Growing your own - is it worth it?

[doversoul1]

One way with broccoli or other tall greens is to make the netting framework taller say around 7 feet with the netting pulled taut. Its a bit of applied engineering and faff but it works - just think covered wagon. For the framework I use 3 metre plastic electric conduit which is cheap, durable and available cheaply through a local allotment shop, lengths are joined by connectors which cost 2p each.

Apricot Flavorcot is in full bloom so I've been hand pollinating as there are few insects flying at present.

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll grow them in a block rather than in rows and cage them in next season.

My apricots is in bloom too. They pollinate unaided but there is little hope in our enjoying the fruit.

[gradus]

Finally planted the first earlies today, somewhat late.

[gradus]

Just received the first Hutton period warnings of the season for my postal code from Blightwatch. Fingers crossed that we're not in for a bad blight year.

[doversoul1]

We had no blight last year but I don’t expect we’ll be so lucky again. I managed to plant the potatoes early enough but everything else is very late this year. Still, what have been planted are growing nicely. As for harvest, Swiss Chard has proved to be a very useful crop for hungry gap.

I am still wondering whether to buy an electric fence to keep the badgers off the strawberries. Looking at the price, I may just as well buy strawberries for the rest of my life.

[gradus]

And I thought blackbirds were a problem!

[doversoul1]

And I thought blackbirds were a problem!

I found by accident that if you put up a wire fence of about one meter high, it seemed to keep most if not all birds away from strawberries. The birds, especially Blackbirds don’t seem to like diving in to the patch. This works/worked much better than covering the patch with net. Mind you, the fence was meant to keep the badgers off but they simply walked in, fence or no fence.

[Lat-Literal]

I am trying tomatoes, carrots, lettuces, radishes and spring onions all of which I have started late.

There is also a strawberry thing that does what it wants which is not a lot.

So, yes, the easier sort of stuff for most people but when I get any sort of return I think I have done well.

It was the tomatoes last year.

[Dave2002]

I found by accident that if you put up a wire fence of about one meter high, it seemed to keep most if not all birds away from strawberries. The birds, especially Blackbirds don’t seem to like diving in to the patch. This works/worked much better than covering the patch with net. Mind you, the fence was meant to keep the badgers off but they simply walked in, fence or no fence.

Maybe they can't do vertical take off, or would need a straight run or a large circle to get out. I wonder if that's a learned response, due to previous bad experiences - or perhaps they also have difficulty landing. In our garden we have had pigeons, and also cats. Some pigeons were so fat that they could barely get up enough speed with a 20+ feet run to get airborne, and from the occasional feathers we found, I think some didn't make it.

[oddoneout]

Maybe they can't do vertical take off, or would need a straight run or a large circle to get out. I wonder if that's a learned response, due to previous bad experiences - or perhaps they also have difficulty landing. In our garden we have had pigeons, and also cats. Some pigeons were so fat that they could barely get up enough speed with a 20+ feet run to get airborne, and from the occasional feathers we found, I think some didn't make it.

Blackbirds like to travel across the ground to access fruit 'from underneath' so to speak in my experience(hence their distressing tendency to get tangled in the bottom of soft netting structures) so wire netting would prevent that.
Pigeons have a useful anti-predator tactic of being able to do a vertical take-off(something to do with the wing musculature I think, hence the characteristic 'clap' sound as the wings meet over the back) rather than needing a run-up, but yes they do get so fat that even that doesn't always work. Given the pest levels of wood pigeons in my part of the world the failure rate isn't high(enough!). They used to wreak havoc on the fruit on my allotment by crash landing on gooseberry bushes, breaking branches and pulling off fruit(way before it was ripe)and dropping most of it, trampling strawberry plants and again trashing fruit before it was ripe - then to add insult to injury depositing enormous poops over what they hadn't already trashed. Raspberries and related fruit such as loganberries usually suffered less as the plants weren't strong enough for the birds to sit on long enough to grab anything, but it didn't stop them trying on occasion and again causing damage - a pigeon crash-landing on the top of raspberry canes doesn't do them any good and can cause loss of fruit even if the birds don't manage to eat it. At least the blackbirds chose ripe fruit and actually ate it and tended to concentrate on finishing one or two at a time rather than pecking at everything in sight, and I still got to have some as well.

[Sir Velo]

Blackbirds like to travel across the ground to access fruit 'from underneath' so to speak in my experience(hence their distressing tendency to get tangled in the bottom of soft netting structures) so wire netting would prevent that.
Pigeons have a useful anti-predator tactic of being able to do a vertical take-off(something to do with the wing musculature I think, hence the characteristic 'clap' sound as the wings meet over the back) rather than needing a run-up, but yes they do get so fat that even that doesn't always work. Given the pest levels of wood pigeons in my part of the world the failure rate isn't high(enough!). They used to wreak havoc on the fruit on my allotment by crash landing on gooseberry bushes, breaking branches and pulling off fruit(way before it was ripe)and dropping most of it, trampling strawberry plants and again trashing fruit before it was ripe - then to add insult to injury depositing enormous poops over what they hadn't already trashed. Raspberries and related fruit such as loganberries usually suffered less as the plants weren't strong enough for the birds to sit on long enough to grab anything, but it didn't stop them trying on occasion and again causing damage - a pigeon crash-landing on the top of raspberry canes doesn't do them any good and can cause loss of fruit even if the birds don't manage to eat it. At least the blackbirds chose ripe fruit and actually ate it and tended to concentrate on finishing one or two at a time rather than pecking at everything in sight, and I still got to have some as well.

Having recently suffered from pigeons nesting in a pyracantha I have been on the anti pigeon warpath. I have found a garden hose turned to maximum a great deterrent particularly when a bulls eye is hit. They haven't dared show their fa(e)ces again after the drenching they received.

I've also used the hose tactic whenever they've tried their ridiculous. monotonous cooing on the rooftops (a particular bete noire of mine in the summer as it seems to commence at dawn, regardless of the season). Again a direct hit and the vermin haven't returned. Other anti pigeon deterrents you might wish to try are ultrasonic bird controls and the anti pigeon spikes which you affix with silicon gel. The problem with the former is it also deters other garden birds which you may wish to encourage (cute little blue tits etc) and the spikes have to be continuously moved to where the pigeons next land. I personally recommend the water cannon method...

[oddoneout]

Having recently suffered from pigeons nesting in a pyracantha I have been on the anti pigeon warpath. I have found a garden hose turned to maximum a great deterrent particularly when a bulls eye is hit. They haven't dared show their fa(e)ces again after the drenching they received.

I've also used the hose tactic whenever they've tried their ridiculous. monotonous cooing on the rooftops (a particular bete noire of mine in the summer as it seems to commence at dawn, regardless of the season). Again a direct hit and the vermin haven't returned. Other anti pigeon deterrents you might wish to try are ultrasonic bird controls and the anti pigeon spikes which you affix with silicon gel. The problem with the former is it also deters other garden birds which you may wish to encourage (cute little blue tits etc) and the spikes have to be continuously moved to where the pigeons next land. I personally recommend the water cannon method...

Now that I've had to give up the allotment the pigeon problem is largely one of the mess that a grazing flock leaves on the lawn(splodgy and large like ducks but without usefulness in the form of eggs or mollusc reduction) or where they sit on the fence next to the neighbour's bird table. I have used the water method in a previous garden to 'train' intruding cats, but with water pistols rather than a hose(the males of the family were willing helpers), and I might consider that again since they rarely take off until I actually start moving at any speed towards them, or wave and clap hands.

[gradus]

Blackbirds like to travel across the ground to access fruit 'from underneath' so to speak in my experience(hence their distressing tendency to get tangled in the bottom of soft netting structures) so wire netting would prevent that.
Pigeons have a useful anti-predator tactic of being able to do a vertical take-off(something to do with the wing musculature I think, hence the characteristic 'clap' sound as the wings meet over the back) rather than needing a run-up, but yes they do get so fat that even that doesn't always work. Given the pest levels of wood pigeons in my part of the world the failure rate isn't high(enough!). They used to wreak havoc on the fruit on my allotment by crash landing on gooseberry bushes, breaking branches and pulling off fruit(way before it was ripe)and dropping most of it, trampling strawberry plants and again trashing fruit before it was ripe - then to add insult to injury depositing enormous poops over what they hadn't already trashed. Raspberries and related fruit such as loganberries usually suffered less as the plants weren't strong enough for the birds to sit on long enough to grab anything, but it didn't stop them trying on occasion and again causing damage - a pigeon crash-landing on the top of raspberry canes doesn't do them any good and can cause loss of fruit even if the birds don't manage to eat it. At least the blackbirds chose ripe fruit and actually ate it and tended to concentrate on finishing one or two at a time rather than pecking at everything in sight, and I still got to have some as well.

Several blackbirds have got caught up in netting over a cherry tree in our garden and always at ground level so I see the sense of a wire netting barricade for the strawberries. Thanks for the insight.

[ardcarp]

It looks like being a bumper year for figs. The reason I mention it is that as soon as they become a ripe brown...which is the time you need to pick them...the birds (blackbirds included) love them too, not to mention wasps. So you have to be on hand for at least three weeks to get the ripening ones before the wildlife does. I have heard that some people tie a small plastic bag around each fig before it ripens to protect it. Unfortunately our figiers are large and well established and I haven't the time or the patience to go to such lengths. So if we go away for a few days, we end up sharing half the crop with our feathered friends.

[DracoM]

Several blackbirds have got caught up in netting over a cherry tree in our garden and always at ground level so I see the sense of a wire netting barricade for the strawberries. Thanks for the insight.

Absolutely endorse that advice too. Sneaky bullies, most blackbirds and they deserve a bit of come -uppance!

[doversoul1]

While we are undecided about an electric fence, the badgers have found the strawberries and walked all over them. The strawberries are still green and hard. How did they know what they were? I have put up a cane-and-wire fence but I have little hope of saving the crop. I just hope that they won’t find my carrots.