Dear daughter stopped in tonight on her way home from work and as the three of us were chatting in the kitchen, she glanced out the window down toward the blueberry patch. She noticed movement in the bushes and said she thought there might be birds helping themselves to some almost ripe berries.
Papa Pea went out and as he got closer to the area, about six crows flew up out of the bushes. Oh, blast and dang.
Well, that meant only one thing. We had to cover the bushes if we were going to get a blueberry crop for ourselves.
The rough ground you see in the foreground is an area we're working up for more planting space. To plant out to feed the wild birds and assorted critters. Not.
Bless our daughter's heart, she stayed and helped us get a covering of Agribon fastened down over the whole patch.
While we were in the process of doing so, a
I know it's all part of gardening, but these little frustrations are really . . . well, just that. A frustration.
13 comments:
Oh that's a bummer! But at least someone saw them and you got the row cover on
Wait, WHY are you tilling up more space??? Didn't you skip planting the field garden this year or last year???
Ditto on what Michelle said!!?? Those critters don't miss a beat when it comes to food! Glad you saw them and got the crop covered up before they made serious inroads. One can visualize 3 humans after one chippy!!
My husband is currently waging war against squirrels in the apple trees. I think it might break him. Its like the last straw in a world gone mad LOL!
Nancy - It was about a month ago when we saw the robins starting to eat the fruit from our haskap berry bushes so we had to cover them. (Small job compared to covering the number of blueberry bushes.) So we've been on the alert for robins in the blueberries and haven't seen a one. Now that the crows(!) have moved in on the blueberries, it's another war to be waged!
Michelle - It gets complicated, doesn't it? Last year we did let the field garden "rest" and ended up being unhappy we did. Had to buy potatoes all year :o( plus some other crops we had no room for. Two years ago we pulled out our raspberry patch (boy, do I miss them) which was to the left of the blueberries pictured. That whole area is close to the tree line and doesn't get as much sun as we would like so it will be "abandoned" when we move the blueberries and start more raspberries in the new area. Plus, hubby wants to try growing some nut trees in the new area, too. (I think he's nuts. Haha.)
Rosalea - Yep, getting the little chippy to abandon his hideaway was like trying to herd cats.
SmartAlex - Our gardening "problems" don't BEGIN to compare with much bigger, more serious current world-gone-mad situations, for sure. Still, when one is trying to bring self-responsibility into one's life, having the time and effort of gardening snatched away by marauding wild critters doesn't seem quite fair. (As does so much going on these days.) Your husband and I might be sharing that bottle of wine if we were neighbors. Or maybe we should set it out for the squirrels and crows?
Gotta to love Chip and Dale probably isn’t far behind. Crows ah yes smart birds . I haven’t had any issues with ours yet. They tend to hang out on the property next to the barn and hold “board meetings “ on the transformer. Which irritates the Pyrenees to no end as they are birds of prey and the guardian dogs know it .
Good thing you and Papa Pea are prepared for any eventuality!
Goatldi - Prepared for any eventuality . . . ha! If only. When we had to cover the three haskap berry bushes to keep the harvest safe from the robins, we used several old pieces of Agribon that had seen better days. Last night knowing we had to cover the whole blueberry patch, Papa Pea said it was time to break out the new 30' x 100' roll of the stuff we had bought a couple of years ago and stuck away in storage. The man I live with sometimes drives me nuts with his back-ups for the back-ups, but more and more I have to appreciate this trait of his. (I think I've decided to keep him.)
The crows are a pain in the neck! They eat all the suet and seeds in the feeders I put out. WE have a few blueberries bushes that aren't mature yet,but when they are we'll have to cover them also. Then I think for a minute that they have to survive too! The chipmunks love to dig holes in my flower garden. It's a no win situation. Take care!!
linnellnickerson - It's kind of strange but this is the first year the crows have seemed interested in the blueberries. There have been a couple of years when we had to cover the bushes because of robins getting in them, and then there have been many years when we haven't had to cover them at all. Can you figure it out? I sure can't! Hoping everyone is happy and healthy at your house.
I used to think of chipmunks as 'cute', until they came through my strawberry bed and took ONE bite out of each and every berry. Enter the chipmunkenator. I threw my hands up and sacrificed all my red currants to the birds (as if I had a choice). But I would not willingly sacrifice my blueberries, either! Sometimes gardening is much like warfare, isn't it?
Susan - Yep, much like warfare. And extreme frustration. And lots of good, cold white wine. This morning as we were sitting at breakfast we saw the crows flying in and out of the apple trees. Now the apples are totally green still, not anywhere near ripe but all the same, my husband asked if I knew how to make a "blackbird pie."
I no longer enjoy chipmunks either--we've been waging war this year with them. And there is a squirrel or two that will certainly be in our pot this fall because they are raiding our apple trees. It's a struggle enough to grow things, and then the critters come and make it even harder. Grrrrr.
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