Tips to keep your garden free of birds, moles, rabbits and gophers

You may be an animal lover, but that still doesn't mean you want them in your garden chomping on your plants. Whether your garden pests are feathered or furry, you'll want some tricks up your sleeves to keep your lettuce your own and your flowers intact.

If your property is windier than most, try this trick for keeping birds away from garden plants. Cut plastic garbage bags into "flags" or long strips and using a staple gun, attach them to tall wooden stakes. When the plastic whips around in the wind, birds will be scared away by both the movement and the noise.

Encircling a flower bed or vegetable plot with garlic plants will discourage squirrels and other furry pests — including voles, shrews and field mice — from making a meal of your plants. Space the garlic plants about 15 centimetres (six inches) apart to ward off hungry intruders.

Run away from their tunnels, that is. Shoveling used cat litter into the tunnel will announce loud and clear that their territory has been invaded and moles will leave your yard in a hurry.

Tip: To tell whether holes in your lawn were dug by gophers or moles, "read" the soil mounds alongside. Gophers leave soil piled in a fan or horseshoe shape, while mounds made by moles are more pyramidal.

Soak rags, paper towels or facial tissues in peanut oil or olive oil and stuff them into gopher or mole holes. The oils will quickly become rancid and stink the critters out of house and home. Or take this less smelly tack: Stick children's pinwheels around the yard and garden; moles and gophers don't like steady clickety-clicking and may escape to a quieter spot.

So your lawn can't compete with Larry's across the street because gophers keep digging tunnels? Maybe Larry knows something you don't — repelling the pests (and their partners in crime, moles) with household ammonia. Do it one of two ways:

• Make a solution of 250 millilitres (one cup) of ammonia to 7.5 litres (two gallons) of water to pour down into the tunnel. When you're done pouring, shovel in some dirt.
•  Soak an old dishcloth with undiluted ammonia and stuff it into the tunnel opening.

Plenty of repellents will turn rabbits away from your garden plants. Among those to try:

• Talcum powder, dried red pepper flakes or garlic powder, dusted on and around plants
• Hair from humans, dogs or cats
• Bars of strong-smelling bath soap placed in vegetable garden rows
• Lemon peels scattered among the plants

The movement of something white mimics the deer's warning signal that predators or other dangers are imminent: flashing the white underside of its tail. Wind-whipped white "flags" that could keep deer out of your vegetable garden are white plastic grocery bags, rags or strips of old T-shirts.

Hammer one to two metre (three to six foot) stakes around your plot at two metre (six foot) intervals. Tack plastic grocery bags to the stakes so they'll billow in the wind, or affix white fabric strips long enough to flutter. If you're lucky, deer will run the other way when the white flags fly.

You'll keep your garden growing beautifully and away from the grabbing claws and beaks of birds and animals with these homemade solutions that safely discourage unwanted visitors.