Teasels (Dipsacus fullonum) Fine architectural biennials to be grown in the wild garden for their pink flowers and seed heads, much loved by gold finches.

Out here" - she gestured to the area across the channel from the Jamaica Bay Bird Sanctuary - "we see these incredible birds - gold finches, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves.

On a recent afternoon children could observe a wolf spider carrying her brood on her back as gold finches swooped across the sedges and rushes in the water to feast on black-eyed-Susan seeds.