Netting help vs birds! :)

[Rabidbun]

Well, in previous years it was plagues of greenfly and flea beetles and tonnes of grey mould. This year it appears to be blackbirds (though the sparrows have had a darn good go at pretty much all of my peas...).

Just went out to find that they'd dug up five more well established bean plants, severing the roots, and that they'd had a good go at pretty much all the remaining chard, beans, pumpkins, courgettes and celeriac. Needless to say I am a bit stuck (not to mention down around 20 bean plants, four pea plants, three chards, three garlics, oh, and all 40 of my dwarf beans as they came through) and as well as plant loss have had many things slowed a lot due to root damage.

I am trying to think of a way I can net over the base of things yet still allow the climbing things through the netting somehow to train them up trellis and poles, but can't get my brain to come up with anything. There's not too much room between plants as each of the three beds are 1m square and things are very closely planted in the square foot style. Either that or a mulch that would discourage/prevent the digging? Has anyone got any ideas that could help me solve this and stay positive about the whole thing (short of making medieval pies of course, though I'm way tempted...)?

[Dave & Kate N Wales]

Not sure it would work fo you but we have the cheap folding type trellis suspended over the raised beds butha them just propped on bricks last year. Helps keep the cats off our beds so may work for the birds too. We got quite a bit of the bamboo style from poundland and it's done it's job
Katie

[Rabidbun]

Thanks, will keep an eye open for some next time I'm in town and stock up. I think I'm going to have to part net bits next year too (not sure if they can fly in if I leave the top off the net cage though...) and plan really carefully to lessen damage. Course, they Would have hit the seed library seeds worst with only ten of each of those... ;(

[binley100]

We have some big wirly bee and ladybird things from poundland ( and yes they were a pound each ) and it looks like one of them got attacked by a pigeon , its head and a wing was pulled off .

[SarzWix]

Try putting out mealworms and other insect-y type bird food? They might be desperately looking for food for their babies and if you've been watering around your plants, it attracts worms, and thus the birds too.

I've had to cover the places I'd sown seeds with the wire shelves off my greenhouse shelving to stop the sparrows dust-bathing in it!

[Rabidbun]

Thanks! Will try these too. I swear the blackbird was grinning mischievously at me the other night as it landed on the trellis!

[LolaLou]

We have some big wirly bee and ladybird things from poundland ( and yes they were a pound each ) and it looks like one of them got attacked by a pigeon , its head and a wing was pulled off .

What the pigeon's????

[Nykied]

I picked up some lengths of wood from Freecycle (but it originally came from B&Q, made a box shape and nailed netting onto it. It's fairly high, so my plants can grow to a good height underneath it and I can easily lift off the whole thing for weeding or individual watering.

It is pretty rickety though, but that's only because I can't saw in a straight line...

[DaveJ]

I swear the blackbird was grinning mischievously at me the other night as it landed on the trellis!

A couple of years ago I forgot to net a small cherry tree which was ripe with fruit - the blackbirds had the lot, they even had the nerve to leave a neat little pile of cherry stones next to the tree I certainly learnt my lesson the hard way.