How to Keep Birds out of a Garden

While birds are a welcome addition to many gardens – they eat the bugs that might damage plants, not to mention add pretty sights and sounds to the landscape – they can also be a nuisance. Birds can introduce weeds in the garden by way of transporting bird seed and plant seeds around the yard. They can also damage crops by eating the fruits you work so hard to grow. Following are some tips on keeping birds out of a garden.

Place tin cans, aluminum pie pans or other shiny objects around your garden, hung on strings or nailed to boards. Birds tend to shy away from reflective materials. CDs can also be used, either adhered to sticks or tied on a string and hung like streamers across the top of the garden.

Install scarecrows. Put a tall post or 1-by-2 inch board in the garden and bulk it up with some hay tied with string around it. Dress it in some old clothes and add some shiny objects to it, such as aluminum foil.

Place bird feeders a distance from your garden so that they are attracted away from it.

Install a plastic owl or other large bird inside your garden. Change its location occasionally in order to give a more life-like effect.

Place netting on plants that birds may be eating in the garden so that they will go elsewhere.