Gardeners are being urged to hang CDs in their gardens this August. You remember CDs – those shiny circular objects coded with music people used to buy before Spotify came along. Now gardeners are saving up their old discs and giving them a fresh lease of life in the garden instead.
It doesn’t have to be a CD of course – it could be an old DVD – as any shiny disc will work. And the reason gardeners are putting CDs up in their gardens is to protect fruit and veg crops from predators like birds. August is a key growing month, where the likes of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries yield big crops of fruits as well as redcurrants, blackcurrants and all manner of other fruits and vegetables.
If you’ve been carefully tending to your garden for months on end, the last thing you need is a pigeon or blackbird coming and pinching months’ of hard work at the last second.
It might seem odd given their reputation, but birds are scared of CDs, and won’t pinch your strawberries or peck at your raspberries if you line CDs along your raised beds.
It’s often been said that birds are attracted to shiny things, indeed magpies go out of their way to collect them.
But they will not approach an area with CDs as the reflecting light startles them. A breeze in the wind catches them and they randomly reflect in different directions, which scares birds away.
Gardening page Food For Trees & Africa said: “Did you know that by hanging old CDs around your food garden, you’ll startle birds with the reflecting light and keep them away from your vegetables and herbs. It’s a trick we’ve put into action at the Food & Trees for Africa food garden.
“Start by hanging the discs loosely so that the slightest breeze makes them spin and catch the sun’s rays. Every now and then, change their location around your beds to prevent the birds from getting accustomed to them.”
The CDs will instantly kick-start birds’ flight response, and they will rush to get away from them.
Just make sure to change the location of the discs every now and again to stop birds getting used to where it’s coming from.
Then you can grow strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and other crops without fear of winged invaders, and redirect birds towards safer areas like lawns where they can feed on slugs and worms instead.