I stuck branches in the ground and tied plastic grocery bags to them to scare the birds away. The birds have been more "helpful" than usual this year at my place. They got all of the sunflower seed I planted before I erected my flags.

I've been taking flat pieces of black shale and surrounding the plants, and this seems to help. Gives me some heat gain, too.

In the past, I have used that very cheap, thin clear plastic (sold as dropcloths for painting) to keep wildlife away (mainly deer), but it might work for birds, too. The concept is that you anchor one or two corners of it to a raised support, so it flutters in the slightest breeze. Birds are quite flighty from fear, & this constantly-moving plastic might help if you can figure out a way to install it. I used pieces 3 ft square for the deer, so you'd probably use much smaller pieces for birds.

Another thought is wooden or cardboard cutouts of hawks painted black, hung from fishing line from tall poles that have been set in the ground at an angle (so the "hawks" don't keep ramming the pole or get wound around them). Maybe 3/4" pvc water pipe would do (for a season, anyway) --it's usually quite cheap.

Sue

I've tried all those flashy things, and although they work for the first few days, the birds quickly become used to it. Food is a strong encouragement to ignore their fear.

How are you using the wire mesh? If it's put right on the ground, then the birds can get right through and the plants can get stunted. But if it is elevated a bit, with say, wood planks, the birds won't get through and the plants will be free to grow. Once the plants fill in enough, the mesh can be removed and the plants are too big to be damaged much.

I planted millet sprays from the petstore one year to see if I could grow the food for our parakeets. The birds would eat all the seeds within a day of planting them. I tried putting mesh down, but it didn't do a thing. I was young and could not convince my parents to buy more materials, so I took some scraps of wood, stones, etc and elevated the mesh several inches off the ground. The birds couldn't reach the seeds, they sprouted thickly, and when they started coming through the mesh, I removed it. The plants by that time were too big for the birds and when they made seed heads I covered them with paper bags. I got a nice little harvest!

The feral cats around my current house LOVE to dig in my soil. They kept digging up a small shrub I planted from the nursery. I finally got them to stop digging when I put rocks around the trunk. Rocks also protected my basil transplants from getting dug up. Plus, rocks are nice to look at. I have lots of rocks in my soil because of the glaciers of the past.