How Does Your Garden Grow: Attack Of The Birds

One thing I can say for sure is this whole gardening thing has been an experience. A learning experience. It has mostly been good but there have also been some rough patches which are probably the parts I learned the most from. The most recent thing I’ve learned is that birds like gardens. I didn’t know that before. I thought birds just ate worms. Boy, was I wrong.

We have a little bit of wildlife in our backyard. Lots of squirrels and some cute rabbits as well as birds. When I started the garden I was worried about the bunnies (come on, hasn’t everyone read the story of Peter Rabbit?!). Because of them, I put plants on top of things to keep them out of harm’s way and put wire fencing around them because I definitely didn’t want anything to get eaten by anything other than people. I hadn’t counted on the birds.

My first clue was when I replanted my spinach and after I got a few little plants going, it disappeared. I knew bugs hadn’t gotten it because the whole thing was there one day and gone the next. I was a little bummed but I decided maybe I just wasn’t supposed to have spinach this year so I gave up with that.  Next I decided to try some more basil and cilantro since it seemed to be doing so well and the first time I grew it it didn’t get bothered. Nope, same thing happened. At this point I still wasn’t sure what was eating these plants. Then, something started working on my tomatoes. That’s when I started paying more attention and decided to retaliate.

As soon as a tomato would start to get even the slightest bit of color it would get eaten. One day, I actually saw the birds eating them and that’s when I knew what did it. My first thought was that it is time to get a gun but I restrained myself and settled with netting. I covered every single tomato plant and it has been working! For the first few days those crazy birds tried to figure out ways to get under the netting but I won that battle since I tied it up really good. Now, they can’t get in… and neither can I :) Well, not without a bit of work!

Here are my netted tomato plants:

They still like to grow through the netting and then I have to readjust it so they don’t grow outside of the net and the birds eat them again. Whew! Who knew a couple of pots would be this much work? And so far, I have only gotten about 6 or 7 tomatoes because the birds ate the rest. But at least there are more that are growing so I should be getting some more here pretty soon.

The other plants seem to be doing well though. The above shot shows the peppers. For some reason the birds don’t want to eat those :)

My basil also seems to still be doing well but the cilantro is starting to die out.

The oregano is also still thriving. I need to harvest some soon and dry it or freeze it so I will have some for later.

Now you know the happenings with my little garden. Have you ever had a problem with birds or other creatures? If so, what did you do about it? The more advice I can get the better!

Have a good weekend everybody! Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!