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My wife started planting vegetables this year - she has starters growing indoors, and soon we will need to move them outside.

Unfortunately, after consulting with my landlord, it turns out we cannot put a fence around the part of our property where we'd be doing our planting - due to potential liability with other people on the property.

But, we can still have outdoor plants - we just need a way to protect them from the local wildlife.

There's a group of turkeys that come by frequently due to someone else on the property feeding them - what's the best way to protect our little garden from them?

The type of plants we're trying to grow are: lettuce, cherry tomatoes, raddishes, poblano peppers, bell peppers, chamomile, lavender, and evening primrose.

Note that this is a condo where we'll be putting our plants out onto a small concrete patio.

Zibbobz
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I don't think you need to worry about turkeys bothering your pots, unless looking for gravel to swallow for their gizzards. I grew all of your plants in "turkey country" for seven years and never had problems with them bothering the plants. They'd roost in nearby trees occasionally and walk past the vegetable patch, but never seemed to eat or damage anything. They tend to eat nuts and grains (and insects) more than anything we grow. In fact, I'd call them beneficial to the garden rather than otherwise. See here and here for more information.

One wildcard, though, is the food that your neighbors feed the turkeys. If they include the vegetables that you're planning on putting in pots, then they may/probably have gotten the turkeys used to those foods and they will eat those vegetables in your pots. If they're feeding them grains and nuts, then I doubt you'll have an issue.

Jurp
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  • They seem to be feeding them birdseed - or something like it - so it's good to know they most likely won't care about radishes et cetera. – Zibbobz Mar 22 '21 at 15:33
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One system might be to raise the pots on a secure table-like structure. Easy to maintain at a height where you don't have to bend so much and the turkeys might pass the pots by. An inexpensive approach might be to set up trestles using pieces of 2x4 wood and metal hinge pieces designed for the purpose, together with solid planks laid on the trestles, and the pots on the planks.

Colin Beckingham
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When you place food out for wildlife , they come to eat it . The deer come up on my wood deck to eat from pots. However I found human hair ( from hairdressers ) was one of the better deterrents to wild life ; just scatter on plants and soil.

blacksmith37
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