by Pajarita » Wed Jun 05, 2013 3:09 pm
I use organic soil and the seeds are what comes in the canary seed mix I use for my canaries because they all grow like grass. It has canary seed, rape, red and white millet, some oats, thistle, that kind of thing. As to the branches, I use mostly the branches of the trees in my backyard (maple, sycamore, hickory) and my and my daughter's neighbor's pines (they save the branches they trim for me) because I know for a fact they have never been sprayed with anything. The Christmas tree I buy for them in December is usually a spruce and I get it from a farm where I know they don't spray or treat their trees with anything (it's in Pennsylvania where I used to live and I know the owners) but, usually, Christmas trees are not treated with anything. It's a very easy cash crop for farmers because the government gives the seedlings, they plant them and simply forget about them for a few years when it's time to cut them down for the season. The floor covering is alfalfa usually but I also get what they call orchard grass (a bale) whenever I go to Pennsylvania (it's used to feed horses, cows, etc during the winter).