I have netting over top of my raised garden, but I feel like I could use some birds to eat some bugs. is it worth taking it off or will the birds just eat my little plants?
Really what I'm saying is: birds- keep them out or let them in?
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- rainbowgardener
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Depends on the birds. I also don't like bird poop on my greens. The birds around here like fruit strawberries, any berry, tomatoes, papaya, mango, orchids, chili peppers. The birds will pick out the seed from my containers on the nursery bench so I have to keep them covered. Birds will also eat every Hawaiian chili, leaving only the caps and make holes in every large tomato, unless they taste bad. Even I won't eat those, and I am not that picky.
- rainbowgardener
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Really depends on what your particular situation is. In my case, I perform the annual ritual of rolling on the bird netting over the garden in spring and rolling it up in winter. (snow load would collapse the whole thing!) If I don't do this, the Gambel Quail would eat all my seedlings. This happened for years until I finally realized what was doing the damage. But, this is unusual situation in my particular environment.
Now they just perch on the top of the fence and gaze longingly into the enclosure.
There must be some reason why you put the netting there in the first place?
Now they just perch on the top of the fence and gaze longingly into the enclosure.
There must be some reason why you put the netting there in the first place?
- Gary350
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Birds are my garden friends. I have about 15 bird houses and I never spray toxic bug poison on my garden. Wrens eat their body weight in bugs every day. July and August when it stops raining birds get thirsty I put water pans in my garden, birds do not peck holes in my tomatoes to get a drink. Birds only eat berries when they are ripe so cover them up only when they are ripe.
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It depends on the crop. Here the robins devour the black raspberries and blackberries before they get ripe if the crops aren't netted. I've lost my entire crop some years because of bird damage. When I grew sorghum, buckwheat and sunflowers the birds got the grains long before they were ripe enough to harvest. But in most cases the birds are wonderful garden bug control. Wrens are my best friends in the bug control area.
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