squirrels/birds and bark chippings

18 years ago

Hi, I am really new to gardening, just had the garden 'done'. New lawn has been laid, with corner borders with bark chippings around plants to prevent too many weeds(giving the lawn a circular look). I have a couple of questions I need advice on.

First: Squirrels(or birds?) not sure which keep digging out the back borders kicking the bark all over the grass....this eventually kills the grass underneath. How do I deter the squirrels/birds from the bark chippings/borders.

Second: Where the border meets the lawn the crisp outline has gone - the flymow chucks the bark chippings all over the grass (which now is starting to look patchy cos the grass dies under the bark bits...) and the grass is creeping into the border. How do I maintain a nice sharp edge - do I need to put some kind of border division between the two - grass one side - border the other? Just so don't know what to do. Any advice extremely welcome!

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Comments (3)

Kimmsr
18 years ago
Many birds will scratch to find food, insects of all kinds, and many of those may well live in your bark mulch. All those birds are doing is trying to find something to eat or to feed their young.
To maintain a sharp border, and to aid in keeping the mulch on the bed and out of the lawn and to keep the lawn from encroaching on the planting bed, you need a border, edging to keep the grass roots from invading the bed, and possibly some thing for the wheels of the mower to ride on (brick, block, stone, wood) and to keep the whirling blade from picking up the mulch.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
18 years ago
and just forget about the black pipe edging... waste of time and money installing ....

go to the library ... yeah .. turn off the computer... and browse the garden books and just focus on the pix of garden beds .. and study how others do it ...

i round up my beds.. and leave a 6 to 9 inch dead zone between the mulch and the grass .... keeps the mower away ... and allows the robins to search the chips for whatever they are looking for... i doubt it has anything to do with squirrels ... but maybe you have some weird ones ....

since you are a newbie.. please understand that your garden is not a static picture.. it looked like the finished product you paid for for one day.. the next day.. its time to change it.. or it will change itself... that is one of the zen qualities of gardening ...

good luck

ken

PS: a picture sure might help for better opinions....
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ianblue
11 years ago
I sympathise entirely.

I have exactly the same problem.

Firtly when I cut the lawn along the edge the blast from the hover mower blows the bark chippings and grass cuttings onto the path. As the path is hard standing I can sweep up when finished mowing.

My other border is more problematic. This is covered with bark and the birds peck the chippings over a 50mm wooden edge on to the decorative path chippings. This is a real pain on the butt. I have today raked the bark back 50mm and replaced with a mulch of compost which dosen't have any bits to peck. I will see how that goes.

Like you I like a smart edge to the lawn which I can mow up to and have used SMARTEDGE (google smartedge.co.uk) This is a robust plastic edging which can follow the curve of the lawn.