PLANTS TO ATTRACT BIRDS

Hallo - welcome back! I hope you are enjoying life in your new home.

As to your question - do the shrubs have to be in troughs? If you were able to plant straight into the soil, you'd be able to grow larger ones. Birds like shrubs with berries, like Pyracantha and Hollies as well as somewhere to roost and maybe even nest if you're lucky! So evergreens are the best sort to think about. Look at Euonymus fortunei - there are several lovely ones like 'Silver Queen' and 'Harlequin' as well as 'Emerald 'n' Gold'.

Are you putting up a bird table or feeders? If so, the evergreens will be somewhere for the birds to fly to and watch in safety before the come and

Good luck. Let us know which birds come!

Boop, if you are online again now after a break, try asking yr question on the RNIB website. I'm sure they'd advise you on attracting garden birds.
They seem to like ivy in our garden, for nesting aswell, and for the tasty insects in it!

What about an evergreen clematis on your arbour? they love something like that to hide in, ours live in the big clematis but I am thinking that would be a bit wild and untidy when it dies off for the neat organised garden you are creating and the bird table not too far away that they can make a dash into if the sparrow hawk sneeks in looking for his dinner!

W. H. Smith have a book called, Gardening for Birdlovers.
Should be full of ideas, although you have some good ideas already.

I just read what I posted - what happened to the end of my next-to-last sentence??? It should have said...'watch in safety before they come and feed'. Sorry. I must have deleted the end bit by accident.