will this work?

[cyras21]

First of all, I don't know the first thing about birds. What I'm wanting to do is create a sort of bird garden. What I mean is I'm planting wild flowers and want to put various bird houses in the mix. I was thinking about 10 or so of various heights and sizes. Will birds nest in these houses with them being so close to each other?

[spleengirl]

Hello there

You have made a brilliant choice, bird gardening is so much more interesting than TV!

I am in England, I don't think you are but I would say not to put next boxes too close togeather. I have two that are only a metre apart and only one was filled this year by tits, although I saw lots of birds investigating both types!

Lots of native plants and perching places help - they perch on the perches and see that it is safe before jumping to the ground. Also beware of cats. I have 3 cat scarers (sonic) which seem to work ok but we do still get them. I have just got a water soaker though. If you have cats make sure they wear bells! Have a look at the nestboxes on www.wigglywigglers.co.uk ( might be .com) they give loads of information. Good luck!

[cyras21]

i don't have any cats but I do have 2 dogs and my yard is fenced in. I wasn't planning on putting any houses on the ground. what I was thinking was planting those wild flowers that grow about a foot high and in the midst of them i was gonna drive steaks into the ground and the houses would be mounted on top. they would range in height from 3 to 6 feet from the ground. I was wanting to put about 7 of them in a 10' by 10' area.

[gillian]

I'm no expert but that sounds a bit over crowded to me. I would put fewer in and hope that as your garden matures birds make use of them for nesting too. We moved into a newly built house five years ago so we began a garden from nothing. We now have several types of bird nesting in it mostly out of the boxes we have provided.

Gillian