On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Maureen Ellis wrote:

> work. When I was lucky enough to have a yard in which to hang feeders
> years ago, I just raked up spilled, matted and molding seed on occasion
> and disgarded it in the trash as needed.

Maureen -

I rake up my 'seed carpets' on occasion and then put 'em in the compost
pile. But then, I do somethimes have strange things growing out of my
compost piles. :) If you follow up the dumping of the seed carpet with
some dirt, and care for your compost piles regularly, there shouldn't be
any problem.

I'm lucky enough to have a somewhat 'wild' yard. I've let a portion of
the yard, hidden from neighbor's eyes and mine, go wild. The wrens,
chickadees, and juncos love it. Lots of seeds and bugs and stuff back
there. So the 'seed carpets' don't bother me asthetically, and heck - if
I don't rake it up much, the fallout of more seeds seem to smother any
sprouts that dare to come up! The irises under the sunflower feeder seem
to thrive there. Perhaps if people planted hardy plants like them
underneath, some of the problem could be eliminated.

Susan Collicott
camel at serv.net
Seattle, WA