On Feb 16, 9:57�am, "James" wrote:
On Feb 16, 9:19 am, George Shirley wrote:





James wrote:
Produce is high these days. *Cheapest for me for 5 daily store bought
fruit & vege servings a banana, cabbage, dry beans, carrot, squash.

Home grown is even more expensive because animals and birds eat my
fruits before they ripe. *I do however get a few odd veges and a good
crop of tomatoes and garlic each year.

Try using bird netting to cover your fruit trees, I use it with great
success to keep the grackles and squirrels out of the several fruit
trees I have. A good cat or small dog will keep them out of your garden
area. My rat terrier does a fine job of running squirrels and birds out
of the veggie garden, doesn't even try to kill them, just enjoys running
them off.

Biggest bang for your buck is growing your own. We canned 42 pints of
green beans last year from a 24 foot row of Bush Blue Lake green beans.
Plenty of broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes,
and various greens too. More than enough to feed the wife and I plus
extras for the dog, who enjoys veggies.

George

It's pretty hard to net a 30' high tree.

Once a bird was under the grape netting. *It found a way in but
couldn't find a way out. *Trouble with fruits is if you're the only
one growing them every bird and animal in the neighborhood stops by
for a snack.

What type of tree... orchard/grove trees are typically no more than
15' tall... sounds like yours need serious pruning.... how are you
harvesting fruit 30' up? If your trees are kept tall primarily for
shade/specimen planting then there's nothing much to be done about
marauders. My vegetable garden is fenced with 5' turkey wire, but it
also contains blueberry bushes and strawberry plants, those get
netted. I also employ plastic owls (Cabela's has the best prices),
those keep a lot of birds away... I also have a few whirlagigs
attached to the fence, the constant whirring, clacking, and the fence
vibrating keeps a lot of poachers away. With netting it's not
necessary to cover completely, in fact no matter how carefully you
apply the netting some birds will find their way in... so the trick is
to leave a few escape routes... the little a couple three birds eat
won't hardly be noticed... and having some birds is very helpful, they
eat beetles and cut worms, they also help fertilize.

Sheldon