Sound Harvest & Garden: There are good birds and bad birds

Saturday, July 28, 2012

There are good birds and bad birds

This week highlights one of the not-so-pretty sides of gardening: fruit destroyed by birds. The figs you see here were just starting to ripen one day, destroyed by birds and subsequently overrun by ants (we have astounding numbers of ants, EVERYWHERE) the next. The 100 degree heat didn't help. Luckily there were enough figs on the tree to give us a nice bucketful as well, but I hate to see these losses.

The apples? Well, just another year of feeding apples to birds in my yard. I do have a net over the tiny young tree, so it's apples are safe, so far. It would be wonderful to actually harvest a mature apple and bite into it in my own yard! I know now why Hitchcock choose these flying terrors for his movie.

But, it is not all bad. The ladies in the chicken coop love the ruined figs, and one of the dogs loves the ruined green apples.

What you may find here

For 7 years this blog reflected my personal gardening experience in a front and backyard on an island in Carteret County, North Carolina. Now I live up the beach, on another North Carolina island, in Dare County. For almost two years my focus has been on settling into a tiny, 720 sq ft cottage, built in 1945. It needed to be gutted and rebuilt, and my job was to design the layout so the house is both cozy and efficient. A few tiny fruit trees now are planted, and the massive live oak has been pruned a bit off our home and the neighbors'. It is beginning to feel alive, and like home.