Raised bed and Cardinals eating seedlings. (Southeast US, Zone9a)
Greetings, I recently started a new raised bed in the yard out of old galvanized metal roof panels I had laying around as I ran out of room in the greenhouse’s. Planted some leafy greens such as Vates Blue Scotch Kale and Black Simpson lettuce. Seedlings just started to come out and I was impressed with how quickly the Cardinals came out to mow them all down. I put a quick screen over it for now to give the seedlings a chance, but man, wasn’t expecting that so quick. Anybody else run into that situation as well? Do they eventually let up once the plants mature a bit? Thanks for reading and Cheers!
6 replies
Seems they eat seeds, weeds, buds etc. I'd personally start stuff off indoors on windowsill and once started, transfer to ground. I guess netting can also help. Birds love seeds so usually folk top with layer of dirt if laying grass seed etc. But depends how capable the birds are.
Agreed. Start indoors or use netting. I try to attract birds to my garden, but they need to let there be a garden first!
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it.
Thanks! Yah i usually grow most of this indoors in a greenhouse but the heat this year has been rough so I thought I’d try something different. Yah they had left the seeds alone and were munching on the new shoots, careful to leave just a single stem remaining but picking off all the new shoots/leaves. Oh well thanks for the reply.
Interesting. I've never had problems with my greens seedlings. Though we don't have many cardinals around here. Are they the only bird that you've seen for after them?
Thanks for the comment! Cardinals are the only ones that i have caught, we have plenty of finches and sparrows that frolic around, but I haven't caught any of them in the bed or greenhouse's before grabbing seedlings. The screen seems to be holding up so far and working... 😀