I was standing just outside the door of my condo, looking down at the part of my garden that is still on this end of my building Friday morning, (I moved most of it to the other end, where there is more sun now), when I noticed a bird munching on my broccoli plant. Did you know that birds liked to eat broccoli leaves? I didn’t. I knew they enjoyed tomatoes, since I saw some damage on the few cherry tomatoes my plant produced before June Gloom showed up. But, I had no clue they would eat leaves.
Early yesterday morning, instead of going to the local mall to walk, I went to Lowe’s. There I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I knew it was open, and figured it would be pretty empty. It was. I walked up and down the aisles at a pretty good clip and window shopped, without windows or other customers in the way. I think I only saw two or three in the whole store. When I had walked about a mile, I headed for the garden section and looked for bird netting to prevent the local song birds from damaging my crops. Zip. I did pick up another Hampton deck box for the large tomato plant I bought last week and a smaller matching container for a yellow straight necked squash transplant I picked up at the same time. The planter came with a saucer, so I didn’t need anything else.
Then it was off to Green Thumb, where I knew I would find the bird netting I needed. I bumped into a helpful employee who showed me where I could find the netting, but then recommended something more convenient. How did he know I’m in to doing things the easy way? Maybe he is too. He pointed out a display of several rolls of “bird scare tape”. It looks like it is made of Mylar, like the birthday balloons you can buy at the florist. It’s red on one side and silver on the other. It’s almost an inch wide, and the roll is one hundred and fifty feet long. Wow. That should last for years in my small condo garden.
Late this winter, I bought several plastic covered stakes to secure fabric in my garden to protect my new plants from wind and driving rain. I still have them, of course. They will last forever. Now that my plants are getting more sun, partially because I moved them to the sunny side of the building, but mostly because it has turned into summer around here, I am expecting the green tomatoes on my plants to turn red soon. Birds have found my third floor condo garden and will definitely notice bright red tomatoes.
In a day or two when the temperature outside lets up a bit, (it was over ninety here yesterday), I’ll go out and place stakes in several pots in my garden. Then I’ll cut strips of the reflective tape and tie them to the stakes at various levels. As the wind blows through the breezeway, the tape will move in the wind and scare the birds away. I don’t know if it’s the bright sunlight bouncing off the two different colored surfaces of the tape, or the movement of the tape itself that keeps them away. I don’t really care. It’s inexpensive and non-toxic. Best of all, it’s easy to find, easy to set up and easy to use.
Until next time,
Elizabeth
