On 7/29/2014 10:54 AM, songbird wrote:
Davej wrote:
I put a bowl of water out there in the
garden. Will that help?

a bowl may not be very attractive to birds,
they often like broad shallow puddles for
bathing or drinking. if you do have a bird
bath they'll prefer one that is broad and
shallow with an edge they can grip in their
feet.

we've not experienced birds eating the
tomatoes that often, we have bird baths,
but they are not in the gardens near the
tomatoes. the only thing we want them to
be attracted to the gardens is for getting
the bugs. so we do not feed the birds here
other than what the plants drop as seeds
and the bugs.

we had a few extra tomato plants this
year and put them outside the fenced garden
and they are near one of the bird baths.
the deer have munched on a few of them
already coming in to get a drink. it will
be interesting to see if we get any kind
of harvest from those plants this year.
last year we had a few tomato plants in
about the same area but the deer and birds
left them alone other than using them as a
spot to perch.


songbird

I've experienced Cardinals, aka Redbirds, pecking tomatoes to get to the
seeds. Mockingbirds here devastate the fig crop if not netted but also
get into the gardens looking for bugs to eat. Have not seen a cardinal
here but would like to know what bird eats stink bugs, would import those.

We have lots of herons, cranes, and the occasional duck into the
retention pond behind our house. Every morning and evening the swallows
and martins are whizzing around out there getting mosquitoes and other
insects. The night crew is little brown bats and frogs. Most of which
are helpful.

Have started seeing deer tracks along the dirt road around the pond
area. Grandson lives down the street and has a children's play fort by
his back fence. Might make a good deer stand with bow and arrow. G

Been gardening the better part of sixty years, no matter what you do the
bugs and critters are going to get their share, might as well enjoy
watching them work.

George