It wasn't EVEN RED!

OK, so I've fallen a bit behind in the garden....  I haven't covered the other beds which have tomatoes from the birds, mainly because they are mostly still green....

But there was one that we just noticed & it was a nice orangy color - see...

Gee - what's wrong with it???

Now I'm not naming names BUT .... I have my suspects.  Darn MOCKINGBIRDS!

At least it looks as if he had a nice meal.

I know what we're doing this weekend.

We had an agreement!

We love our birds.  We have 2 ponds with bogs & a fountain.  The birds come & drink & bathe there.  We even provide bird seed for them & the occasional crust of bread. Our backyard gets robins, blue jays, cardinals, wrens, doves, chickadees, sparrows, finches, woodpeckers & an occasional grackle.  We get along fine with all of them - EXCEPT the MOCKINGBIRD.  He just doesn't understand our rules.  They are, you must admit, pretty simple... I'll let you bathe, drink & eat YOUR food in our yard - just don't eat MY FOOD!

When I first started gardening I put in full sized tomatoes, then ONE day before they'd be ready - the mocking bird would come down & peck it!  Ruined! And to add insult to injury - he won't even eat it - he just thinks it's something else!  So, then OK I'll plant cherry tomatoes, at least he can't ruin them all - wanna bet!  So then we tried the black bird netting - such a pain to deal with, it catches on everything & is hard to reuse. Last year at least 3 times they were able to get inside the netting.  Don't get me wrong I won't whack them or anything, so I have to let the frightened bird outta my netting enclosed tomatoes without injuring him or me!  And usually it's been a while (hours) before I find them, not good for either party.

This year, new beds, more tomatoes & I'm back to full sized tomatoes in addition to the cherry for our salads.  My mouth is all set for slices of red ripe tomatoes on burgers, sandwiches, with mozzarella... yum! So, how ya' gonna deal with the mockingbirds.  And if you're thinking - Cindi they aren't that bad!  Right!  So, Friday evening I was at my kitchen window & saw HIM!  He flew into the yard & right up to Kate (I flew out the back door!)  He was right there getting ready to peck a cherry tomato when I yelled at him, he turned his head, saw me & flew away!  YES SUCCESS!  But I just don't have that kinda time to save every tomato!

But we have a plan.... it's kinda hard to find 5 more scary words around our house.  I found new netting.  This stuff is has a little smaller mesh, so am a bit concerned that maybe bees won't be able to get inside it & we want them to be able to... but not gonna worry about that now.  It drapes wonderfully, folds up fine & you can stitch it together to make bigger pieces.  Too cool.  I just couldn't find this netting locally.

So yesterday DH had figured out how to make this work - step one gather all those shepherd hooks you have from feeding those freeloading birds & make a framework around the cherry patch (Kate).

There are 8 shepherds hooks - they create a nice round top.

I already have 6 more mostly ready tomatoes & TONS more that are very hard to see here.

We needed a fairly large piece of fabric to drape, so we sewed it together using garden twine & a chopstick!

DH drilled hole in top & sharpened stick end.

Then just weave.

Double sewn for durability.

Now drape & you're done!

Bet they can't get in here!

You do realize that had I just started the post with this picture you would have thought "You did WHAT!?"

P.S.  So, does it work?  Well the little fink came back again tonight!  I had enough time to get the big camera so I could get a picture without spooking him.  He spent a good 5 minutes walking & flying all around it - here's how it turned out -

You'll notice he's on the OUTSIDE!  Success!