Ah the classic Scarecrow, truly a mainstay of peoples vegetable patches over the years.  Scarer of birds and amuser of children. In the Wizard of Oz it was someone desperately in need of a Higher Education degree, in Worzel Gummidge’s case it was an  inanimate pile of straw turned  sentient being who was constantly trying to get his end away with a store manikin.  The Scarecrow is a bit of fun that adds some colour to your vege patch but as most folks know it is generally highly ineffective at actually scaring birds.  However today I am going to teach you Big Angry Trev’s secret to building a Scarecrow that actually works!  And the good news is, it’s actually easier to make than the classic one!

You will need the following materials:

One 1.8m x 15cm x 3cm board

One 1.5m x 15cm x 3cm board

One 40cm x 5cm x 3cm board

One 2 meter metal stake

4 wood screws

One potplant pot, bright for preference

One pile of plastic wrapping

One pair of pants with elastic waistband, synthetic and red for preference

One adult males top, synthetic and red for preference

One pair of gloves

One cap, red for preference

Bailing twine

Tools

One drill

One permanent marker

One sledgehammer

 

Now a lot of these material choices may seem weird to your classic Scarecrow constructor, but I will explain my reasoning for these choices at the end.

 

Step One:

Pop the 1.5m board through the tops sleeves.  So that it sticks out either end evenly.  Put the 1.8m board through the top so that at least 40cm of it pokes out the neck hole.  Screw the two pieces together.

Step Two:

Put the gloves on, going over the cuffs of the sleeves and ends of the wood.  Tie in place with bailing twine.

Step Three:

Strech the pants over the piece of wood, the wood should be long enough that when you stretch the elastic waist band over it that the band snaps back over it and holds it in place.  Screw the short piece of word about 2 inches above where the clothing top ends, through the pants at the back which will help hold them up.

Step Four:

Take your pot and draw a face on it (you can go for scary but this really won’t make much difference to the birds and may scare your kids so I go for friendly).  Pop a hat on the top.  Stick on the top of your Scarecrow and take a bunch of plastic wrapping or old plastic bags and stuff inside to help secure in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Five:

Hammer your metal stake in.  Tie your scarecrow in at least two different points to the stake using bailing twine.

Ta-da!  You have yourself a Scarecrow!

 

Why Big Angry Trev’s Scarecrow is more effective than the classic design

*The Clothing is Polyester instead of Cotton:  It will hold moisture less and be more resistant to the elements, therefore less inclined to rot or weigh down you Scarecrow so it falls over due to water logging.

*The head is Plastic: No rot at all compared to a stocking filled with straw

*No Straw – Point 1:  Everyone insists that you stuff the body and limbs with straw in order to fatten your scarecrow.  No matter what people say, straw will eventually rot.  This will cause your scarecrow to literally come apart at the seams quicker.

No Straw – Point 2: By not stuffing your Scarecrow with straw, it means that the clothing will flutter in the wind. This means movement and movement is far more likely to disturb encroaching birds than a completely stationary effigy.

Bright Colours: Some people actually say birds are colour blind.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  In fact humans are practically colour blind compared to birds, in the same way our sense of smell cannot compare to that of a dogs.  Birds have evolved to recognize that the red of certain flowers and fruit is OK, but for the most part they stay away from red because in nature red more often than not means DANGER!  Your traditional Scarecrow is made up of browns and yellows  natural and non-threatening colours.  By making it have a lot of red, it will have a much greater likelyhood of scaring off these feathered fiends from your hand-grown, home grown veggies.

Boards instead of Broomsticks:  Who the frag keeps breaking off the ends of their broomsticks so that they have spares just lying around?  Who sweeps that hard?  By using boards and wood screws rather than broomsticks and twine your Scarecrow will have far better structural integrity.

 

So will this Scarecrow actually keep birds off your veggies and away from your fruit tree’s?  Debatable.  I know my chooks give it a wide berth but then they aren’t terrified of it either.  If birds are a massive problem then netting or, going to the extreme, a timed scare gun will be more effective.  But those options are either loud or expensive or both.  Scarecrow’s add a bit of kitchy charm to your veggie patch and they are great fun to build with your kids so considering the relative inexpensiveness and simplicity of their construction they can be forgiven for not inciting mass terror amongst birds.  However this Scarecrow has a better fighting chance than most, and I’ve not seen a crow after my silverbeet after popping my rotund fellow up.

Have fun with your Scarecrow Construction!