will my neighbours' plastic owl deter birds&friendly insects?

Hi. I keep trying to post a photo of the owl but it won't upload. But just too give you an idea, its about the size of half a pint of beer, perched on top of a plastic stick about 30cm high.

Basically I share the front patch of garden with my neighbours, it consists of a few bays of soil into which we have planted the usual candidates for spring colour, but I have an area about a meter by a meter in which I'm growing herbs. My intention, as with elsewhere, is to attract wildlife. I have just about stomached the neighbours' decision to plonk up tacky white ankle-height fencing around the area, but now they have stuck this owl a few feet away from my herbs "to keep pests away." Personally I'm not bothered about slugs etc, I like them and when they pose problems I have found my own ways of dealing with them that do not involve pellets or other kinds of violence, but I suppose I can grudgingly accept this unrequested avian if s/he saves me such bother. But - what about birds, bees and animals generally considered good? I don't want birds to be scared off from visiting. I want to attract beneficial insects. My neighbours are not at all like me - my idea of gardening is to try and live in harmony with nature and "give something back" (sorry for the cliché) to the natural world; they on the other hand have no understanding of or interest in ecology or wildlife, which they openly admit, and just see gardens as somewhere nice to sit on a sunny day. They are quite nice people but not really open to discussion and my attempted explanations of wildlife gardening fall on deaf ears - if you remember the old Coronation St characters Jack and Vera Duckworth, that's the sort of people they are. Sorry if that sounds snobbish but its true, and I worry that their philistine approach risks wrecking my efforts at boosting biodiversity. So, what do you think - should I worry about the owl or am I over-reacting? Thanks.

 

I can't imagine it will make any difference at all. (Maybe if you're able to point out that it doesn't work they will put it somewhere else.) Good luck.

 

Thanks - that's a good idea.

 

What about suggesting you've read that it only works at ground level and has to be moved twice a day?

 

No; and no

And,unfortunately for those of us who have neighbours ... that *does* include them

It can be frustrating when you have clashing ideas on what a garden is, what it is for and having differing approaches, but essentially you do both have *something* in common: your shared space; plus the fact you each wish to put your own personal mark(s) on it.

Well, man has trashed much of the planet but still our birds and bees fight the good fight.
So, my thoughts are *any* little offering you make will be appreciated by nature. Even if your neighbours concreted their part and your half flourished you would still be winning your own battle in boosting biodiversity within the limits of where you live

 

Unless it actually moves it will have no effect whatsoever on anything. We had a model Sparrowhawk dangling from a tree which was supposed to scare away the blackbirds from the young apples. Insult was when I found a bird sitting on the things head!

 

Does this answer your question?

 

It won't have any effect whatsoever. "Accidently" knock the owls head off next time you're hoeing.

 

If plastic owls keep slugs away ,I'll have half a dozen !
Sounds like your criticism of the next door neighbours is that they don't agree with you ?

 

What herbs are you growing? My neighbours and I share a herb garden because although we all like to cook with herbs, many are better for being clipped more regularly than we need them for eating - parsley, mint, coriander,chervil, thyme, oregano, chives just to name a few. Everyone gains.

 

Certainly the large concrete toad I picked up in Florida last year does nothing to keep the Slugs away ... infact they quite like hiding underneath it...

 

I was given this chap for mothers day. He's nearly 3ft tall and scared the sparrows away for a few days until they got used to him. Now all birds use him for a perch.

 

Shame you don't live in Medway - the owl would have been nicked the first night it was outside!

 

He's in my back garden and can't be seen Lynda. I know where you're coming from though, I was reared in Essex!