The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

Garden Gate: Episode 197-Dog Bite Steel (August 28th, 2020)

https://youtu.be/XHaGrlrJeG8 We always have a great time visiting with artists J.P Schoss and Brenda Tucker of Dog Bite Steel.  Our vehicle comes back packed with great pieces!  And they never last long in the shop. Made from recycled propane and oil tanks, these colourful pieces add some quirkiness to your home or garden and are … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 196-Using compressed seed cylinders (Aug 14th 2020)

A few years ago our bird food supplier created these marvelous seed cylinders. They are made with the same great quality bird seed that we receive fresh weekly from Millcreek seed company, located in Ontario. 2-3lbs of quality bird food is compressed into these seed cylinders. Birds such as woodpeckers, blue jays, nuthatches, chickadees, pileated … Read more

All that Glitters IS Gold

American Goldfinches are the latest-breeding songbird species in this area. They molt their feathers a second time in the summer, which is unusual for most bird species and leads to increasingly bright colours as the season progresses. Their song is a cheerful musical babbling, and their flight call – po-ta-to chip! po-ta-to chip! – is … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 193 – Supply and demand (July 3rd 2020)

    We’ve been busier than ever as have similar shops across North America. Just about everyone is putting up bird feeders and enjoying this new very relaxing hobby! Because we’ve all be so busy with this hobby some products are currently in very limited supply. Warehouses have been shut down and are just now … Read more

Lions and Tigers and Chipmunks, oh my!

You’ve likely noticed the usual abundance of squirrels and even more chipmunks than usual this year. Animal populations respond to several things in their environments, and food is a major one. This is nuts! You may recall that 2019 was a great year for flowers. It was also a great one for nut-producing trees, like … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 191 -Decor for your garden (June 5th 2020)

Buy Canadian! All of the wall art that we carry is made in Canada. We have items from Ontario to British Columbia. Beautiful windswept trees, concrete sculptures and super fun and quirky handmade pieces. Some pieces are powder coated steel so need very little care, others do well with a spray of clear coat if … Read more

The Avant-Garden Shop