garden frusterations

We have truly loved having a garden. It's a great feeling to be able to eat something you've grown. But of course gardening doesn't come without its frustrations.

Our tomatoes have been under attack. Our back yard must be a paradise for grackles ( very ugly loud obnoxious bird). Sometimes we come home and the back tree is full of them squawking and screeching. They never bothered me so much until I found out how persistent they would be to eat my tomatoes. It was an exciting day when we noticed our first tomato just beginning to turn a rosy color. It was quite depressing to go out the next day and find it half eaten.






So we set out trying to protect out endangered fruit. At home, farmers drape tinsel all over their vineyards to scare away the bird. The flashing metallic strands blow in the wind and scare the birds off. I thought i'd give it try. I picked up cheap pie tins and the dollar store around the corner and tied them to my tomato stakes. Not only did they blow and flash in the wind, they were also noisy and clanky!!!




Just to add a little bit more pizazz to it all, we built a scare crow. It's what they do in the movies, so it must be fool proof.




Obviously there would be no post if this all worked. Sure enough, the grackles got into our tomatoes again. They really are brave little buggers! We had to resort to what I had been avoiding since the beginning.... netting the plants. I didn't want to net the plants since it would make it harder to pick the tomatoes. Plus it was another ten dollars I didn't want to spend if I didn't have to.

So the net worked to keep the birds out. Thankfully. This morning I went out to pick our precious tomatoes. I had a couple huge tomatoes and a couple smaller ones I'd been keeping an eye on. After crawling under the nets, I was met again with disappointment. The nets did a fantastic job at keeping the birds out. But there was another little pest getting my tomatoes. And while I didn't see the pest myself, I saw the evidence and know exactly what it was. Last fall we had this ivy weed growing up the side of our house. One day I noticed it, and the next day it was gone. But on the remaining vines were HUGE caterpillar things. Bright green, longer than my longest finger, and as big around as a quarter. They dropped little black pellets all over the ground underneath. A few months later, I found the same huge caterpillars demolishing my pretty flowers in the front of my house. The plant just simply disappears. This morning, the first thing I noticed after crawling under the net was the black pellets on the ground around my plants. The sight of these brought a sinking feeling to my stomach. I examined further and found leafless branches on the plants as well. And last but not least, my huge tomatoes were half eaten!! I searched all over the plants and could not find a single caterpillar though. So this is my hope (crossing fingers). I'm hoping that somehow they died from eating my plants. This is why I think this isn't completely unreasonable: Russell noticed a few days ago one tomato that looked like it had been chomped on by some critter. If the caterpillars were eating my plants a few days ago, the plants would have been completely eaten up by now. They really eat that fast!! But since my plants are still around, (still crossing fingers) i'm hoping that tomatoes are poisonous to these nasty beasts. I'm going to be keeping a keen eye on things though for the next few days......