We LOVE our fruit trees, and so do our feathered “friends”!

We LOVE our fruit trees, and so do our feathered “friends”!

Have you been waiting all year for those juicy sweet peaches, or perfectly purple plums, checking your beloved fruit trees every day, patiently waiting for the perfect state of ripeness?

ME TOO!  And much to my dismay, I come out the next day and my perfect peach is now perfectly punctured by bird beaks!  They don’t even have the decency to eat the whole fruit!!  Arrgh!

I know that the thought that is racing through my mind right now is not the answer.  So once I calm down I decide to do a little research and see how other independent fruit growers solve this problem.  I was surprised by some of the clever ways people had found to dissuade these feathered fiends.

1. Using a thin piece of wire, tie CD’s to several of the branches near the ripening fruit.  This works well in our area, because we have so many sunny days during harvest season. The light reflecting off the CD’s scare the bird’s away! Easy right? Who uses CD’s anymore anyway?

2.  Aluminum pie pans have the extra benefit of making a startling noise as they collide! Who bakes anymore anyway right? Oh you do? Hee hee, maybe just me then.

3. Seriously?  A scare crow?  Farmers swear by them.  They work for a time and eventually will be used as a perch.  Changing their position lengthens their effectiveness.  Well, Halloween is just around the corner!

4.  If you aren’t down with having all these interesting items in your garden, another smart alternative is setting a sprinkler to go off at random times during the day to startle them and run them off.

5. If you are seriously done with these fruit invasions you could install a motion sensor alarm system.  Some people do!  I’m just glad I don’t live next to them!

5. One more idea.  Try planting some native plants that the birds are also attracted too.  Many of the native birds are seeking nectar not fruit.

So however you choose to protect your precious fruit during this harvest season, we wish you the best of luck.  May you find your fruit whole and ripe the next time you visit your garden. Cheers!