We have these cheeky little bas- native bush chooks (Orange-footed Scrub Fowl) that dig around in the mulch and dirt to find insects to eat. The problem is that they make a huge mess and end up flinging my plants out of the garden!!!
Today I got a bit creative with how I was going to discourage them.
I put some more plants in, for a start, because if is harder for them to dig around things they are less likely to do it. Then I created natural shields for my plants: bits of bamboo sticking up, palm inflorescence pieces, sticks and palm fronds. Anything that would tangle around their feet and prevent them from digging around the base of my plants.
And that was just the bottom end of my garden... They used to stay away from the small garden below the back balcony, but recently they've gotten into it and kicked half the mulch out onto the path.
I did some reading and decided to work with a couple of things.
1) People have found that stringing up old teddy bears stops them from visiting the garden. Sort of like a scarecrow. I didn't have any teddy bears to do that with, but I had a few other things that I decorated with instead to see how they would go.
This little guy is now king of the yard.
And I have a Sea Wall!
The jellyfish was from a workshop I did.
The fish I went out and bought this afternoon at a friend's open studio - Studio Elevenlee. My husband's response was, "Awww, tetanus fish,"... different arts for different people 🤣
The turtle I made at a workshop and the seahorse was an old wind chime that I found in the bottom of my gardening box. That box has had a good clean out now!
2) Fences, even though they are flying birds, can apparently still deter them. My neighbours have surrounded their vege garden with chicken wire, but have also put down hay mulch as the chooks don't like how it tangles around their legs.
So I took the pieces of two clotheshorses that we had around the place and made my own fence using cable ties and imagination.
Then I added bamboo to the top.
An then I started adding more things....
Random pieces of wind chime? Check. Old jewellery donated to me that has rusty clasps? Check. Sun catcher that I've had for years and found in a box? Check!
A small creation of mine that has been around for years. It started as part of a beaded headpiece. Then it adorned a flower pot. Now it's a fence-sitter.
Though cute, these flower sprays weren't particularly useful. This one is stabilising the middle of my fence nicely though.
Old mosquito coil holder?
These guys were cute plant ties, also from the box of garden randomness. They're just chillin.
And my garden gnome watches over it all - they have never kicked him over!
As a couple of final touches: I built a bird bath using some pavers and a mosaic bowl that I made years ago; and I put a ceramic flower and a chook in from Studio Elevenlee. I can visualise more of them in this space 😀
My aloe vera out the front was overflowing its pot, so I split a lot of the plants off and either put them in the garden or potted them up. A few little ones here for the laundry window sill, which is a nice, sunny spot.
I finished the day with a couple of well-earned champagnes, and can only hope that they won't destroy my work overnight!!!
I love these refashions, because you get a funky skirt, but functional pockets with it that are often missing from skirts. Now I can wear this to archery!
