Hello all. I'm new to this grow-your-own business and I have a small space which is a raised wooden bed measuring about 4ft x 4ft with 4 sections. In it, I am growing lots of different things in the section and in one area, I have salad and herbs.

This has been coming on well with some established seedlings (about 10cm) and I have covered with a thin layer of plastic with holes in. Now they are growing so fast, I need to remove the plastic but I live somewhere that people don't want to become allotment-like.

And so, to protect from the birds – I cannot use CDs or a cloche.

Anyone have any discreet suggestions?

Many thanks!

The only problem with using plastic rather than an absorbent black membrane is that rain cannot penetrate, so when you remove the plastic make sure that the ground underneath it is well watered. I would be surprised that in such a small growing space you would suffer much trouble from birds unless there are large areas of concrete around you making every small area of growing space a valuable foraging area for birds who are looking for insects and slugs.

If you have some spare time it might be worth just watching your little plot for half an hour morning and evening which are two of the most frenetic bird feeding times to see what actually visits it, You may find that no extra precautions are needed.

The ~10mm black netting (e.g. guardsman) can be reasonably unobtrusive. If that's unacceptable ... asking them nicely doesn't seem to work .