Need advice without upsetting neighbor. RE Bird feeder
3 years ago, this great neighbor put up a bird feeder. I can see it from my window and love to watch. BUT:
Problem. Last years and starting again, I am growing a ton of strange weeds in my yard. Most are low crawling things that are choking the grass. Never saw them before.
I had a landscaper friend take a look and he told me the growth was from weed seeds in the feeder. According to the expert, these weeds are not native to my neck of the woods.
I don't want to upset my friend with a request to move the feeder. Maybe he is buying cheep seed. Perhaps if I explained and suggested another brand of seed, do you have any suggestions? His funds are as limited as are mine so $$ is a factor. Is this a problem with all seed brands?
The birds seem to drop their unwanted seed as they fly away, almost always in the direction of my yard.
If I use weed killer, how often can I use it?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I never had any luck with them.
just influence them, perhaps move them around a bit.
I dug a bunch up and used them to make raised beds, a walkway into a building, and filled a fountain for a flower arrangement.
A few decades from now someone will have to move them, and perhaps fondly remember how helpful I was to put them there for that special day. 
I have a bird seeder right outside my computer room window, and I've fed birds for over a decade now. There is a flower garden right outside this window. I'm a person who's very curious about weeds, and I look them up in a weed book or on the internet so I can fight it in the best way possible. I've yet to find a foreign weed in that garden, and I've used all types of bird seed, from the expensive to the inexpensive.
I have very little problem with weeds there. Plenty of seed falls out of the bird feeder, too--so much that the ground feeders, like the mourning doves, just feed off the ground.
Also, birds eat weed seeds, too.
I'm wondering if the bird feeder might attract some migratory birds who stop for lunch on their way to wherever. While they're at lunch, they also stop to use the restroom, so to speak, and might be leaving you some weed seeds from another area.
If you're up for it, take a pic of the weed and let's see if it can be identified.
Also, next time I talk to my aunt, I will ask her about this. She's been a bird feeder and gardener for 60 years, so she might have some input, too.
Cher
with water. 3 days later pour it out on the garden as a feed.
If it is grains, the birds are planting new bird food for you for free. Offer to sell it back to your neighbor at a discount.
Weed killer - bah. But vinegar works well, and adding a tablespoon of dawn helps it get through the muck better. If you don't want anything growing on that spot, add salt. Soon, nothing will.
I sometimes feed birds in my garden, and those seeds sprout some interesting things. Mostly they just go into a compost heap.
I wonder if getting free or reduced price bread somewhere is an option? That can be crumbled and used for birds, I think, though if not this is where I will learn that.
But at least it wouldn't sprout.
