Strawberry Patch

[Francy]

I am building a strawberry patch because they grow really well during the summer months in Wyoming. However, I have to find a way to keep the birds out! We love having the birds at our place, but I don't want them eating all of my strawberries. I will have to find a fine screen or something, unless there are other ideas?

 

[firelily99]

The do sell a type of cloth that is used on blueberries so I suspect you can find something that will also work for the strawberries. I think that if you Google it you would come up with a lot of resources, especially in Wyoming.

 

[Chuck]

I am building a strawberry patch because they grow really well during the summer months in Wyoming. However, I have to find a way to keep the birds out! We love having the birds at our place, but I don't want them eating all of my strawberries. I will have to find a fine screen or something, unless there are other ideas?

Here in Texas it is called bird netting and it comes in various length rolls. Mainly it is draped over fruit trees. Here we have more problems with field mice eating our strawberries than with birds and so far not any real good ways to deal with them except plant more strawberries and hope the mice leave us a few.

 

[annageckos]

Have you had problems with birds? The first year I tried strawberries in hanging baskets and the birds ate a few strawberries. Now I've had them in the ground, moved to a raised bed because it is so much easier to work with. I haven't had any problems with birds, and I feed them so there are always lots of birds around. The squirrels did take some and we picked up some cheap pin wheels. It kept them away for a while, but the squirrels haven't taken any strawberries even though they do bury black walnuts in the beds. I tried bird netting the first year, but it was such a huge pain that I gave it up. But I get so many strawberries that I don't care if the birds and squirrels take a few of them. Last year I got more then we could eat, I ended up freezing some and others went bad before I could get to them.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I think that you can cover them with the netting, and maybe some kind of spinner would help also. I found an ida for a kind of stairway with planters on it, and I think it would be perfect for strawberries, and would also make them much easier to water and pick the berries.
Since it is built fairly upright, you would not need anywhere near as much netting to cover this one. Just a long strip would easily protect the berries. I don't know how many berries you are growing, but this could be made about any size that you needed it.