I saw a guy buying a massive bag of bird seed in the gardening section at Walmart, and I had this thought: could you actually grow a garden from it? I mean, you've got untreated sunflower seeds, raw peanuts, and corn kernels in there. Has anyone tried this before?
3 Answers
Yep, they grew! At least, I had sunflowers and millets sprout up nicely, but I did find some unexpected bean-like plants too. It was a surprise, but a fun one!
I've actually had great success with sunflower seeds from bird seed mixes! The only tricky part is that you can't really control where squirrels decide to drop them, you know? But sunflowers definitely thrive if you give them a chance!
True! Plus, I've noticed larger birds like blue jays also tend to cache seeds around, which could help with sprouting.
One thing I've noticed is that red and white milo seeds often germinate like crazy, but honestly, no backyard birds seem to eat them! Only sunflowers seem to thrive from the bird seed I've used, since most of the corn gets cracked and isn't very edible.
Right? I think the millets do okay, but honestly, other things like beans are more of a 'what is this doing here?' situation.