Bird table generates weeds

[WendyS]

Where do all you birdwatchers locate your bird tables? Ours has been on the patio but I'm now faced with an enormous weeding job where the wind and birds have scattered birdseeds into the surrounding borders which are now germinating and growing like crazy.

Would it be better on the lawn? Guess the scattered seeds would still germinate but the mower would cut them down. But will doing this spoil the quality of our lawn? Anybody else had similar problems?

[horselady]

Ours was on the patio until I looked out the window one day and a big fat rat was sitting on the bird table looking back at me! Bird table is now at the other end of the garden.

[Lonnie]

Hi Wendy, another problem, which we found, was the dropped seeds encourage mice, and as for the seeds germinating, there's not much you can do about it, i've put mine towards the top of the garden now, and all I do is keep the grass cut, tidy, but not what I would call a lawn, and its actually quite nice to see Dandilions, Buttercups an Daisy's growing there.

Sorry I can't give you any advice as such, but i'm sure it won't be long before someone does.

[sddsddean]

I've got mine on a gravel area at the bottom of the garden. I purposely did this so that I wouldn't have to walk on mud/grass in the winter to restock the table. The birds still drop seeds but they drop between the stones so that mice etc can't get them, but the 'ground' birds can. When the seeds that are left start to germinate, it is dead easy to pick leaf, seed and root out in one go. About 5 minutes 'weeding' twice a week is ample in Spring/early Summer.

[scubadiver]

Weve got ours in an area of the garden than has membrane covered in bark chippings around it. Dropped seeds on the whole are hoovered up by ground feeding birds and anything that germinates does so on top of the membrane, so is incredibly easy to pull out.

One of our niger feeders hanging over the lawn has a "niger lump" on the ground underneath-even after the attention of the 3 goldfinches that seem to constantly feed off the ground there. Not unduly worried as it seems a relatively small price to pay for having at least 7 goldfinches in almost permanent residence.

[Robinia]

Hi Wendy - I've a bird table on grass so that's no problem, they just get mown over.
However I put seed for the ground feeders on the path between 2 lawns because it's nice & open & they can see any cats approaching. Needless to say the sides & the cracks get lots of weeds - they escape the mower as the grass is a little higher than the path. I just wait until they're big enough to pull out....I've given up worrying about the rough bits...I'd rather see the birds!