help with worm seeking birds - prevent seedling destruction

[d_donahoo]

cheers all.

looking for some advice...

want a few suggestions on how to keep birds from scratching in our raised beds.

we are in a rented place at the moment and after 6 months the soil in our raised beds is really lovely stuff - full of worms, and now flocks of indian miners and others have found them...our carefully raised winter seedlings, and directly planted root crops are suffering big time.

have tried plastic bags, tinsel, a make shift cage from chiken wire???

anyone have any simple solutions - we won't be here that long, so don't want to spend a whole lot of resources/energy on it if possible.

cheers

dan

[muttabuttasaurus]

A cat? Or failing that a model of a predator like an owl or a hawk that you can perch somewhere overlooking a garden. This might work better with smaller birds like swallows and sparrows but it might be worth a go.
If you can get some from the dump some of that small square holed wire that they use in aviaries should work to keep mynas out, we used it last year to start seeds where maurauding sparrows and finches were a problem. Maybe you could make a linda woodrow style dome using willow branches and that ubiquitous orange bailing string?

[Gardening Rob]

Old CDs work well - drill a hole in one edge and tie them up on fishing line making sure that as the turn the light reflection is below fence level - the movement of the reflection around the garden is what will keep the birds away.

[Mont]

Dan, we've used the black plastic mesh you get from garden shops - like chickenwire but with much smaller holes - against the mynas and it works pretty well. You might have to build a frame to train it over.

[d_donahoo]

thanks folks.

will give those a go. had a great weekend. the delightful organic shop in newstead have started a seed saving club - and was attended by over 30 people and was a fabulous info sharing exchange (according to my wifde who went)...

have tried a few tricks to keep the birds away -

we will see how we go.

cheers

dan

[Chook Nut]

Hi Dan,

The CD trick is a goer, the only thing Rob forgot to mention was to make sure it has a swivel on the fishing line.... this helps it spin for more reflections :)

Dave

[Gardening Rob]

...Well I was gunna mention the fishing swivel, but I thought that might make it sound too complicated so then the CD idea would go into the too hard basket. Just let them try the CD idea and discover how well it works, then when the CDs break the fishing line after their one millionth twist, suggest they try adding fishing swivels! :;):

Rob

[Chook Nut]

LOL ... good one Rob :D