The Nesting Enemy

Most of my readers will have memories of the little song "Robin in a Cherry Tree, sing a little song for me"  or something similar.   A harbinger of spring, we always look forward to seeing the red breasted bird arrive.  He is so intent when pulling out worms, listening intently and never giving up, pulling, pulling until there teh earthworm dangles from his beak.  Or maybe only a portion of the worm, but no matter, the bird won the fight.  So cute and clever!
        My feelings about robins now are much different than in those unknowing days of singing.  Yes, I have robins in my cherry tree, and I intend to clear out the nest!  Again! I thought I had done this last fall, but this year I can see that they are very good at home restoration.
       These feathered thieves are worse than any camp robber jay.  We have three cherry trees in our orchard and it is very seldom we get to eat any of the cherries they produce.  The birds are gobbling the fruit before it has a chance to  fully ripen. I have even tried to pick early, but that doesn't work either. They consume the sour pie cherries just as rapidly.  I always hope their stomachs ache.  The pit is left on the tree, totally bare, stripped clean, still hanging from the stem attached to the tree.  A symbol I see each time I mow the lawn.
        Robins devour strawberries just as rapidly, maybe even faster.  They don't have to worry about the pit and who cares about a little green leaf in an aviary diet.   Yes, I have tried the covering with a net "prevention."  All that means is that the owner of the fruit has to clear out the bodies of the birds who get trapped beneath the net, stomachs full of the produce, and they can't get out.  Maybe they are too bottom heavy for takeoff!  I just know I have had my share of bird fatalities with nets.  It stinks, in more ways than one!
        We have gone through the cherry war for this current year. Now they have moved on to my ripening black currants.   My source of jam, jelly and rich purple syrup that is such a treat for the whole neighborhood!   I watched the birds fly from the nuded cherry tree to the currant bushes,  diving in, sweeping out.  So I commenced to mow the lawn in that area---no bird action.  I no more than turned off the machine and entered my kitchen to prepare a meal, turning to look through the patio doors into the backyard and the
creatures were back in action.
        I wish I could convince my mamma cat to sit by the currants.  That fiesty little lady would make a very good guard.  I have seen her in action with birds she has nabbed.  But she has business elsewhere and cats aren't much for guard duty.  I am having wishes for my BB gun of yore, or even a 22.
      In the meantime I pick whatever berries are ready, as fast as I can.  I know the enemy has the berry patch in its sights, in fact I just saw one sitting within 3 yards above me on a stack of oil cans behind the bushes.  Arrogant creature, not even needing the protection of the cherry leaves, just waiting for my departure! Smug features, greedy appetites intact!

Garden Progree---or Not

Pulling weeds this afternoon in the hot sunshine set my thinker in motion of past gardens.  We have lived here for 50 years.  It is easy to remember because I brought my first child home to this house. Our first mortgaged home.  She was born on May 29, 1963, so this makes a golden anniversary for our being on the farm. 

            I have had a garden of some sort most of those years.  I inherited some flowers when we bought the farm and tried to maintain them.  My mother-in-law helped me learn the world of weeding.  Which was a plant that was desirable, which went on the discard pile.  She was an expert gardener.  She had a green thumb extraordinaire,  no matter what  plants she worked with, gardens or indoors, beautiful.   Then she gets a daughter-in-law with black thumbs.

            No matter the color of the thumb, I have always enjoyed the effort.  I love being outside, digging around. I like the feel of the dirt, the smell.  I enjoy the scent it gives when it is freshly watered. Love the way tomato plants smell.  When I was a kid we always had a garden and in Wyoming growing seasons are short.  Short, but still fun.  My currant bushes, red and black are throwbacks to my past, as is my love of rhubarb.  Hardy plants, they had to be to survive from year to year.

            When we built the house we now live in I had a garden plot just over the fence on the west side of the house.  For a few years it did great, but I had a hard time keeping up with the weeding, etc.,  along with the house, chores, and 6 kids.  After awhile I had trouble with my root crops getting nematodes. I talked with the county extension agent to figure out what was going on and had never heard of nematodes until then.  Eventually even the radishes were full of those black trails and I gave it up. Imagine some little mite wanting a radish! I was throwing away a bigger portion of the produce than we were eating by the time I cut off the blackened spots and lines.

 I know I was still trying to maintain the patch when I started working full-time at school.  The fall harvest of garden, canning, freezing, etc., plus being a beginning teacher, overwhelmed me.  So I am guessing that garden spot served us for about thirteen years. It was a choice between vegetable garden and sanity.

            This week I picked my first cherry tomatoes and a cucumber from my container garden.  It felt nice and rewarding. At this stage of my life containers suit our needs in the vegetable garden department.  I have been trying it for several years now, experimenting as I go along.    We are empty nesters, retired, more or less.  Retired me, very tired husband!  Bob picked the first two tomatoes from his favorite plants just a few days ago. He brought them in as though they were trophies. Garden tomatoes are high on our list of favorite foods.

Last week I gleaned two handfuls of peas from the only 2 plants that grew---I had planted a whole package of peas—Little Marvels, I believe, two containers worth.  The two peas that grew did very well.  I think after trying peas for the last two years, they are not suited to my containers.  Remember this, brain, next spring!  The lettuce did very well, the spinach not so much.  Green beans getting a good start. I planted a whole container of nasturtiums---I have some leaves and plants, no flowers. I could eat the flowers, the leaves not so much.   My parents often had nasturtiums in their flowers. What am I not doing?  The carrots are doing well; I did two containers of them this year because last year I wished I had more than one.  We shall see.  At least I can keep up with the weeding and give the bugs a good fight.

             I do have some flowers this year, but that is for another telling.  There is also an orchard with its ups and downs.  Do you like to garden, successfully or otherwise?  Why?