#150 - How To Keep Birds From Eating The Fruit In Your Garden

First off, Happy Memorial Day to everyone. I am often asked how to keep birds out of a garden, or if someone should use bird netting over their crops to protect them from birds, so I though I would tackle that question today in my Gardening Quick Tip.

Contrary to popular opinion, birds are actually very beneficial to a garden as they eat many of the harmful insects that we are trying to keep out of our gardens. Yes, from time to time you may have some fruit damaged by birds, especially tomatoes, but it isn't because of what you think.

While there are a few birds who do eat fruit, they are not as common as you would think, especially in the United States. Generally, the reason birds are eating your fruit is they are thirsty and those plump juicy tomatoes are full of water that the birds are needing to drink to survive.

The easiest way to stop birds from eating the fruit in your gardens is by providing a water source for them. A simple bird bath in your garden will stop almost all fruit damage from birds as it is easier for them to drink fresh water from the bird bath then to fight with getting the more acidic water from tomatoes or other fruits.

Birds are not the only beneficial things in your garden who will benefit from you providing a bird bath. Honeybees and other beneficial insects who are pollinating your garden also need a place to get a cool drink on a hot summer day.

As with other things regarding pest control in organic gardening, before we utilize the most extreme countermeasure available to combat the pest problems, lets take a look at nature first to understand what is actually going on. There is usually a very simple solution to our problem, in this case, the simple addition of a bird bath may do the trick for you.

Hopefully this little tip will help you save more of those beautiful ripe juicy tomatoes this year.

Until Next Time,

Aloha & 73

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