CDs or DVDs in your garden can protect your crops (Image: Alex Evans)
April Fool’s Day was a few days ago but for many gardeners who are looking to make the most of their outdoor spaces this spring, one thing is no joke: getting your seedlings and saplings attacked by birds.
While expensive and oversized cloches and netting can be a useful way to protect strawberries, raspberries, and other fledgling crops in the spring, there is a quicker and less invasive way of scaring away birds like pigeons from your home garden – CDs.
Gardeners are being urged to hang CDs in their gardens this April to help defend against intruders.Garden experts of a certain age will remember CDs: the shiny metal objects we used to use to store music before Spotify came along, although this tip will also work with DVDs and even Blurays.
Now gardeners can give their tatty old albums from the glovebox a second lease of life thanks to a genius method which will stop birds from pilfering your planting. April might be off to a cold, snowy and windy start this weekend thanks to weather warnings, but canny gardeners have already started planting.
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Gardeners are being urged to hang CDs in their garden over the winter (Image: Alex Evans)
The problem, though, is that hungry birds are on the prowl at this time of year. April is a key nesting month for birds who will be raising their young and on the lookout for food.
While feeding birds with feeders and bird tables using dedicated foods and seeds is a good ideas, birds are often left hard up for food, pecking through gardens to take whatever they can get, and birds can even dig up or pull at fresh bulbs as well as eating freshly planted seeds.
The reason gardeners are putting CDs up in their gardens is to protect fruit and veg from predators like birds.
It’s often been said that birds are attracted to shiny things; indeed, magpies go out of their way to collect them.
But they will not approach an area with CDs because the reflecting light startles them. A breeze in the wind catches them and they randomly reflect in different directions, which scares birds away.
Gardening page Food For Trees & Africa explains: “Did you know that by hanging old CDs around your food garden, you’ll startle birds with the reflecting light and keep them away from your vegetables and herbs. It’s a trick we’ve put into action at the Food & Trees for Africa food garden.
“Start by hanging the discs loosely so that the slightest breeze makes them spin and catch the sun’s rays. Every now and then, change their location around your beds to prevent the birds from getting accustomed to them.”
The CDs will instantly kick-start birds’ flight response, and they will rush to get away from them.
Just make sure to change the location of the discs every now and again to stop birds getting used to where it’s coming from.
Of course, it’s generally considered good practice to try to feed hungry birds. Instead, offer them fresh nuts, sliced fruits and seeds, raisins and sultanas on a dedicated bird table or feeder, away from what you’re trying to grow, and lace them with something spicy like chili powder where possible to deter squirrels too.
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