I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now with a great deal
of help from the under-gardener. I think we started this project in early
Spring.

It's coming along but I don't know if I'd have ever started if I'd realised
what a big job it was going to be.

Our veg garden is on the north western side of the house (it'd be about a
fifth of an acre I guess). It has a 6 ft high fence along the western edge
with shade cloth all along it to stop the westerly winds. Outside this
fence is a windbreak of wattles and smaller native shrubs.

One day I was in the veg garden and wondering whether I should plant more
trees shrubs on the northernmost end of the windbreak when I suddenly
realised that there was a perfect spot for me to punch out the fence and
build a big fruit cage out into the windbreak area as there really was no
more space in the veg garden for one.

Great idea, but then came the work. Pull down the shade cloth on that end
of the veg garden, drop the fence. Think about the structure and realise
that if we put in a long post to support the remainder of the fence, we
could use this as the corner post of the fruit cage. Put in 5 more posts.
Put up sheep wire on western and southern side of fruit cage, cover that
with shadecloth. Put fence back up and put shadecloth back on fence.

Start putting timber edging in for beds starting on southern side - do some
soil improvement on that side. Beds will be in a 'U' shape. Realise that I
have a Sultana grap in a pot that has been in the pot too long. Put it in
the fruit cage on the southern wall and start training it up the wires.
Realise that I need to stop snakes/lizards getting in around edges behind
where the timber sits to hold the soil in the beds - pefect spot for snakes
and lizards to get in. Stuff cheap black bird netting at bottom of
sheepwire/shadecloth and top it with large pine chunk mulch from another
part of the garden weaving birdnetting over and through mulch. Mulch path
with fine wood chips.

At this stage I still have 2 sides of the 'U' beds to finish and the
northern wall is till as bare as a bobies bottom but for for that side I've
bought a roll of 6ft high bird netting. To think how many berries I coul
dhave bought for the cost of that wire - not sensible but then what gardener
ever is sensible.

We need to put something across the top to support a roof (steel/2 inch
plastic? Yet to be decided.) Roof will probably be of white bird netting.
Then I have to get a door shape welded up so that it fits closely into a
door frame (again to exclude snakes) and cover that with bird wire. So much
to do still....... Perhaps it will be ready by next spring Sigh!

FarmI wrote:
I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now with a
great deal of help from the under-gardener. I think we started this
project in early Spring.

It's coming along but I don't know if I'd have ever started if I'd
realised what a big job it was going to be.

Our veg garden is on the north western side of the house (it'd be
about a fifth of an acre I guess). It has a 6 ft high fence along
the western edge with shade cloth all along it to stop the westerly
winds. Outside this fence is a windbreak of wattles and smaller
native shrubs.
One day I was in the veg garden and wondering whether I should plant
more trees shrubs on the northernmost end of the windbreak when I
suddenly realised that there was a perfect spot for me to punch out
the fence and build a big fruit cage out into the windbreak area as
there really was no more space in the veg garden for one.

Great idea, but then came the work. Pull down the shade cloth on
that end of the veg garden, drop the fence. Think about the
structure and realise that if we put in a long post to support the
remainder of the fence, we could use this as the corner post of the
fruit cage. Put in 5 more posts. Put up sheep wire on western and
southern side of fruit cage, cover that with shadecloth. Put fence
back up and put shadecloth back on fence.
Start putting timber edging in for beds starting on southern side -
do some soil improvement on that side. Beds will be in a 'U' shape.
Realise that I have a Sultana grap in a pot that has been in the pot
too long. Put it in the fruit cage on the southern wall and start
training it up the wires. Realise that I need to stop snakes/lizards
getting in around edges behind where the timber sits to hold the soil
in the beds - pefect spot for snakes and lizards to get in. Stuff
cheap black bird netting at bottom of sheepwire/shadecloth and top it
with large pine chunk mulch from another part of the garden weaving
birdnetting over and through mulch. Mulch path with fine wood chips.

At this stage I still have 2 sides of the 'U' beds to finish and the
northern wall is till as bare as a bobies bottom but for for that
side I've bought a roll of 6ft high bird netting. To think how many
berries I coul dhave bought for the cost of that wire - not sensible
but then what gardener ever is sensible.

We need to put something across the top to support a roof (steel/2
inch plastic? Yet to be decided.) Roof will probably be of white
bird netting. Then I have to get a door shape welded up so that it
fits closely into a door frame (again to exclude snakes) and cover
that with bird wire. So much to do still....... Perhaps it will be
ready by next spring Sigh!

What specifically are you excluding? I have some toothy beastie eating my
ripe tomatos right now. I think it is rats because there are holes with
scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put down
ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I don't think it
is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and the attack is always
from the underside. What else could it be? Any ideas?

David

David Hare-Scott wrote:

What specifically are you excluding? I have some toothy beastie eating
my ripe tomatos right now. I think it is rats because there are holes
with scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put
down ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I don't
think it is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and the attack
is always from the underside. What else could it be? Any ideas?

David

I've seen a blue-tongue lizard eating tomatoes! I kept wondering why my
tomatoes never got past the size of a cherry: they kept dropping and
'disappearing'. Then, one day I saw Mr Bluey climb up the fence (helped
by my excellent tomato trellis) and gobble up the little green tomatoes
with great gusto. The look on his face as he swallowed was something
between smugness and religious ecstasy. I left those bushes for him and
grew a batch of cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets for the family.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
FarmI wrote:
I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now (snip)

What specifically are you excluding?

I'm trying to exclude all birds, all snakes, blue tongue lizards. Skinks
would be OK.

I have some toothy beastie eating my ripe tomatos right now. I think it
is rats because there are holes with
scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put down
ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I don't think it
is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and the attack is always
from the underside. What else could it be? Any ideas?

Rats, bush rats (is there a difference?), mice, blue tongues, some of the
other bigger lizard varieties, birds of all sizes. Dunno really. Just
guesses but I'm sure we've had all of those things (except perhaps bush rats
because I have no idea whaatsoever what they are other than the fact that
some friends have complained of them). Each year we find we have to cover
more and more things with bird netting to get a crop.

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
David Hare-Scott wrote:

What specifically are you excluding? I have some toothy beastie eating
my ripe tomatos right now. I think it is rats because there are holes
with scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put
down ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I don't
think it is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and the attack
is always from the underside. What else could it be? Any ideas?

David

I've seen a blue-tongue lizard eating tomatoes! I kept wondering why my
tomatoes never got past the size of a cherry: they kept dropping and
'disappearing'. Then, one day I saw Mr Bluey climb up the fence (helped by
my excellent tomato trellis) and gobble up the little green tomatoes with
great gusto. The look on his face as he swallowed was something between
smugness and religious ecstasy. I left those bushes for him and grew a
batch of cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets for the family.

I know that look. We had a huge Bluey in our garden who used to look over
his shoulder as he schlepped out his tongue and took in a whole huge
strawberry at a time. We got a whole 6 strawberries the year he was around
but he was so gorgeous, we considered the strawbs were a fair trade for his
company.

FarmI wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
FarmI wrote:
I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now (snip)

What specifically are you excluding?

I'm trying to exclude all birds, all snakes, blue tongue lizards. Skinks
would be OK.

I have some toothy beastie eating my ripe tomatos right now. I
think it is rats because there are holes with
scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put
down ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I
don't think it is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and
the attack is always from the underside. What else could it be? Any
ideas?

Rats, bush rats (is there a difference?), mice, blue tongues, some of
the other bigger lizard varieties, birds of all sizes. Dunno really.
Just guesses but I'm sure we've had all of those things (except
perhaps bush rats because I have no idea whaatsoever what they are
other than the fact that some friends have complained of them). Each
year we find we have to cover more and more things with bird netting
to get a crop.

It is interesting to see the seasonal variation that you get. You can
understand why people speak of 'plagues' of things. I mean other than the
really obvious plagues such as locusts.

Last year we were hit by fruit fly and possums, they were lifting up the
nets and doing all kinds of things to get to the fruit (the possums that
is). This year neither. The stone fruit harvest has been pretty good, lost
some to fungus but not to beasties. We are bottling plums almost daily. I
have fresh peaches for breakfast. :-))

A new tomato cultivar, yellow pear, is proving a winner as a salad vege.
They are about 4cm long and yellow when ripe and shaped like a pear (duh!).
Good producers, good flavour, not subject to pests too much. We gave away a
couple of kilos to neighbours as they would be too fiddly to bottle by far.

Somehow the pumpkins and the sweet potatos got too close (don't ask). Fight
ye buggers fight! Pumpkins have the upper hand right now but the chances
are the sweet taters will outlast them if the weather stays humid as the
pumkins will get mould and be set back giving the taters some light.

On the whole not a bad season so far.

David

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
FarmI wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
FarmI wrote:
I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now (snip)

What specifically are you excluding?

I'm trying to exclude all birds, all snakes, blue tongue lizards. Skinks
would be OK.

I have some toothy beastie eating my ripe tomatos right now. I
think it is rats because there are holes with
scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure. I have put
down ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear. I
don't think it is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and
the attack is always from the underside. What else could it be? Any
ideas?

Rats, bush rats (is there a difference?), mice, blue tongues, some of
the other bigger lizard varieties, birds of all sizes. Dunno really.
Just guesses but I'm sure we've had all of those things (except
perhaps bush rats because I have no idea whaatsoever what they are
other than the fact that some friends have complained of them). Each
year we find we have to cover more and more things with bird netting
to get a crop.

It is interesting to see the seasonal variation that you get.

It is indeed. I love nearly all the wildlife (except snakes) but they can
sure be a real pain in the bum for gardeners.

You can
understand why people speak of 'plagues' of things. I mean other than the
really obvious plagues such as locusts.

Right now I have a plague of mites in my chookpen. Truly, horrifyingly
disgusting. I've had to move the 2 remaining chooks and thier one chicken
into a temporaray pen or they'd be eaten alive. I'm going into the old pen
cleaning and fumigating covered in Bushman Repellant and then climbing fully
clothed into the shower. It gives me the itches just thinking about it.

BTW, We've used Molasses and water in the vineyard to stop the grasshoppers
and it seems to have worked.

Last year we were hit by fruit fly and possums, they were lifting up the
nets and doing all kinds of things to get to the fruit (the possums that
is). This year neither.

Possums are one thing we don't have, thankfully. Perhaps too many big
raptors round here for them or too many other birds in the trees or perhaps
not enough old trees with hollows. Incredible beasties, but as a gardener,
I don't want possums.

The stone fruit harvest has been pretty good, lost
some to fungus but not to beasties. We are bottling plums almost daily.
I have fresh peaches for breakfast. :-))

Oh nuts! I'm envious. The bloody sulphur cresteds have stripped all my
plums including my prunes, and I noticed today that they've started on my
quinces so I must get them covered next.

A new tomato cultivar, yellow pear, is proving a winner as a salad vege.
They are about 4cm long and yellow when ripe and shaped like a pear
(duh!).

I don't know those. Did you plant them from seed and if so, where did you
get the seed?

Good producers, good flavour, not subject to pests too much. We gave away
a couple of kilos to neighbours as they would be too fiddly to bottle by
far.

Somehow the pumpkins and the sweet potatos got too close (don't ask).
Fight ye buggers fight! Pumpkins have the upper hand right now but the
chances are the sweet taters will outlast them if the weather stays humid
as the pumkins will get mould and be set back giving the taters some
light.

On the whole not a bad season so far.

Yeah same here, despite some really hot spells. My lettuce (looseleaf) is
bitter (not grown fast enough) so I can't use a lot of it in salads but it's
prolific. The chooks are loving it.

FarmI wrote:

It is interesting to see the seasonal variation that you get.

It is indeed. I love nearly all the wildlife (except snakes) but
they can sure be a real pain in the bum for gardeners.

You can
understand why people speak of 'plagues' of things. I mean other
than the really obvious plagues such as locusts.

Right now I have a plague of mites in my chookpen. Truly,
horrifyingly disgusting. I've had to move the 2 remaining chooks and
thier one chicken into a temporaray pen or they'd be eaten alive. I'm
going into the old pen cleaning and fumigating covered in Bushman
Repellant and then climbing fully clothed into the shower. It gives
me the itches just thinking about it.

As a boy (strictly a city boy then) I was sent to catch some chooks and to
put them into a new pen. When I came back with my skin crawling nobody
would come near me, they all thought it was a hoot.


BTW, We've used Molasses and water in the vineyard to stop the
grasshoppers and it seems to have worked.


That's interesting I have some of them right now. How do you do it? What
effect does the 'lasses have?


A new tomato cultivar, yellow pear, is proving a winner as a salad
vege. They are about 4cm long and yellow when ripe and shaped like a
pear (duh!).

I don't know those. Did you plant them from seed and if so, where
did you get the seed?


I am not 100% sure but it could have been Diggers Club, their catalog is on
their web site.

David