A garden center is a covered structure that is open most of the day. Glasshouses, poly tunnels, canopied outdoor sales areas and open-fronted retail buildings all combine a high roof structure with doorways that stay open for trolleys, deliveries and customers. Sparrows and starlings find their way in, settle on the purlins, trusses and hanging-basket rails overhead, and stay — and what accumulates lands on the benches, the displays and the walkways underneath.
The difficulty is that the openings cannot simply be closed. Stock and trolleys move through them all day, and vents and roof lights are open through the growing season. That leaves two things worth doing: treat the openings birds come in through, and close off the parts of the structure that can be closed without affecting how the site is used.
Below are the two Flock Free approaches for this environment.
Treating the Openings
The Flock Free O3 Invisible Netting unit is intended for covered areas, and Flock Free names canopies among them. It is mounted above an entrance and treats the doorway itself rather than the whole building, which is what suits a garden center — the opening keeps working normally for trolleys, stock and staff.
Fit it above the opening birds are actually using. On most sites that is one or two main doorways rather than every entrance.
Flock Free O3 Invisible Netting – Ozone Bird Repellent
$220.00
Flock Free lists canopies, porches, hangars, sheds, barns and warehouses among the covered areas this unit is intended for. Recommended above entrances and doorways.
Netting the Structure
Netting is the method that physically keeps birds out of a space, and in a garden center it suits the parts of the structure that can be closed off without getting in the way — a gable end, the underside of a truss run, a canopy edge, or a bay that is used for storage rather than selling. Flock Free's netting is listed for architectural, aqua-cultural and agricultural bird exclusion.
The anchors matter as much as the net. A glasshouse frame or canopy purlin is light steel, so the Sidewinder Light Steel anchors are the fixing that suits it; a masonry wall or concrete upstand takes a different anchor, and the full hardware range is on the netting collection. A zipper set into the net keeps a netted bay openable, which matters where stock has to come back out.
Bird Netting High Tensile Black 3/4" Mesh 50' x 50'
$755.00
3/4" mesh, high tensile, 50 ft by 50 ft. Listed by Flock Free for architectural, aqua-cultural and agricultural bird exclusion. Black reads as shadow against a roof structure.
Bird Netting Sidewinder Light Steel Pack of 25
$94.57
Anchors for light steel — the fixing that suits a glasshouse frame, canopy purlin or lightweight steel structure. Pack of 25.
Bird Netting Zipper Black HD - 6 Feet long
$17.84
A 6 ft zipper set into the net so a netted bay can be opened for access without cutting the net. Also available in other lengths.
Where To Start
If birds are coming in through one or two main openings that have to stay usable, start at the doorway with the O3 unit. If part of the structure can be closed off without affecting how the site is run, net it — that is the method that ends the problem rather than managing it. Most garden centers end up doing both: the openings treated, and the sections that can be shut off netted.
Prices shown as listed at the time of publication.
Related Bird Control Resources
A garden center has the same structure as other roofed, open-sided buildings — see bird control for covered areas for canopies and open-sided structures generally, warehouses for the roof-steel problem, and agricultural buildings for poly tunnels and growing structures. Garden centers are most often a problem with sparrows, starlings, pigeons and swallows. You can also browse the full Bird Control range.