The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

GARDEN GATE: Episode 257 The best suet for winter feeding (Jan 13, 2023)

In the colder months, suet and peanuts are excellent sources of fat for the birds. This helps to keep them warm during long cold winter nights. The suet attracts blue jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and other feathered friends. Our suet is super quality. There is no filler in it. Often times cornmeal is used to … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 256-Bird seed for winter feeding (Dec 23, 2022)

Where you buy your bird seed really does matter. If you’re going to take the time to set up a bird feeding station or bird feeder, you want to use the best seed possible. Box store seed often contains a lot of filler. Seeds such as wheat and red milo are not eaten by birds … Read more

Garden Tips: Attracting birds to your yard in the winter

People often ask why they don’t have many backyard birds in the winter. Here, we explore some of the many reasons why this might be. Birds need food, water, and suitable habitat year-round. The more of these available in your yard, and the better quality they are, the more likely you are to attract more … Read more

GARDEN GATE: Episode 255 – Time to puzzle (Dec 16, 2022)

  As the nights get longer, it’s the perfect time to crack open a new puzzle. If you’re like me, its something to get you away from the TV and focused on something different. The puzzles we carry are beautiful. Art pieces in fact! Many have stories attached. For example, in this episode there is … Read more

GARDEN GATE: Episode 253 – Woodstock wind chimes (Nov 4, 2022)

We’ve been carrying this beautiful line of wind chimes for many years! Woodstock Chimes are the original musically tuned windchime. They are tuned to beautiful melodies and scales from around the world. When listening to a Woodstock Chime you’re hearing a perfectly tuned musical instrument played by the wind. They are aluminum so won’t rust … Read more

GARDEN GATE: Episode 252 – Fun mismatched socks (Oct 21, 2022)

Our Solmate socks from The Socklady have been one of our most popular items for many years. Lots of fun colours. Well made and durable. And MISMATCHED! “Because life’s too short for matching socks!” As a Certified B Corporation®, The Socklady does business a little differently. Knowing that fashion and sustainability go hand-in-hand, they understand … Read more

Evening Grosbeak & Purple Finch irruption 2022

A Spruce Budworm outbreak in northern areas meant a lot of food for Evening Grosbeaks and Purple Finches this year. That, coupled with a smaller mast (seed and nut) crop, means there are more individuals of these species than there is food to support them, so many will move father south than usual this winter … Read more

GARDEN GATE – Episode 251: Mailboxes and Address plaques (Oct 7, 2022)

Time to freshen up the outside of your home! We have beautiful quality mailboxes that really enhance the look of your home. Cast aluminum so they won’t rust. A great size to hold lots of mail and small parcels. Newspaper hooks included. There are a few styles and colours available as well as horizontal and … Read more

That’s great!

Did you know that Peterborough was certified by Nature Canada as a bird-friendly city last year? Bird Friendly Peterborough worked hard for this and provides resources to support us in supporting birds. Bird Friendly Peterborough recently held a contest to select Peterborough’s first official city bird, and the winner was recently announced… The Great Blue … Read more

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