On 23/07/2017 22:20, Roger Tonkin wrote:
It's funny the things you find out growing the same crops in a
different location/garden.

My runners are growing and flowering well, but the flowers are
not setting very much. I noticed a neighbour had his runners
surrounded by netting and it looked like net curtains on some!

Asked him why and he said it was because the sparrows eat the
flowers, particularly the red one! - old wives tale (sorry
gardeners tale) though I, then this morning looking out from
the bedroom I saw sparrows eating the flowers.

Never had this where we lived before, although we did have lots
of sparrows - may be the country sparrows had plenty of wild
flowers to eat!

Anyone else had this?

Never seen them eat red bean flowers (mine aren't setting at the moment
due to lack of insects/incessant rain), but yellow crocus always seem to
be a target in spring. This time of year the birds are far too busy
stuffing themselves with my soft fruit to bother about flowers!
(mental note must get around to doing a proper fruit cage)

At the moment I only net high value crops like blueberry as they come
into season. I have enough raspberries to share with the birds.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown