Leave Some Flowers For The Birds

Dead-heading will give the plant more energy and resources to produce more flowers, but one thing I consider is whether the bloom that will turn to seed is one that will benefit the birds.

We have feeders placed around our yard in the summer, but I know that the variety of native flowers have important nutrition for birds that they don't get in the feeders, so I like to leave some seed heads for the birds. When Fall is drawing near, I leave them all so the migrating birds will have food. They remember where they found food on their last migration so each year we see more and more species because our yard is full of dietary choices.

Here's a few links that give you information on which plants birds like so you might choose to plant more that will benefit the birds.

Flowers For Birds
Top Plants For Birds
Planting For Birds

We especially enjoy the American Goldfinches eating our seeds as you can see from these photos:

Upright Verbena
Heritage Petunias
Green-headed Coneflowers

We really enjoy gardening for wildlife.