Thursday 26 April 2012

squirrels and bowerbirds garden

In researching yesterday's post  about the word sidespies, coined by Dylan Thomas in his radio play Under Milkwood,  I came across a page on a site called WordSpy where Paul McFedries posts neologisms he has coined. He invented the expression squirrel gardening:
squirrel gardening, adj.
The accidental "gardening" that occurs when squirrels transfer seeds and bulbs from one one part of a garden to another, or even between gardens.
This word wouldn't work for us in Australia, but I think we have a synonym, bowerbird gardening.

Here's a link to an article about male bowerbirds in Oceania 'accidentally' growing plants when they build their intricate bowers  to attract a mate.

2 comments:

Mary said...

Just coincidentally, I came across this reference to bower birds, nothing to do with your discussion, just thought the coincidence was interesting.
http://mixedmediabymelforrest.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/close-encounter-with-satin-bower-birds.html

parlance said...

Thanks, Mary, interesting blog to visit. I've Pinned a photo of the birds on her picnic table. I didn't realise they could be so tame.