Save Your Strawberries From the Birds

*waves from the hills*

We, recently, went to a farm where they grow 200 varieties of irises. (First 3 are pics from my phone, sorry.)


I bought several,  but I especially liked these purple ones called Royal Crusader. I wish I’d taken pictures of the farm because it was beautiful on the way back to the hill where these were planted, but I didn’t think they’d appreciate that. If you are near Maryville, TN and love irises you may want to visit Ferguson’s Iris as they have so many to choose from and charge only $2 for them.

 

We had gone to see the granddaughters and one of them showed me a nest that some barn swallows built on the underside of a utility trailer. That’s horse hair hanging down from the muddy nest.

Here’s the source of the hair. o.O I’ve watched birds pluck fur from a dog’s back so I reckon horses are fair game, too.


In my last post I mentioned that we had to do some preventive maintenance in order to save our strawberries. I had left several berries on the plants to ripen fully, but when I went to pick them - look at that strawberry eaten to a nub!


The Culprit. I saw this robin and a mockingbird leave the raised beds every time I looked out at the them. Cheeky isn’t he.


Goodman cut some small rebar posts in 3 sections ea., for 16 in. posts and put them in the beds to hold 1/2 in. plastic pipe in place as a frame. He used 10 pieces per bed, and they stand up about 4 inches above the soil level in the beds. The pipe was cut long enough to arch over the beds and simply placed over the posts.


We then covered the plastic piping with bird/wildlife netting.  The netting and pipe he bought at Lowe's Home Improvement Center.  The spaces in the netting are just under an inch square, big enough for the insects that pollinate the flowers to go in and out easily but too small for the birds to enter. Yay!


We used small plastic wire ties to hold the netting in place. It’s workin’.


Robin = 5 berries,  Us = 2 bowls full, so far

Have a great week, Y’all. 

Participating in Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop,  The Art of Home-Making Mondays