Birds are often the culprits for excavating new seeds; and small rodents. One system which may work for you is to get some small mesh 'chicken' wire to put over a row of wire hoops pushed well into the ground. Fasten the wire to the hoops. When the plants are up you can either leave the protection there until you're ready to harves - or move the wire across to a new site. (Aside: if you have found a source of trashed supermarket trolleys those baskets make very good protection for young plants and small patches of strawberries ;-) ) For the euc's: ask on the Australia forum. There are many species of Eucalyptus. Bear in mind that if you get more rain than the Blue Mountains your plants are going to grow much faster. For the tomatoes - generous holes with the soil well-mixed with plenty of compost, a stake or other means of support, and the recommended serving of fertiliser, followed by reliable watering. A trickle system would probably work well and ensure that the leaves aren't left damp. For soil-planted plants - you might want to investigate what it would take to install a watering system on an automatic timer. Trickle is probably more economical and effective than sprinklers as such. For plants you're growing on, or house plants - might be worth looking at capillary watering pads. (More forums to look at!) PS unless you have access to vast amounts of material - and mechanical assistance - your compost heaps will never supply all the organic stuff you'll want in your garden. It pays to allocate a chunk of the garden budget for buying in. If you develop the habit of always adding a couple of gallons of compost to the soil whenever you put in a new permanent plant - and a six inch layer when you renew your beds for annuals and bulbs your soil will steadily improve and so will the water-holding capacity. Mix it through rather than burying a layer. In some soils buried compost can become a toxic mess. Clay can be particularly bad this way. Keep the humus in the top six inches. If you're not home often enough to water things week by week - a deep watering and a hefty mulch layer can help plants carry over. Usually established plants will be fine. It's just the new ones that are making roots to escape from the root ball that can seriously suffer. Bare-rooted planting can take a year or so to create a decent root mass. With that in mind you might want to work a patch at a time to give the high intensity care needed to get plants well-established.

I've done as much as I can to discourage them here, including removing their nests when they take over bird boxes - or we'd have no native birds in the neighborhood at all. We agreed as a neighborhood to not put out food other than nyger seed for finches and chickadees (the clinging type eaters) etc (sparrows can't eat from those feeders) and hummingbird feeders, that's helped enormously. There were so many sparrows for a couple of years we were honestly considering trapping the males but it didn't come to that - and now we have mosquito eating swallows back and nesting every year :) The plastic bird netting is inexpensive and easy to handle, you can roll it back up and use again next year if you have to. Here is a link that might be useful: Sparrows

My DS was 6-7 and home from school sick in bed. We had a snow and everything was covered and freezing cold outside. DS called me into the bedroom and told me to look out at the bird on the telephone wire. The poor thing looked like he was frozen to the wire, but apparently not because after a while as we watched, he appeared to fall to the ground. DS asked me to go see what was wrong with the bird. So of course I bundled up, put on boots and gloves and went out on rescue. I brought the bird in and we could see that he had a grain of corn stuck in his throat. I managed to dislodge it and he was then ready to go. I let him out the door and he flew away. I've forgotten many of the things DS did to aggravate me, but I still remember that day when he had to know that one bird was helped. He is still like that, very caring. Sue

Greetings, everyone! This topic is alive and well! I am having the same problem ... Reinita birds are visiting my porch. First they pecked all the coco liner out of my orchid pots. I got rid of those even though I liked them. Then they started making nests between my pots. I pulled those out before they could finish. Now they are EATING my succulents. OMG ... They have done so much damage. I've had to move my succulents one by one to an inside location in order for them to recuperate. Two have died from so much pecking. I collect succulents for color and texture, so what they got were reds, blue-greens, yellows ... I'm pissed! Birdbath / feeder & water did not work ... It just increased the bird population to my porch. I tried to play nice with them and they still ate my succulents. Once birds ID your succulents as a source of food/water, they won't stop ...PERIOD. I do not like the idea of covering my succulents with a cage. That defeats the purpose and aesthetics of display. I am considering gaudy things now, like purchasing mini reflective silver pinwheels to place in random pots. Perhaps the finch will be deterred by their own reflections and movement. Mirrors may be an option but will be impossible to keep clean. Those solar activated plastic movement things may work, too. I understand owl and other figures with big eyes, and even stuffed animals scare birds. Maybe I'll try gluing big craft eyes or painting faces on my pots. Final option would be to sprinkle cayenne pepper or a product that contains it over all my pots. The problem is it will potentially harm these beautiful little birds and that is not my intention. Just look at this adorable little guy!