Plants that produce seeds and berries providing food for wild birds
These are some of the plants that you could cultivate naturally, to help keep birds in your garden. It may not be popular with some people, but a small area of garden left to nature is very popular with birds and wildlife. It doesn't take much room, and if you scatter some wild flower seeds around it can be a beautiful spot for people too.
Teasel - Large seed head, which is attractive to Goldfinches. Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink or lavender flowers that form a head on the end of the stems.
Honesty - Self seeds easily; attracts Finches, including Bullfinches
Dandelion - This can be grown as a cultivated salad and the seeds are eaten by Goldfinches. Dandelion is best known for its yellow flower heads, which turn into round balls of silver tufted fruits, which blow away on the wind.
Lavenders - Fragrant flowers attracting insects, and seeds for Finches. Flower spikes are used for dried flower arrangements. The fragrant, pale purple flowers and flower buds are used in potpourris. Dried and sealed in pouches, they are placed among stored items of clothing to give a fresh fragrance and as a deterrent to moths. The plant is also grown commercially for extraction of lavender oil from the flowers. This oil is used as an antiseptic and for aromatherapy.
Honeysuckle - Fragrant flowers attracting insects and sweet red berries, for many types of bird.
Evening Primrose - Pretty flowers, followed by seeds for finches.
Greater Plantain - Actually a weed, producing seeds for Doves and Finches. It grows better than most other plants in compacted soils, and is abundant beside paths, roadsides, and other areas with frequent soil compaction. It is also common in grasslands and as a weed in crops. The seeds, are held on the long, narrow spikes which rise well above the foliage
Fat Hen - A common weed, turning to seed for Sparrows, Finches, Doves and Pigeons. Fat Hen is a versatile plant, its young leaves and shoots can be eaten as a vegetable, similar to Spinage. In ancient China they used to make walking sticks from the stalk.
Golden Rod - Thriving on poor soils, and producing seeds for Goldfinches, Siskins and the declining Linnets. This plant was cultivated in the Arab world, which used it in their medical system. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was used in Europe to heal wounds. It is supposed to have astringent, diuretic, antiseptic and other properties
Groundsel - A very common weed, with seeds eaten by finches and Sparrows. A truly global weed, dating back to the first century.
Cornflower - Lots of colour, followed by seeds for Sparrows Finches and Tits. In the past it often grew as a weed in crop fields. It is now endangered in its native habitat by, over-use of herbicides. In the United Kingdom it has declined from 264 sites to just 3 sites in the last 50 years. It is also, now naturalized in many other parts of the world, including North America and parts of Australia.
Thistles - Producing seeds for Goldfinches and other finches. In the bird seed market, Nyjer is often sold or referred to as thistle seed. This is a misnomer due to early marketing of the seed as 'thistle' to take advantage of the finches' preference for thistle. Real Nyjer seed comes mainly from Ethiopia from a plant called Ramtil
