Flippin' Off The Birds
(Garden • River)
A few of the tomatoes have started subtly changing from green to the slight yellow-green that occurs just before they begin ripening. That and the rather sudden occasional presence of mocking birds perched atop the 8-foot polls driven along side my plants triggered my memory: Oh yeah – it’s time to do something about the birds.
I love growing tomatoes, and I love reading advice from people who successfully grow them, too. And I’ve read a fair bit of advice from folks in other parts of the country who suggest that bird netting should be a last resort, because if you feed the birds around your property, and give them a birdbath or some kind of water access, they won’t be inclined to peck holes in your tomatoes.
That doesn’t work here in semi-south Texas.
I do keep one of the kids’ pools filled with water on a little slab of cement close to the garden and even closer to our Mission-type fig tree, in the pretty much futile hope that the birds will splash around, fill up on all that fresh water and forget about the figs and maters. That effort has, as I indicated, been completely futile.
And about two weeks after we moved onto the One Acre Ranch six years ago, we stopped putting food out for the birds. It was an exercise in silly. You’d fill the bird feeders, 150 birds would descend on them and they’d be picked clean in less than 10 minutes. Rinse, repeat, go find a feed store with a 450-pound sack of sunflower seeds.
We appear to be on the migratory crossroads for many a bird species seeking a warm Mexican vacation, but the birds that cause us grief in the garden are common in many parts of the U.S. The No. 1 tomato terrorist is the mockingbird, followed by the cardinal, some annoying little wrens and then every other fowl.
They probe the garden for weakness, and will happily decimate your prize tomato crop, then sit above you in the trees and squeeze off little white bombs of mirth while you wrend your garments asunder over your losses.
I think our bad vegetable luck with the birds stems from their dense population. Our portion of the lower Brazos River Valley is lush with food sources for birds, including a wide variety of wild berries and an even wider variety of fat, juicy insects. Yet our local population of mockingbirds and cardinals seem to have developed an addiction for tomatoes and figs.
So this year I ordered a preliminary strike and used last year’s fig bird netting to completely enclose the tomato patch (click on the photo for the full view).
Naturally, I then did what all manly gardeners do, and wrapped cut-up pieces of old pantyhose around clusters of tomato fruit, just to let the hornworms know I mean business.
Em hopped inside the net room to provide size perspective; some of the tomato plants now are 5 and a half feet tall or better, and there are some very large green ‘maters expanding amidst all that foliage.
I’d applied fertilizer and water to about 100 plumeria plants in the morning before erecting the tomato netroom in the 93-degree heat, so it was great to watch and feel a major cool front blow through. We got some light, steady rain and a temperature drop of more than 20 degrees.
Thanks for the outdoor AC, God!
→ B.Dunn, May 16, 2009, 08 43 pm
