Standing Guard

Standing Guard
Garden 2006

Garden gnomes bring good luck to your garden and work hard to help your garden prosper but sometimes they need a bit help. That is where other garden decorations can help. Garden decorations add a touch of whimsy to the garden but they can also help in pest control. Pests are smart especially the rabbits who likely have group meeting to decide the best way into my garden and how they are going to outsmart me next! The best decorations for this purpose is anything with large eyes or items that resemble eyes because the represent predators. It's best if the eyes have a bit of shine to them especially at night. Other useful garden decorations that can help with pest control are those that move such as streamers or whirligigs and decorations that make noise. For best pest control results be sure to move the decoration to a different location and use more than one type. Motion activated decorations that make noise are more effective than those that make noise all the time.

Quite often farmers will use owl statues and they are popular for keeping swallows away from the boats in marinas or on docks. There are motion activated owls that likely would be more effective. We have two plastic owls, one for our boat well and the other for the garden. In the garden, the owl seems to be effective for discouraging squirrels, rabbits, mice as well as morning doves. The first three pests are destructive while the morning doves, a relative of pigeons, makes a mess. For best effect, I move the owl around the garden on occasion so pests do not become adapted to it's location. That's important since once the pest becomes adapted to your strategy, the decoration will no longer be effective.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007