The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

Garden Gate: Episode 89 – Michael Measure from FLAP

CHEX TV airdate: May 13th, 2016 To watch this episode online click link. Michael Measure directpr from FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program) is my guest on this episode of The Garden Gate. An estimated 1 to 10 birds die per building, per year. The City of Toronto has over 950,000 registered buildings that could potentially … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 87 – Where have all the swallows gone? Guest Drew Monkman

CHEX TV airdate: April 15th, 2016 Click link to watch this episode online Swallows, purple martins, chimney swifts have all been declining in numbers for a number of years. In my own backyard I had a couple of families filling my wonderful apartment bird house. But for the last 4 or 5 years I’ve had … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 86 – Pine Siskins with guest Drew Monkman

Chex TV airdate: April 1st, 2016 Click link to watch this episode online. Local Naturalist and author Drew Monkman is my guest on this episode. Drew helps us understand why we’ve had so many Pine Siskins at our feeders this year. He also points out the differences between Pine Siskins and Gold finches. These two … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 78 – Squirrel Busters

sb+CHEX TV airdate: December 11th, 2015 5-6pm Squrrel Buster Bird feeders Yes, they really are squirrel proof! Guaranteed! We have been carrying the Squirrel Buster line of bird feeders for MANY years. ?People are initially skeptical about the feeders, but once they see how well they work, they love them! There are 7 different styles available including 5 for mixed seed, 1 for finch seed and 1 for peanuts. You can keep all of your birds happy and even exclude a few that you enjoy less. Squirrels will try to get into the seed but are unable to get anything so give up! You know how smart they are! If they can’t get food they’re going to go someplace else to have their dinner! Watch this episode to learn more about these awesome feeders.

Garden Gate: Episode 71 – Susan Chan, Importance of Bees

CHEX TV airdate: Sept. 4th, 5-6pm Click here to watch this episode online. honey-bee_shutterstock_56017861_300Sue Chan is an expert on bees. Her life is buzzing all the time! Sue works for a variety of organizations including Farms at Work. (http://www.farmsatwork.ca/about-us) ?It was with that organization that she wrote a booklet about bees called A Landowner’s Guide to Conserving Native Pollinators.(Available at The Avant-Garden Shop for just $10.00) ? On this episode of The Garden Gate , we talked about why bees are so important, how they are affected by neonicotinoids, and also what types of plants they like. We carry bee houses at the shop as well which we also talked about. ?These bee houses are made locally and are meant for mason bees to lay eggs in. ?Putting up a variety of “houses” for the bees will help them to increase in numbers and pollinate your plants!

Garden Gate: Episode 69-Quality suet, with Mark Bennett from Millcreek seed

SuetFeeder 7506CHEX TV airdate: August 7th, 2015 Click link to watch this episode. You might think that there is no difference in our suet vs. box store suet. ?Well there is! ?A BIG difference. Mark Bennett from Wildbird Trading and Millcreek seed shares his vast knowledge of suet with us on this episode of The Garden Gate. His suet is made with peanut meal instead of corn meal. ?Box stores mostly use corn meal. ?Corn meal goes moldy and birds don’t like it. They prefer nut meal. I’d prefer nuts over dry corn any day! In addition they have studied closely what nutrition birds need and what they love. ?Millcreek seed has devised many different varieties of suet for a wide variety of birds. ?For example the Fruit and Nut suet is an Oriole favourite in the spring. ?The Baby birthday suet is specially formulated for parent birds to feed to their babies. FULL of nutrition. They devour this one. There is also a Summer Nut suet which is very dense and won’t melt in the warm days of summer! ?Many other varieties to choose from. fatball-feeder-ring-bTune in, then drop by to see the wide varieties of suet available.

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