A cat isnt going to eat your garden, killing birds sucks, try a
sportshorn.







On Mon, 26 May 2003 06:02:16 GMT, "Play4aBuck"
wrote:

Last year I lost several new plants (maybe 7 to 9), tomatoes, peppers, etc,
all plants I had started from seed........ gone over night and part of the
next day. I was ****ED!! My neighbor has about 5 cats that of course run
free. Well one or more of them make a nightly pass through my garden and
this also happens to be the side where my plants continue to be destroyed.
The plants were beheaded about an inch above the ground, most of the leaves
and stems were left laying on the ground. Something chews on the stems a
bit then leaves it lay.

Well last year I bought a trap and caught me a the ugliest cat, a cat from
hell. I never had any plants disappear again after that. I had to buy more
plants from a nursery to replace the plants lost, but I was glad it ended.

Well, here we are a year later and it's starting all over again!! Lost 4
tomatoes and 3 pepper plants, even some of my potatoes plants are getting
ripped. I really wanted to see how these particular tomatoes plants would
do this year. I planted 6 of every thing, but the last few potted tomatoes
got mixed up, so I'm not sure what is what (I planted 4 different types of
tomatoes from seed).

Well, no cat tracks this year.......but one has shit and dug in my new grass
patch twice now, about 10 feet from the garden. I'm thinking it's another
cat ......got to be.....what else would chew a plant off and leave most of
it?? It's not a rabbit!! I looked at the bite marks and I think I know
what it is but I need to see it. I hung the remaining parts of my tomato
plants on the cages just to see if something takes them but nothing does.

OK, so today......I hide by the window for about an hour......just when I'm
about to give up...a black bird lands with a mouth full of greens, and it
starts biting at one of my good plants. DAMN, there are the remains of 3
plants handing there....and it wants to chop down another plant just to take
one leaf?? I bang on the wall and it fly's off. My garden is full of grass
clippings but that's not good enough for this black bird. (It's an ugly
black bird, not shinny like the larger ones I'm use to seeing, maybe this is
a female back bird??)

So I quickly build a make shift scare crow with a tall garden stake, a hat,
and a shirt on a hanger. Then I dust the plants (again) with bug powder and
try to think of other things to do.

I went and BOUGHT replacement plants today and planted them, (of course I
can't find the variety that I grew from seed). I have some 2x4 fence wire
that I ran around some of the plants that were previous attacked. The birds
can still get at the plants but maybe they'll be intimidated by it.

I borrowed a pellet gun today, shot 3 black birds. I must admit I don't
like killing harmless animals for no use but I'm hoping they are smarter
than they look and realize that my garden is not a nest building
smorgasbord.

Any suggestions to rid my garden of black birds? (Oh don't say a cat.) I
don't want to continue to dust my plants until they are 2 foot tall. I
thought about tying fishing string around and in between the cages (down in
TX by the water they do this to keep the seagulls from flying in but it's
higher in the air).

Cheers,
Jim =====Not a killer.......just trying to protect my
young......(plants) :-)