Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Wild Turkeys

If you have any ideas for this problem, I need to hear it soon.

I am in the process of clearing part of my front yard to plant an herbal lawn. Pulling many grasses and weeds by hand is proving to take longer than I had anticipated, but I still intend to finish this project before I my vacation is over and I am back to teaching on the 30th. So, here's the problem...Turkeys. I enjoy the little buggers being my neighbors. Really, I do. And, up until now, they have only been a minor irritation when scratching up my yard and unearthing bulbs while looking for food. But, now I plan to scatter seeds for this new "lawn" and we are in prime turkey season. There are several of them around, all day long.

How do I keep the turkeys off my newly planted seeds (when I get to that point)? I don't want them to scratch around or make dirt bath holes and ruin all of my work. Any ideas? The only thing I have contemplated is laying down chicken wire on top of the seeds, but that would be a lot of wire and I would need to take it off before the plants get so big that they would be destroyed when I removed the wire...

Seriously. Help me, please. Katie, at gardenpunks, was kind enough to post my question on her site as well. I am hoping to get a few more good ideas from her followers as well. She is also a NorCal girl; you should visit her lovely site.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, the turkeys can create quite a problem for your little seedlings...there's got to be a way to keep 'em off - we'll find someone who knows!

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  2. You are going to see this comment and think that I have an answer to your turkey problem, but I don't. I have never had to deal with them. But, I hope you find a solution. Thanks for your kind words on the strawberry top. So nice.

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  3. OK, So admitedly, I know nothing about turkeys, or gardening for that matter. BUT, I do know tempermental boys. What if you use a distraction tactic? Plant your seeds as normal, but put something in the other corner of your yard that they LOVE - some type of food, etc... Maybe they will be preoccupied.

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