I have never heard of such a thing. The only concern that comes to mind is the birds eating the food (berries, etc.).

Becky

I wouldn't do it for the reason Becky mentioned. No sense inviting trouble. Keep the birdbath a good distance from the veggies.

Harper

I don't think birds would cause disease but they are messy
little buggers. I would worry more that they would dine
at the buffet then have a drink and bath *lol* A bird house
would be adorable in place of a bird bath.

Edna

My water feature is right in the middle of my potager. I like it for helping keep the bug population down.

In my area encephalitis, west nile, and other diseases that we are exposed to every year, are brought in by insects.

Our area is not sprayed by the city or county and I don't really think the sprays do a lot of good anyway.

The more birds and toads that I can encourage the better. We now have two bird baths and the 40 gallon water feature.

i have a bird feeder and bird bath right next to my potager, no problems, just wash every thing before you eat. Every once in awhile i would find a bird dropping on a veggie, but you might get that just when birds fly over. I like to incorporate all of mother nature in my garden

I have a bird house and a bird bath in my potager. We get babies every year. The only thing that I have to worry about is my strawberries. I enjoy their company and hope they are eating the bugs that eat my veggies!

This year, the purple finches have been pulling the blossoms off of my flowering cherry and eating them!

They also eat the petals of the yellow crocus, but not the purple ones.

Strawberries in the borders are eaten by: the dog, robins, and chipmunks. I never get any (sniff). So this year I'm planting in four strawberry jars!

LOL Wolfe....critters enjoying the fruits of you labor. I had a desert tortoise when I lived in San Diego who would eat the leaves off the grape vine while my dog was picking off the grapes (partners in crime). Cherry tomatoes and plums were not safe either.

Edna

I made Birdhouses with the large gourds I grew a few years ago. I painted them white. I cut the holes small and did not add perches, so that perching birds, like sparrows would not be able to move into them. I wanted bluebirds or wrens only. I hung them in my apple tree and flowering Cherry next to the rose garden and just below the potager.

Tiny Wrens claimed the gourds as "home". I am happy as they are ravenous bug eaters, espcially flying insects. They don't seem to go after the butterflies and moths that are beneficial, only those that aren't. They have rid the apple trees of all the inchworm caterpillers that had plagued my tree for the past three years. All gone.

The cabbage butterlies had begun hovering around the cabbage a couple of weeks back and I found a few holes in one cabbage. I inspected the leaves, but NO EGGS. That's strange. How curious! A day or so later, while I was watering, two of the little wrens flew into the garden and each one snapped up a cabbage butterlfy in flight. I am delighted to say the least! Still no holes in any of the cabbage or broccoli plants and no eggs either.

I have since hung another gourd in the plum tree up on the hill next to the chicken house right by the north gate into the potager. There is also the wrenhouse I made from a large coffee can that I painted white and nailed to a 6ft tall tree stump near the gate as well. Wrens occupy that birdhouse as well.

As for putting a water feature in your potager, I did that in the past, not a pedestal bird bath, but a whiskey barrel pond. I set my birdhouse gourd Teepee over it and the gourds shaded it all summer and fall. The teepee was 15 feet in diameter and about the same in height. I put water plants in the whiskey barrel and pea gravel in the bottom, and added a few fish to eat any mosquito larva that chanced to inhabit the pond, too.

My grandbabies loved playing under the teepee. The pond not only attracted birds, but it also attracted butterflies and pollinators, like bees and bumblebees who come to get a cool drink. It attracted Dragonflies who ate droves of flying insects. Three little frogs moved in to live there and they ate insects too.
And it looked really cool, too, I thought.

The only problem I see with a birdbath is that of where you set it. If it is out in the hot sun the water will get hot really fast. Unless you live where summers are mild, I would think you would need to set it where it gets some afternoon shade or plant a vine to grow up on it for shade.

~SweetAnnie4u

One of my friends who loves to garden was telling me to be careful about feeding birds sunflower seed near your plantings. Something in the sunflower seed (chemical) inhibits plant growth. Other than that I think birds are wonderful in the garden and add such interest.

This is only true of the shells-- in bulk, they can inhibit some plants. We have our feeders where we can easily remove the hulls (and then put them in the paths).

You can also buy shelled sunflower seed to feed if your feeders are in planting beds, for intance.

Dayle Ann

I should have taken a picture of the 4 big, ripe tomatoes I had to toss in the compost today, because some of my feathered friends decided to have a peck fest. As if battling stink bugs wasn't bad enough...

Harper

I have seen quite a few posts about birds nabbing food from the garden. The starlings and quails here like to munch on sprouts, young seedlings -- my beets. Other than that, I have had no bird assaults in 4 years of veggie gardening so far.

I have sunflowers in a different part of the yard and bird feeder and two bird baths, so maybe it's that they are content with that. I wouldn't like that in my veggie garden. They need their own spot they can get to even when I am out there.

Obviously there will be regional differences.

With this new bird flu.....could this be the reason for the post? It's such a sad thing to be coming our way....I read this post a while ago...and was wondering if it related.

I dunno..

I have had sunflowers all around my garden and I always catch the birds in my garden anyway- they get bugs form the mulched paths and stuff I guess...! They have eaten my berries ( ofcourse) but that's it.. never my veggies..