I recently had the opportunity to do some research into birds. Specifically, I was learning about how to attract birds to your garden. What I learned was that there are a lot of little things that you can do to make your garden more appealing to the birds in your area but that there are only three major things that birds want.

The three things all birds want (or need) are:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Shelter

If you provide these three things then birds are going to want to come spend time in your garden. They’ll be fed, clean and safe from harm. That’s basically what all creatures want and birds are no exception.

What I find interesting is that the garden serves the same purpose for the bird as it does for the person. The person who has planted a garden with edible plants is using it as a food source. And even the person who has planted flowers is probably using the garden to sustain himself or herself in a more emotional way. We go to our gardens to find safety and peace. If we make it safe and peaceful for the birds, too, then they’ll come.

Tags: attract birds, birds, gardening, home, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, landscape

One of the cool things about being a freelance writer is that you get asked how to do all sorts of different things. Because I’ve researched such a diverse range of topics, people will ask me about random stuff in the hopes that I’ve had to learn about it for an article in the past.

For example, someone might ask me how to paint block walls. Even if I’ve never done this outdoor design task before, there’s a good chance that I would know something about it because I’ve done a lot of writing about various building, landscaping and design topics.

Indeed, I do have a basic idea of how to paint block walls. They have to be smoothed out with the right materials, painted with the right type of paint and then sealed over so that the paint doesn’t peel off easily as a result of being out in the elements.

If I wanted to actually do this task myself, I’d do more in-depth research into the specific types of paints and sealants that should be used for the material of the block wall that I was painting (cinder block for example) but even without doing this research, I do have a basic idea of how to do the job. That’s the kind of smart stuff that freelance writers get to learn about all the time!

Tags: design, ehow, freelance work, how to, kathryn vercillo, landscape, painting, writing