Gardener Shares Cute & Clever DIY For Keeping Birds Out Of Fruit: 'I Barely Lost Any'

It's a privilege to look after the birds that add so much to our gardens. They provide beauty, music, and the promise of pollination. In return, we happily offer up our resources, supplying them with creative bird baths, feeders, and (if we're particularly handy) custom built birdhouses. And while we may go to great lengths to keep our local bird population happy, as far as the strawberry patch is concerned, that's a no-bird zone. 

We know there's nothing more demoralizing than finding that the harvest you've been pouring into for months was taken out overnight by some non-human visitors. UK-based crafter and gardener clarehooper shared a video on Instagram revealing her crafty way of protecting her strawberry yield from hungry birds. It involves some small rocks, red, green, and white paint, and just the right amount of deception. 

After using paint to transform the rocks into cute, inedible strawberries, she peppers them around the strawberry plants — the idea being, of course, that the birds will go for the decoy strawberries, find that they are none too tasty, and be deterred from messing with them any further. Clarehooper claims she "barely lost any strawberries" after implementing this hack. While we can't say for certain that this will protect your berries from beaks, it's a fun project that adds a sweet pop of color to your garden, so you've really got nothing to lose in trying. 

Instagram user clarehooper isn't the only person trying to trick birds into staying away from their strawberries. On Reddit, folks seem split on its effectiveness. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that putting the painted rocks around fruiting plants really does reduce crop damage. "We did this but with just plain red paint last year in the garden. Year before, we didn't hardly have any tomatoes because the birds would peck them all. Last year I don't think we lost a single vegetable to birds," one person wrote on a thread dedicated to the subject. However, others claim it's a temporary solution at best, as the birds will eventually get hip to the trick. Still, some compassionate folks said they'd rather employ a less effective method like this and risk losing some strawberries than use an (admittedly effective) alternative like a net — a potentially deadly gardening trend that can lead to birds getting caught in their grip.

If you want to give it a go (for research purposes), start by finding some small strawberry-sized stones around your house. For sleeker, more realistic looking strawberries, opt for smoother stones. If you're using them strictly as colorful decoys, even rough jagged stones will do. After painting them a bright crimson red, use green paint to create calyxes on top and white or black paint to dot the faux-strawberries with small seeds and pop them around your strawberry plants.