Oh, how you make me mad!
I love to have birds around, except for when I have a fruit tree that is nearing harvest time. We came home in time to find my persnickety pluot (plum/apricot cross) tree loaded with fruit. Thrilled I was. Until I discovered this:
Which prompted me to do this (surely, the neighbors think I’m nutty?):
It worked well for a while, but the birds seem to have seen through my scheme over the weekend. After sampling a few pluots, we all agreed that they were ripe enough to harvest. I’d prefer to leave them on the tree and eat them fresh off the branch as they ripen, but honestly? I’m just not benevolent enough to share any more of my crop with those pesky birds. As it is, they’ve ruined about half the crop. Here’s what we managed to save (you’ll see on the left that I even picked a few lightly pecked fruits, scavenger that I am):
June 23, 2008 @ 11:11 am
I like your method of keeping them away! I’m having the same struggle with slugs and my strawberries. I wish I could just cover them up with bags. Picking them early doesn’t work. They never taste as sweet that way.