What to grow under a bird feeding station?

[piskieinboots]

Gawd knows which board to post this on, so I'll start here.

As the title says - what to grow under a bird feeding station? This is a flower area.

[binley100]

flowers maybe ???

Well there are meant to be flowers and bulbs under mine but the dropped seeds seem to be doing better than 'owt else and anything else gets trampled on when Jake sees the squirrel .....

[veggiechicken]

Teasels, sunflowers.....must be lots more flowers that wild birds feed on but its late and my brain is addled!

[piskieinboots]

I do grow sunflowers - but I'm thinking ground cover that will drown out their 'millet'

[Scarlet]

I grow flowers that get slug damaged in the rest of the garden. The birds do a lovely job of getting rid of the pest! Lillies, delphiniums and sunflowers when the manage to avoid being eaten.

[Two_Sheds]

I stopped using loose seed because of the unwanted seedlings. Now all the bird seed gets made into suet cakes: far less mess and the woodpigeons aren't attracted either

[mothhawk]

More by accident than design I have a peony under mine, plus some Jerusalem artichokes that provide extra perching places as the birds queue for a turn on the feeders. Both love the extra fertility provided by bird droppings andall the dropped bits of seed that compost down under the hanger. There is a slight downside - visitors often comment on the streaked peony leaves, saying they didn't realise you could get variegated peonies.

(When I'm digging over the garden, there are always masses more worms in the soil under the hanger than elsewhere).