Tuesday, April 24, 2007

dirt baths

dirt bath sparrows
I'm having some trouble with my sparrows. They are digging up my little pea seedlings. The dirt in this area of my garden is not as rich as other areas - actually quite dusty and dry. The sparrows love burrowing into this and then squabbling over the little depressions they make. As a result the pea sprouts are getting kicked up and scattered around. I was going to wait til the seedlings got a few inches tall to mulch, but will try mulching with hay tomorrow to see if this will protect the little pea plants.

gardenbirds

3 comments:

Kathy said...

Could you set out a shallow box filled with the same dry dirt nearby? That way the birds would be happy and hopefully stick around to get rid of pesky bugs as well. This after you mulch, of course!

kathy said...

The birds are really well cared for in my yard. There're not going to leave. They get free bird seed all year, fresh pond water with a nice waterfall and relatively few cats because of our fence. I just want them to take their dust baths in another area. There are plenty of other areas that are just as good!!! You have a good point about the bugs they eat though. I'm sure that is good for my plants.

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

All though birds are the gardeners friend, they can be a bit annoying. Kathy's idea sounds like a good one to me. ;-)