I made little square foot covers out of fencing material and painters plastic for my garden. kind of like the ones Mel talks about in his book. We have a problem with both birds and squirrels stealing the seeds. It's worked pretty well. It protects the seeds and helps them sprout quicker because it acts like a greenhouse. I know a lot of garden centers sell plastic cloiches as well. It might be worth the investment. For bigger seeds like cantalopes and squash, I've just cut the spout off of a pop bottle, poked some holes through it and put a rock on top to keep it from blowing over. Cheap and effective!

I had a problem with birds also. This is what I did.

Here is a link that might be useful: Protective Cages

Hi-
I did several things to keep the birds from eating my seeds. I made some cages, ala Mel from the SFG book. I also bought at Home Depot some plan burlap. I cut pieces to fit the areas where I had seed and laid it on top of the soil. It held moisture better for germination and kept birds from pecking at the delicate sprouts. I hope to have some pics posted soon, which show some of my contraptions.

I live right on the outskirt of town, there are 4 houses to my western side, after that, 10 miles of field and river all the way to Milford Lake, biggest in Kansas. We have more rabbits, squirrels and birds than you can shake a very large stick at. They used to bug my wife's flower beds until we 3 got Maine Coon cats. These are the largest breed of domestic cat on the planet, far as I know. They are all females and love to hunt, which is apparent every time I use the backdoor and find an offering (mouse, squirrel, bird and often rabbits).

B.C. (before cats), I could see bunnies dashing out in every direction when I would hit the driveway in the morning after work. A.C. (after cats) my yard is lifeless as an asteroid. I did nontheless choose 24" raised beds for my first shot as growing veggies this year, I am taking every precaution.

Summary: ( I am wordy, I know ) A predator or two, if they are active, will keep most of that critter problem to a minimum. I don't think that the miniature Beast Cats we have are necessary, any kind of hunting-happy kitty will do. It saved all of my wife's flowers.

Thanks ya'll, great suggestions. I think I can fight off the voracious birds now. Funny about the cats - quite a few kittties seem to have the run of my neightborhood and I wondered if the kitties would think my new raised bed was a DELUXE litter box, so far they don't seem to pay any attention to it. Although I do see one sleeping on my compost pile, must be the warmth. We do have a wonderful population of birds and I enjoy them, I'm just not willing to share all my plant seeds. I keep wanting to blame the big blackbirds but it could be those sweet little grandmotherly doves!

-- I planted lettuce, nothing germinated, last year not one seed sprouted.
How did you plant them? I've had trouble with lettuce seeds too. I think lettuce seed needs light to germinate. A lot of seeds are a challenge and require patience.

If you think it birds put the seeds in those little starter cell packs.

You might try planting the lettuce seeds the way Mel suggested for all seeds in his original 1981 book.

Make the hole about twice as deep as you would normally plant the seed. Fill the hole halfway with vermiculite. Drop in the seed and finish filling the hole with vermiculite. This is more work than the newer method but has the following advantages:

Enough light might make it through a thin layer of vermiculite to allow you to cover the seeds enough to hide them from the birds.

The vermiculite will let the seed be planted a bit deeper than if you were covering the seeds with Mel's Mix.

Vermiculite is used as insulation. It has let me plant lettuce and carrot seeds outside in an Arizona summer and still have good germination.

The vermiculite clearly marks where the seeds are and which squares have been planted.