Ah summer! This is what we’ve been waiting for in the Pacific Northwest. Our beautiful climate gives us fresh ripe fruit all summer long. Wait! No! Well…uh…the deer and birds get our fresh ripe fruit all summer long.
This spring I was supposed to be proof reading Something About Maudy so of course my mind wandered off to the topic of fresh cherries. I have three cherry trees. We haven’t had more than one or two cherries that were not quite ripe for years. The birds get them all.
As my mind drifted from subject to subject an image of how to protect my cherry trees formed in my mind. I’d just purchased floating row cover to keep the birds from eating my freshly planted seeds and sprouts. I’d use that!
Chuckling to myself and chortling over the frustration of the birds, I set to work cutting and stitching. I made socks and sleeves for my cherry trees. The socks are five feet long, closed at one end and have a drawstring at the other end. The sleeves are three feet long with drawstring openings at each end. The circumference is three feet so they fit loosely over a branch.
Hubby and I gleefully went out and slid the sleeves over the lower branches of the cherry trees and waited. I was rewarded when I saw a robin having a temper tantrum in the cherry tree. He pulled at the sleeve, flapped his wings, clawed at the sleeve and jumped up and down. I laughed--an evil laugh.
This spring I was supposed to be proof reading Something About Maudy so of course my mind wandered off to the topic of fresh cherries. I have three cherry trees. We haven’t had more than one or two cherries that were not quite ripe for years. The birds get them all.
As my mind drifted from subject to subject an image of how to protect my cherry trees formed in my mind. I’d just purchased floating row cover to keep the birds from eating my freshly planted seeds and sprouts. I’d use that!
Chuckling to myself and chortling over the frustration of the birds, I set to work cutting and stitching. I made socks and sleeves for my cherry trees. The socks are five feet long, closed at one end and have a drawstring at the other end. The sleeves are three feet long with drawstring openings at each end. The circumference is three feet so they fit loosely over a branch.
Hubby and I gleefully went out and slid the sleeves over the lower branches of the cherry trees and waited. I was rewarded when I saw a robin having a temper tantrum in the cherry tree. He pulled at the sleeve, flapped his wings, clawed at the sleeve and jumped up and down. I laughed--an evil laugh.
The time came to harvest our first cherries. The socks and sleeves slid easily from the branches revealing a lush crop of plump whole fruit. We discovered that the sleeves did much more than protect the cherries from birds. Despite heavy rains none of the crop split. We also didn’t find any worms. The sleeves protected the young fruit from the fruit flies that live under the trees waiting to lay eggs in the ripening fruit.
While I was interested mostly in my cherry crop, I can see that the socks would be useful for protecting any of our tree fruit and raspberries. They were so much easier to use than bird netting that doesn’t protect against fruit flies or rain.
Please don’t grieve for the birds. We left the upper branches of the tree uncovered for them. I consider the fact that we got as much of the crop as we wanted, a more equitable distribution of the harvest than the birds taking every single cherry.
While I was interested mostly in my cherry crop, I can see that the socks would be useful for protecting any of our tree fruit and raspberries. They were so much easier to use than bird netting that doesn’t protect against fruit flies or rain.
Please don’t grieve for the birds. We left the upper branches of the tree uncovered for them. I consider the fact that we got as much of the crop as we wanted, a more equitable distribution of the harvest than the birds taking every single cherry.
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