Or at least that's the hope! My man and I went to the Flower Bin here in Longmont a couple weeks ago in search of both veggies to harvest in the fall and for something that would hopefully deter birds from my garden.
As I've written before, birds were eating my lettuce seedlings, making me think I needed to grow them a little larger and transplant them into the garden. But first I wanted to see if I could find something to deter them from eating them in the first place.
We found just one thing that was shiny (I have read in many places online that hanging CDs from a tree nearby, etc helps) and that I actually wanted in my garden: a Drunken Dragonfly made by Paul's Metal Petals.
It's made of silverware (cool, right?) and seems to be reflective enough to keep birds away. I only have anecdotal evidence, but the seeds I planted the same day that I put the garden ornament in the ground have turned into seedlings and have not yet been eaten by birds.
Check it out:
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
3 Lessons on Lettuce
I harvested a lot of lettuce this year for our daily lunch salads. But I had much higher hopes for my lettuce harvest.
Recently, I discovered that birds had been eating the lettuce seedlings that were coming up. I caught the problem too late though (thinking the seedlings were just taking their time growing) and while I covered up some of the remaining lettuce with row covers, I think it was too little too late. (You can also put something shiny/reflective near where birds are eating your veggies; some people suggest CDs hanging nearby, but I'm sure there is some garden art somewhere that would serve the same purpose.)
Bird netting would work, as well.
Anyway, I do have some seedlings that are doing OK that I planted later on, but because of a few mistakes I made this year so far, I have learned a couple lessons about growing lettuce:
1. Don't plant too many seedlings too early. Actually, early is fine. But I could have - and should have - staggered my transplants in the garden. This fall, when I plant again, I will stagger the plantings, so that all the lettuce I have doesn't get ripe (and later bolt) at the same time. Now I know how few lettuce plants I actually need to make a salad, since they will keep growing if you just harvest their outside leaves.
Recently, I discovered that birds had been eating the lettuce seedlings that were coming up. I caught the problem too late though (thinking the seedlings were just taking their time growing) and while I covered up some of the remaining lettuce with row covers, I think it was too little too late. (You can also put something shiny/reflective near where birds are eating your veggies; some people suggest CDs hanging nearby, but I'm sure there is some garden art somewhere that would serve the same purpose.)
Bird netting would work, as well.
Anyway, I do have some seedlings that are doing OK that I planted later on, but because of a few mistakes I made this year so far, I have learned a couple lessons about growing lettuce:
1. Don't plant too many seedlings too early. Actually, early is fine. But I could have - and should have - staggered my transplants in the garden. This fall, when I plant again, I will stagger the plantings, so that all the lettuce I have doesn't get ripe (and later bolt) at the same time. Now I know how few lettuce plants I actually need to make a salad, since they will keep growing if you just harvest their outside leaves.
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