab prize from Tui Garden Products!
Q: I’m trying to make a bird feeder with sugar water for the tui in my garden. Have you any suggestions? The tui in my garden don’t seem to like anything hanging and therefore swinging from a tree. –Billee
A: Nectar-feeding birds like tui are hungry during the winter when food is in short supply so it’s a great idea to set up a bird feeder for them in your garden. A tui feeder can be as simple as a jar or bowl of sugary water. To make the sugar water, dissolve 1/2 cup sugar in 1 litre of warm water.
You can make a simple feeder using an upside-down plastic bottle with its end sitting in a dish of sugar water. Make two tiny holes in the bottle just under the level of the water – this will allow water to come out of the bottle but not overflow the dish.
If the birds are shy of things swinging from the trees then try attaching your feeder to a board of wood and then nail it to a branch, or wedge it into a tree out of reach of cats. Tuis are attracted to red so you could try a few drops of red food colouring in the sugar water or use a red dish or bottle.
It may take a while for your tuis to gain the confidence but be patient and before long you will be able to sit back and enjoy the show of them feeding in your garden.
–Zoe Carafice
Billee has won a nectar feeder from Tui Garden Products!
Nectar feeding birds such as tui, bellbirds, and waxeyes love sugar water, especially when nectar flowering trees are out of season. This feeder has a patented bee guard which prevents bees and wasps from reaching the nectar.
Simply dissolve 200g of white sugar into 1 litre of warm water, then once cool, pour sugar water into the Tui Nectar Feeder. If possible, place in or near a nectar flowering tree.
Meet Good’s new gardening expert
Zoe Carafice is a landscape designer and photographer. She won gold at the Ellerslie Flower Show in 2007 and has a keen interest in sustainable design and organic gardening.
Email your gardening questions to [email protected] and every question answered in Good or on Zoe’s blog will receive a fab prize from Tui Garden Products!
One question will be featured in each magazine and in each Good Fortnightly e-newsletter. Don’t receive our newsletter? Sign up to get it here!
