We're fed up -- and apparently the birds are too. I absolutely cringe every time I look out toward the garden and see a big fat crow or 2 perched on the wire above the vegetable garden ... waiting to give the warning call to his fellow bandits who are probably enjoying a nice snack or 2 (or 3, or 10) of our fresh veggies.
Even more than in past years, the crows and other birds seem to be pecking and eating our squash, our melons, our pumpkins, our zucchini & summer squash, and our tomatoes to death. The berries are all safely tucked under bird netting, but we can't net the entire garden, can we? (hmmm...)
What's a gardener to do?
In the past, we've tried hanging shiny strips of metallic paper and silver cd roms around the garden. That didn't work one bit.
When we bought the house, we inherited a nice plastic owl that the previous owners left behind. We put him in the garden and used to move him around from place to place, but didn't work either. Now he just pretends to guard the entrance to the garden. Oh well, I'd rather have a real owl anyway.
So, for the first time ever in our garden, we've decided to put up some makeshift scarecrows. I have no idea if scarecrows really work or not. It seems that they have been used forever, so they must work at least a little bit, right?
We built our first super scary scarecrow yesterday. Here he is ... S-C-A-R-Y huh?
Yes, he needs a head (or a hat or something) and the fly on his pants is down (I'm going to go out and zip that up after I post this -- I promise!), but he's up and guarding our precious tomatoes.
We didn't stuff him because we read that, if left 'un-stuffed', when the wind blows it will move the arms and pant legs a bit and the birds don't like that.
Our plan is to move him (and the others we plan to make to join him) around the garden every few days.
We'll see.
Oh, and if the scarecrows don't work, I may resort to soaking corn in whiskey and scattering it around the garden ...apparently that's what people used to do. Can you imagine having a bunch of drunk crows around? Oh my!
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