Anyone put up bird feeders/food yet?

Its been cold for awhile but finally the weather here seems to be becoming more spring-like. I haven't put up the feeders yet but put out some bird seed and suet on the big cherry tree in front of our yard. I got to watch a very enthusiastic cardinal this morning go to town on the suet, made me happy to see him.

I have had my bird feeders up since last winter. When it is cold, that is the hardest time for birds to find food; and they are so happy to flock around the feeder and eat the seeds there.
At first, the squirrels were just coming along and taking all of the bird's food; so my husband got some PVC plastic pipe, and made a little sleeve over the part of the hanger that sticks out. Now, when the squirrel tries to climb out on the hanger to get to the feeder, it spins and tumbles him off. After a few days of trying to figure it out, the squirrel now leaves the feeder alone, and just rummages around the ground underneath for any seeds that the birds drop.
We put the second feeder up on the side of the house, so there is not way for the squirrels to get close to that one, and it is great to be in the kitchen and see the birds flying up to get their food.
We have wrens, and some cardinals, and there are mourning doves that pick up the seed off of the ground.

The squirrels are up to their mischief again ! ! The birds were spilling the seed under the feeder that we hung up on the side of the house, and the seeds were sprouting and growing right where i had planted my lettuce and beets. Now, I have to try and replant the veggies, since all that is growing there is the bird grass.
So, we decided that the best plan would be to move the bird feeder out front where it was not right over where the lettuce and beets were planted. My husband hung the feeder in a tree in the front yard, and also put on one of the plastic pvc pipe pieces that would spin when the squirrels tried to get to the bird feeder.
Well, it didn't work ! ! The squirrels were able to hang on to the bark on the tree, and stretch far enough to reach my bird feeder. Then, my husband moved the feeder to the front of the house, in the wood that was in the center of our large picture window. There should be no way that the squirrels could get to that, and the birds were again happily eating at their feeder.
But, alas, tonite, we found birdseed dumped onto the ground again, so it looks like those brilliant and conniving little squirrels (at least one of them) figured out a way to get to the feeder again.
The saga continues......

We live in Florida and I have been wanting to buy a bird house and put it on a tree in our back yard. There are so many to chose from and I'm not quite sure of what kind of bird seed to even buy. Is they a "basic" bird seed that all birds like ?

Thanks in advance

Danyel

I usually get the kind that has smaller seeds in it for the little birds, and then it has some sunflower seeds and other larger stuff for the cardinals and other bigger birds.
Most of what we put out this summer, the squirrels managed to get into, and spill on the ground what they didn't eat; so the birds ended up pecking it off of the ground. I even had some interesting grasses come up where the birds didn't get it all eaten fast enough; so we had to move the feeder out of the garden area. Now that the garden is pretty well done for the summer, I will put the feeder back out for the birds there, and another out front for them.