How To Make a Garden Scarecrow

A garden scarecrow is a valuable addition to your garden. Not only that it serves as a great bird deterrent, it also makes for a charming Halloween garden piece. Here’s how to make your own garden scarecrow.

1. Pick a spot. Choose where you will place your scarecrow. A good choice of location is at the middle of your garden, in areas where you want to protect or where pests have done a great deal of damage to your plants. You can even record birds on video to see where in the garden they tend to gather.

2. Prepare your materials. You can recycle old and unused materials and crafts for your scarecrow. You need the following items to build your garden scarecrow:

• old clothes (such as a long-sleeved t-shirt, sweater or a closed jacket, long pants, gloves and rubber boots) to dress up your scarecrow
• old accessories (such as a hat, glasses, even gardening tools) to make your scarecrow look more realistic
• old cloth (such as old pillow cases, old socks or stockings) to make up the head, hands and feet
• stuffing (such as old magazines and newspapers, old cloth, unused cotton, dried leaves, straw or hay) to give your scarecrow its shape
• coloring materials (water resistant paint and markers) to draw details on your scarecrow such as eyes, a nose and a mouth
• material for the hair (like a wig, yarn, strings, straw, cotton – be creative!)
• sturdy sticks or poles (bamboo, wooden, metal, etc.) to make up the frame (longest), the arms (medium length) and the waist (shortest) of the scarecrow
• materials for fastening (like nails, screws, twine, ropes, strings, and safety pins – make sure that it is weather resistant) to keep the scarecrow in one piece

3. Fasten the medium-length stick for the arms to the longer pole, which serves as the frame of the scarecrow, to make a T shape. After that, attach the shortest stick below the arms to the frame; this will become the waist of the scarecrow.

4. Get the long-sleeved shirt and the pants and close off the ends (the part near the hands and feet) by tying, clamping, or sewing the hems together.

5. Fill the shirt and the pants with the stuffing so that the clothes will look like a person is inside them. Afterwards, stuff the gloves and the boots as well, making sure that you add enough material to make them appear real.

6. Fasten the shirt to the pants using safety pins, sewing, or tying them together. Next, fasten the gloves (hands) to the sleeves (arms). Lastly, fasten the boots (feet) to the pants (legs).

7. Get the cloth for the head and fill it with stuffing. Close the end securely so that the stuffing won’t spill. Decorate it with hair and facial features using your materials, paints and markers. When the head is made, fasten it to the body.

8. Fasten the scarecrow to the frame. Secure the sleeves against the stick, which will prop up the arms. Attach the head and trunk against the upright pole. Tie the waist of the pants to the shorter stick below the arms.

9. Plant the bottom of the pole (the frame of the scarecrow) to the location that you chose earlier.

Congratulations!  You now have a garden scarecrow. He’ll protect your garden, as well as entertain your family and guests, especially during Halloween.