Hearts and Wings for Spring

 Spring arrives this week in our hemisphere, and I've been busily preparing. In stolen moments between my creative tasks in my studio, I've been doing garden tasks, including clearing out, organizing seeds, repotting existing plants, and sowing. 

some of the things I grow

I've been a home gardener (but far from an expert) for many years. My favorite things to grow are herbs, fruits, vegetables, and exotic flowers. And, let's face it, with the current national and international climate, now more than ever, I'm shooting to have an abundant garden of food to eat and hopefully, share.

I don't posess acreage. And almost all my plants are forced to exist in pots. But I make it work. And an important part of my "micro garden" is the pollinators that visit it. I am intentional about including flowers and foliage that attracts (and are beneficial to) pollinators such as bees and birds. And most years, even though the maintenance is extra work, I put out several hummingbird feeders. 

a visitor from a
previous season

Hummingbirds and I go way back. They were my grandmother's favorite bird. She grew gladiolus because she loved them, but the birds loved them, too. And to this day my mother tells the story of a tiny hummingbird that flew up and hovered in front of her as she stepped outside the day of my grandmother's funeral. 

But I digress. Over the winter, I stumbled onto an article that advised hanging something called nesting balls near your home to attract more hummingbirds. In all these years, I'd never heard of the concept. Nesting balls are hanging balls of wire or twine stuffed with natural odds and ends that hummers would use to build nests. Natural things like leaves, twigs, moss, and flowers are stuffed into the ball, and the birds arriving in springtime can pluck the materials from the nesting balls to build their nests nearby. The balls can be found to purchase online.

Anyway, though I'm not convinced the birds would even notice such a thing, it sounded like a cute concept, so I set out to make my own. Once I decided to do this, I happened to stumble onto the perfect woven wire and willow hearts.

 

the hearts came from Dollar Tree!

I had set my mind on getting some wired twine (which you can use if you can't find these hearts). But these practically fell into my basket at my local Dollar (twenty-five) store.

Today, as luck would have it, I found a few minutes to gather some all-natural things to go into the hearts, and my niece to help me do this project. 

my niece prepares to stuff her heart

I grabbed a recycled container and went foraging. I managed to gather lots of moss, tiny twigs, dried grasses, feathers, wild violets and leaves. In the process, my niece and I examined several items of interest: a big bed of moss, a fallen carpenter bee (not sure whether he was asleep or 💀), some wild mushrooms, acorns, and ferns growing along the banks of a nearby creek.

seen while foraging

Once we had collected enough, we sat down with the hearts, the things for stuffing, and some salvaged plastic forks to push things into the hearts. 

     

a bud from the tulip tree

the nature haul

natural nesting things

 

This turned out to be lots of unexpected fun. My niece did great, carefully adding pieces to her nesting heart. And I enjoyed assembling mine. So even if the hummingbirds pay these things no mind, we enjoyed creating them. 

the process seemed similar
to kokedama

 

my niece made sure to
include flowers

 

all finished

 

 

closeup

hung and waiting
for visitors

This was a fun spring project. If you're also inspired to create a nesting ball, you don't have to have this exact heart shape. A twig decor ball (the kind sold in a home decor store) or wired twine to create your own ball would work. Also, please remember to stuff it with only natural materials that can be used by the birds to build nests. Google "hummingbird nesting ball" to learn more!

Happy Spring!