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Welcome to the Simple garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yart

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competti. Hello and
welcome everybody to the Simple garden Life Podcast.

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I am Jim competting along with my
wife Mary, Mary. How are

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you doing today? I'm doing great? How about you? I cannot believe

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it, but this is our last
podcast of our third season. Been crazy

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that we've been doing this now for
three years and really looking forward to the

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fourth season next year. We have
some great new topics coming out, all

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kinds of things about starting seeds and
growing you know, vegetables and flowers,

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just a little bit more of what
we've been doing in the last three years.

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Right. We absolutely love talking about
gardening, but there's some other topics

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that we like talking about as well. Yeah, there are, and you

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know, especially in the winter time, we talk about birds. Bird articles

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on our sites always seem to do
really well, and that's because so many

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people and gardeners, you know,
love to feed birds and they know the

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benefits birds can bring, that's right, from help to pollinate flowers vegetables to

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eating insects. Birds are really beneficial
to everybody. Oh yeah, absolutely.

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I mean they can help control mosquitos, they can help control ticks, and

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as you said, you know humming
birds. There's so many birds that do

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so many great things for garters.
It's a little wonder that they love to

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take care of them. And there's
no better time to help birds than in

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the winter when they can really struggle, especially you know, birds that for

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some reason won't choose to fly south
migrate. Yeah, so there is a

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portion of birds and you know it
when you look outside that decide, you

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know, to stay where they're at, and those birds can struggle. You

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know, you have cardinals and blue
jays and that. The list can go

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on and on. But in the
winter time. We often hear this whenever

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we put an article out. Sometimes
you'll always get one comment back. It's

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like, I don't know why we
have to help birds or animals. They've

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been doing this their entire lives.
They should, you know, for centuries,

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and they don't need help. The
problem is the birds don't live in

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the same environment in a lot of
communities that they used to live in thousands

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of years ago, right where there
used to be lots of trees, forest

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protection. There are now homes,
streets and cars, and a lot less

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chances for food and a lot more
chances that a hungry eagle or a hungry

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hawk can find them. So they
do need help, and it can be

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a struggle, especially during bad winters. And that's why feeding you know,

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birds in the winter time is probably
more important. It is more important than

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any other time of the year.
You know, in the spring, summer,

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and fall, they have access to
all kinds of insects, all kinds

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of food, nuts, berries.
In the wintertime, those disappear, right.

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They're very hard to find under especially
snow blanketed areas. You know,

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they don't have the protection. They
have to be out there so other animals

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can see them. So it's a
very dangerous time for birds. Yeah,

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and then to take matters into their
hands, you know, Unlike squirrels who

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can store some food away for themselves, birds don't do that. They can't

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do that. So they wake up
every morning with one thing in mind,

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survival. And that means they have
to find enough to eat to keep their

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bodies warm, and then they have
to fill themselves up enough to keep their

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bodies warm overnight. And when you
talk about expending energy. Birds most species

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will burn more energy in the winter
than they do in the summer months,

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because they're just trying to stay warm, you know, and they don't have

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that ability in the wintertime. So, you know, I think we've established

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why feeding them as important. But
also there's the joy and the fun of

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it. For a lot of gardeners, I know, we're the same way.

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There's something special about looking out on
that barren landscape and seeing your bird

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feeder filled with cardinals or blue jays
or you know. They add a little

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bit of life to winter. Absolutely, and you'll see all windows across America

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or even around the world to have
bird feeders out there, even if you're

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not a gardener. Everybody likes to
see the birds coming and you know,

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feeding off the feed that they get
in the bird feeders. Oh absolutely,

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So let's cover that. That's what
we're going to talk about today, is

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the best way to help feed birds
in the winter and help them stay alive

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so that they're around next spring to
help out. And you know, as

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we always say, you know,
we'll have all of our notes on simple

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Garden Life on the article. You
can always find it on the site.

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You feel free to email us at
the farm at ow garden dot com if

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you have any questions or suggestions.
We still have some open slots next year

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for some podcast titles, so always
feel free to drop us a line.

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We love being able to do this. And today's topic we'll get into now,

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which is how to feed these birds
and keep them alive until next spring.

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All right, Mary, We will
cover you know, some of the

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extra things a little bit later,
but let's start off with talking about you

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know, what feeds and seeds are
most important and are the best to feed

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birds, because that is really the
best way to help them out. Absolutely,

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there's all types of products. I'll
the market of what type of bird

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seed, bird feed, but they're
really anything that is a high calorie,

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high fat bird feed is the best. Yeah, you're looking for things that

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are going to give them a quick
boost of energy that they can eat and

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it's going to power them up.
And there's some of the best of the

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best. And really when it comes
to number one on the list, and

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we talk about this sunflower seeds,
but a special variety which are black oil.

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Sunflower seeds black oil are just loaded
with fat. They're the most nutritious

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of all sunflower seeds, and they
exactly let they sound. They're that dark

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black sunflower. You can find them
in twenty five pound bags. We'll have

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some links on the side if you
need to buy them online, but they're

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usually in local feed stores. You
know, they double the calorie content of

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a traditional sunflower most seeds. Now
people say, well, should I not

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be feeding them regular sunflower seeds?
They are still extremely nutritious, right,

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It just happens to be that the
black oil sunflower seed has double the calories

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that a typical stripe sunflower seed has. Absolutely, and you just want to

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make sure that they're included in your
feeds. So we're going to go through

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these feeds and people always ask,
well, should I just feed them that?

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And the answer to that is no. You want to have, you

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know, a variety. First of
all, different birds prover different things.

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But the more variety, it's just
like a human diet. You know,

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if you eat all, you know, oranges every day, that may be

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great invited and seeing anything else,
but it's not going to give you everything

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you need. So you want to
have a little variety, right, You

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need a more complex diet. So
beyond black oil sunflower seeds, next on

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that list, believe or not,
or something that everybody enjoys usually are peanuts.

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Peanuts another think about the oil that
are in peanuts. You can open

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up a peanut butter jar and you
see that oil right on top right now.

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Again, also high calorie, high
fat, it is, it is,

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and so different things for different birds
though. So if you have blue

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jays, blue jays are notorious for
absolutely loving peanuts. Unfortunately, blue jay's

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and we have an article on this, can sometimes get a little bit aggressive

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in protecting that food source from other
birds. So blue jays love whole peanuts,

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and so if you can get like
what they call them blue jay feeders

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or sock feeders and fill them with
peanuts and put them in another location,

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they'll tend to go there. They
love cracking them open and eating them.

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And then for your other birds in
your feeds, if you can mix some

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peanut pieces whole peanuts cracked peanuts,
that makes them go a little bit longer.

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But either way, you're giving all
of those birds a lot of food

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and a lot of high energy,
high fat, which is exactly what the

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end of needs. So we've talked
about sunflower seeds and black oil is the

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best peanuts now that the peanuts are
can being left in the shell. Oh

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absolutely, for the For the blue
jays, it's perfect and most birds will

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still get them. But like I
said, sometimes it's nice with them in

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the winter to put them in a
separate area, so you're getting those blue

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jays a little bit farther away.
So the third one, and this is

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a really good one, but another
one that you don't want to use just

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by itself, but crackcorn. You
know, crack corn is good for a

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lot of reasons. First of all, it's great on your budget. It's

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one of the cheaper bird feeds that
you can use. You know, a

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lot of people feed it to their
chickens. We have for years and why

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because it gives them that big boost
of energy and help keep them warm in

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the winter. Does the same thing
for birds. Not quite as much as

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the sunflower seeds and the peanuts,
but pretty high source. But when you

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count in that, it is pretty
caloric and that has a lot of carbs

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and it can help them and then
you're not pain as much. It's a

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nice feed to mix in there,
right, And this is a good you

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know, like you said, it's
good to have a mixture of all three

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of the black oil, sunflower seeds, the peanuts, and the crack corn,

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because you do want to attract different
varieties of birds and try to feed

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everybody that you can during the winter. Yeah, it's really true. So

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I'll tell you what those are.
Some three we call them the big three,

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I guess, and the really three
mains. We're going to come back.

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We're going to take a quick break
and we're going to talk about some

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other things to supplement in there that
can really help. And then also we're

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going to talk about helping them out
with something that people forget about in the

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winter, which is how important water
is still to birds. You know,

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in fact, it's more important.
It helps you know, they have to

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be hydrated in order to be able
to eat the food and burn the energy.

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So we'll cover those and ways to
help them right after this, and

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we are back talking about birds and
feeding them and keeping them alive. And

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you know, we covered the main
feeds that you want to have in that

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feed er. You know, sunflower
seeds, the black oil, the best

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crackcorn, and then peanuts. Those
are all good. Any type of nuts

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they're going to love. But supplementing
the feeds is an important way it keeps

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just think about again humans, you
know, we like to have something a

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little bit different now and then.
Yeah, so for birds, one of

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the things they love in the summertime
obviously are the berries and the nuts.

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And there are some berries available in
the winter, you know, bushes,

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you'll see them a lot of times
they're dried, but as the winter goes

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on, there's less and less and
less available. So that's something you can

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really put in, whether it's dried
fruit, dried fruit pieces, mix that

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into your feed. They absolutely love
that same thing with nuts. Those are

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two of the best, right and
you know, having that variety and that

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mixture can give them a boost of
energy, but it helps them survive through

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the winter, which is so important. And you know, instead of just

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putting everything in a bird feeder,
you can also it's beneficial to scatter some

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on the ground as well. There
are ground feeding birds and that is a

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great point it kind of especially when
feeders can get busy in the winter time.

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It gives multiple places for the birds
to be able to feed, and

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there are some birds that prefer be
down, especially if there tends to be

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a few aggressive birds up top and
it does help, You're right, especially

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when you get snowpack. It can
be on top and give them something right,

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and birds naturally will scrape some down
and drop them on the ground,

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So that helps. But when you
first fill your bird feeder, scattering you

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know a handful or two below it
is going to be beneficial as well.

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Yeah, absolutely, So you know
you get past that and you think about

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it. The next best thing,
well, I shouldn't see the next It's

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actually a great thing is sue it. And a lot of people love you

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know. You see the sew it
blocks, you'll see them store. Sometimes

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they'll have the seeds cover them.
They put them in the shapes of cakes,

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yeah, bells, or they're very
nice. But they are such a

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vital source of nutrients for birds.
You know, you can actually make your

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own at home. We actually have
an article on Simple Garden Life on how

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to make your own sewet blocks.
If you just go to the search bar

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and type in sue it, it'll
be right there. But boy, all

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it is is a rendered fat and
then a bunch of food bird seed.

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It might be the sun our seeds. It might be cracked corn, it

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might be dried fruits. All gelled
into that. They're much better to use

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in the in the cold months,
the winter months, because they do go

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bad quite quickly from the heat.
So a lot of people do not feed

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in the winter or excuse me,
in the summer with those. But ah,

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the birds absolutely love them. It's
it's a huge energy source for them.

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Yeah, we actually used to make
our own with the kids when they

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were little. We just take pine
cones and we'd slather peanut butter between there

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and then dalse them in the seeds
and hang them out on the trees.

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It's a great way and I'm glad
you brought that up because you know,

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you can use your imagination when you're
feeding birds. It doesn't have to be

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a purchase suet block, it doesn't
have to be a bird feeder. You

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can make your own tray feeders,
you can make your own sew it.

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The peanut butter example is fantastic,
and take pine cones or just a great

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vessel and you can hang them and
then you can, like you said,

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sprinkle them with other types of nuts
or just the peanut butter. Trust me,

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they're going to like that as well. But it's just a great way

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to keep the birds So we've talked
about some of the best foods of all

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and those really are the cream of
the crop. And you can purchase seeds

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with that mixture in there, or
a portion of that mixture. But just

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when you're when you're looking for winter
feeds and you're looking at specific products,

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just look out for the fillers.
You know, so many times there's so

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many fillers throwing it there are just
of no value. And if you see

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at the end of a week in
the winter time especially, there's a bunch

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of leftover stuff underneath your feeder,
that's that's filler, and they're not going

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to eat it, and you're paying
for that and they're not eating it.

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So that's why making your own or
mixing some of your own with some of

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these great seeds can really go a
long way. Right, And again,

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look for a high calorie, high
fat seed nuts on berries and just like

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people, you know, that's our
comfort food in the wintertime. Yep is

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it is? So all right,
So we've talked about the feed. Now

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let's get into that water subject.
And Mary, I think we had a

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question that probably leads right into that
perfectly our question of the week this week,

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right, it comes from Karen from
Traverse City, Michigan. She asked,

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I know water is important for birds, but I can't keep my bird

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bathroom freezing over in the winter.
That would be a problem Michigan. Yeah,

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do you have any suggestions for how
I can keep fresh water available?

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Yeah, well, Michigan, it's
a problem in a while too. Yeah,

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it does get cold. So a
couple things here. A great,

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great, great question, Karen.
By the way, so a lot of

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people don't even leave their bird baths
out. They might be stone, they

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might be very worried about them cracking
from that ice. There's a couple solutions.

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But also I want to explain something
about birds that a lot of people

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don't realize. In the winter,
Let's first talk about the bird bath.

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If it can handle being outside and
it freezes over, it's still important.

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We'll cover that in one second.
But if you really want to, there

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are bird bath heaters. If you
have the ability to have something plugged in

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that you can put it in there
and it'll keep that water through the coldest

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temperatures, keeps it fresh. They
can come down and get it, they

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can still use it. A lot
of people do that. There's actually just

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electric ones you can put on your
deck that can hold water. However,

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and this is important, understand that
birds can still get hydration from frozen water.

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You know, they will come down, they will peck at it.

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They will you know, chickenis are
great for this. They're gonna take it

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right off. They're gonna take the
snow they're gonna get, so don't worry

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as much. However, it's nice
to have some type of a source of

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water out there. So even if
you have to bring your bird feeder in,

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take a pail out there and it
may freeze over, but they're still

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going to be able to get some
hydration from it until it freezes in after

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it freezes too. But water is
extremely important. If they don't have access

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to it, they're gonna struggle.
Right. We get the question a lot

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too of should I put warm water
out or cold water? You know what,

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just put out normal normal cold water. You don't have to heat it.

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It's not actually good for them,
just just normal water. It's going

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to freeze a little bit. Again, they can still get hydration from the

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frozen water. If you have a
lot of snowpack on the ground. Don't

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worry. They're getting their water right
there there. You know, they're taking

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that snow in it and doing it. So that's that's really good from from

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the standpoint of water. Now let's
talk about you know, the shelter.

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So birds other than chickadees. Chickadees
will believe it or not, find bird

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houses in the winter and use them. The whole has to be like an

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inch and a quarter to an inch
and at eight they'll use it. And

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chickeny's crazy, it sounds they'll store
some food in there too if they can.

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Yes, squirrels and other things kind
of find that out at the points,

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but they will use that. So
you know, if you have a

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couple of small houses, leave them
out, that's fine, but it's where

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you locate them. And it's also
the things that you can do other than

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birdhouses that can really help birds.
Biggest thing of all is like ornamental grasses,

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perennial bushes, things, thickets.
Those if they can at all be

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left up over the winter, will
do more to help your birds than anything

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else. Yeah, they'll use that
as a shelter absolutely. You know,

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they're looking for a place at night
in the middle day to stay stay warm

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and to stay safe, stay hidden
from other predators. Yeah, I mean,

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you know, there's nothing that sticks
out like a small bird with a

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snow background to a hawk, and
you know, it's this whole thing of

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nature. I mean, you can't
blame the hawk hungry too, and he's

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looking for his food. But if
you're trying to help these birds out and

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you have your feeders right out in
the middle of the open, it's it's

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putting them at risk too. So
yeah, you have to think about that.

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And you talked about the grasses,
and those are huge because if you

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can keep them up, not only
does it give them the shelter at night

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where they can hide out and stay
a little bit warmer and give them a

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wind break, it also protects them
from predators and so very very big and

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very key to do that. As
far as additional houses for other birds,

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we've had that ask before and they're
not going to use them. You know,

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they're going to find nature as their
best best way to kind of stay

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safe. So that's where it's really
important. And then last, but not

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least, I just want to kind
of cover this people ask about and we've

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done several articles on this about you
know, the beloved squirrel who also he

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also likes the nuts and seeds.
Yes, we have a walk that Mary

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and I take every day in the
winter time and we pass a bird feeder

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that's up on a window sill about
two feet from a tree, second story

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windows, second story windows still and
we laugh because every single day the same

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squirrels up. They're just going to
town. He's like, I love this,

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you know, and you have to
be caroling. Yes, they're going

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to take some feed. But there
are ways to help here, you know,

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locating your if you if you have
a feeder that you're trying to put

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them in, putting a squirrel baffle, which is basically an upside down cone,

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and as long as your pulls five
and a half to six feet tall

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your bird feeder, they're not going
to be able to spring up to that

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and get underneath it. That's a
great way to protect it. Now,

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there are some Houdini squirrels that can
navigate it, but to help protect most

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00:17:29,559 --> 00:17:33,680
of them, Yeah, and you
can get squirrel proof feeders. But again,

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the word squirrel proof is kind of
funny to me because there are some

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amazing squirrels that even find their way
into those. It helps you know,

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what the best way to protect your
bird feed and it's very easy to do

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00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,559
and it sounds crazy. Is if
you have a little cayenne pepper, you

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know, when you get your bird
seed, mix that in. It's really

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00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:56,319
crazy. But you know, to
us and to mammals, heat the CAPSI

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00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:00,400
in there hurts and you know it's
a little hot on the tongue and squirrels

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don't like that. Crazy as it
sounds, it doesn't affect the birds in

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00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:04,880
the least. So you you know, mix a little in there. They

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00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:10,039
even make hot pepper bird foods.
If squirrels are a real issue for you,

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that is the answer they I know, but it's not. It doesn't

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hurt anybody, even makes the squirrels
go away a little bit. So hey,

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there's some of our favorite winter tips
for birds. And like I said,

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you know, this is the last
of our season three. We're really

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excited for next year as well.
We have a lot of fun doing this

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00:18:30,319 --> 00:18:33,920
and love hearing your comments and suggestions. So again, you can email us

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00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,920
at the farm at Old World Garden
or excuse me, the farm at ow

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00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,119
Garden and just you know, reach
out to us and let us know what

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00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:44,720
you're thinking. We love to hear
from you. Mary. This has been

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00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,359
a great season. I'm really rewarding, exciting. We've got a lot of

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new followers and a lot of great
topics for next year. Absolutely all right,

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I think it's time remember whatever you
do, find the fun and gardening

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00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:57,359
and grow something beautiful. Happy guardening
everyone. We hope you've enjoyed this episode.

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00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,319
Subscribe to the Simple Garden podcast on
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00:19:02,759 --> 00:19:06,599
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to simplegardenlife

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00:19:06,599 --> 00:19:08,759
dot com where you can listen and
read all of the show notes to every

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00:19:08,799 --> 00:19:12,759
episode. And if you have any
questions, any ideas for show topics,

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00:19:14,039 --> 00:19:15,960
or if you want to share your
favorite garden tip, email us at the

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00:19:17,039 --> 00:19:21,440
farm at owgarden dot com. Until
next time, Thanks everyone,