Your GARDENING FORTNIGHT
Lucy explains how to make the most of the next few weeks
Safely deter birds from your fruit I am a huge fan of growing my own fruit on the plot. Strawberries are such a popular edible – definitely due to their deliciousness, but also because they crop quickly. Many fruit trees, canes and bushes only come into their own after two to three years, but if you wait that long, boy, will you be rewarded.
Currants, gooseberries, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, wineberries and raspberries all crop profusely once plants are established, and I guess we’d best take it as a compliment that it’s not just us that want to eat them. If you don’t protect all these fruits from birds (especially blackbirds, you greedy beauties!) as soon as they start to show signs of ripening then they’ll eat a significant proportion of them. And have you noticed how birds have this uncanny ability to consume home-grown fruits just before they’re fully ripe? It’s most annoying!
We used to simply suggest throwing netting loosely over plants, but in these days of vastly improved wildlife mindfulness, this is frowned upon. Birds can easily get caught up in slack nets, causing distress and even death. So, how should we protect our harvests safely? The solution is to use wire mesh, instead of nets. This can be held taut so that birds can’t become ensnared. We’ve niftily created lots of mesh grids for our home plot. I use them to build a modular system of cages to protect fruit plants of all shapes and sizes. This wall of strawberries, for example, will be shielded from birds using two rows of grids secured to the shed wall via a wooden baton.
For my blueberries, I’ll instead make a low cube-like cage, lashing the grids together using strong wire. It’s important to use the smaller-sized chicken wire (25mm) instead of the larger (50mm) one, to ensure smaller birds can’t get through. Once harvest is complete, the grids are dismantled and flat-packed in our garage– simple, yet very effective.
