*
It doesn’t do to neglect your bird feeders. Maybe.
We have a lot of bird visitors to the garden, most of them lbjs (little brown jobs), but we are also blessed with crowds of blackbirds and, even more fortunately, several pairs of beautiful song thrushes, all of whom seem to have survived the breeding season.
We also have raspberry, worcester berry and gooseberry bushes growing close to a thick mixed holly, elder and maple hedge. The berry bushes used to be under netting in a fruit cage, but when this collapsed in heavy snowfalls, we didn’t bother to replace it. Laziness, lack of foresight, can’t-be-bothered-ness, call it what you will, we no longer have a fruit cage.
Paul, my new gardener - henceforth only gardener - said he’d take some of the tart goose- and worcester berries off my hands. Beloved uses some to make wine, but the rest of the annual crop usually remains in the freezer; I can’t eat them in gooseberry fools because of the lashings of cream and I don’t much like them otherwise.
So we took what we wanted for ourselves and left the rest for Paul and maybe any other interested parties to pick at their leisure. Unfortunately, the other interested parties turned out to be birds. Whenever I visited that part of the garden I heard scuttlings and scuddings and scrabblings and scratchings, which I took to be birds hastily seeking refuge from human intervention in the hedge; but the fruit remained on the bushes. Until one fateful morning: overnight every gooseberry, worcester berry and raspberry had disappeared, not one single berry was left, the bushes picked clean as a whistle. A whistle and a quick cheap-cheap is all that the blighters left behind. They’re not even bothering to repay me in song.
Paul took some of our frozen gooseberries home with him.
We also have raspberry, worcester berry and gooseberry bushes growing close to a thick mixed holly, elder and maple hedge. The berry bushes used to be under netting in a fruit cage, but when this collapsed in heavy snowfalls, we didn’t bother to replace it. Laziness, lack of foresight, can’t-be-bothered-ness, call it what you will, we no longer have a fruit cage.
Paul, my new gardener - henceforth only gardener - said he’d take some of the tart goose- and worcester berries off my hands. Beloved uses some to make wine, but the rest of the annual crop usually remains in the freezer; I can’t eat them in gooseberry fools because of the lashings of cream and I don’t much like them otherwise.
So we took what we wanted for ourselves and left the rest for Paul and maybe any other interested parties to pick at their leisure. Unfortunately, the other interested parties turned out to be birds. Whenever I visited that part of the garden I heard scuttlings and scuddings and scrabblings and scratchings, which I took to be birds hastily seeking refuge from human intervention in the hedge; but the fruit remained on the bushes. Until one fateful morning: overnight every gooseberry, worcester berry and raspberry had disappeared, not one single berry was left, the bushes picked clean as a whistle. A whistle and a quick cheap-cheap is all that the blighters left behind. They’re not even bothering to repay me in song.
Paul took some of our frozen gooseberries home with him.
The bird that feeds from off my palm
Is sleek, affectionate and calm,
But double, to me, is worth the thrush
A-flickering in the elder-bush.
so says the incomparable Dorothy Parker, but I don’t think so.
*Fruitless fruit bushes are boring, I’m giving you a picture of my leucanthemums/argyranthemums/marguerites instead. These flowers change their botanical name so often you might as well call them daisies and be done with it.
Friko, I'm very glad that your Mac seems to be back in good operation. I'd think that having a gremlin in my laptop would be even worse than having Moonlit avian marauders take all those berries. Well, perhaps there's an equality to these woes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe berryless Paul will now be motivated to help create netting for next year's berry crop?
It also seems a shame to not have some beautiful birds doing the ransacking. Jonny Depp as a pirate, if you will.
Summer over here is a bit of a mixed bag, too. Mostly good, but the noisy building repairs are beginning to get to me.
xo
It is amazing how the wild world can swoop in and clean the place out, isn't it? Reminds us of our groundhog making off with EVERY SINGLE BRASSICA at just the point when we were looking forward to our first mouthfuls!
ReplyDeleteThe birds around here have left the blueberries for us and are devouring my lettuces and chard. I netted one area of the garden and will be adding more soon. Cheeky little birds.
ReplyDeleteIt’s good that you did get some berries ahead of all the naughty birds. I would buy gooseberries if they had them at the grocery store here, but I have not seen them. The birds used to eat a lot of our figs but most of our fig tree died during last winter. I did make some raspberry jam though, but purchased the berries at the market. I like your fluffy daisies – they would look nice in a country bouquet.
ReplyDeleteha i know them as daisies...
ReplyDeleteand the japanese beetles need to leave my grape vine alone...
but i got a good crop...and several jars of jam
out of it...smiles...
Well, a bird's gotta eat, after all! Sorry they were such pigs about it Made me laugh, and I do so admire those pretty flowers, whatever you call them. :-)
ReplyDeleteGooseberries, raspberries and currants have long gone over here; everything was nearly a month earlier this year because of the mild winter we had. Blackberry season is in full swing, but there aren't any aounrd my house, just a huge, out of control mulberry tree which has been attracting a number of noisy magpies recently. They look at me through the living room window when I sit there watching the Tagesschau at 8.00 pm.
ReplyDeleteOur birds are often pretty (and sometimes beautiful) but many of them sing worse than I do. Which is saying a lot. They are also skilled berry marauders.
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me though that you didn't mine then helping themselves to the berries :)
ReplyDeleteHi There Friko - very interesting post. Our berries disappear like that too. One moment the abundance of them almost scare you and its all healthy and ripe and you cannot wait to start picking.....but you gotta get there before the birds. They come, when they come and they have a feast. We have many berry bushes down by the river and mostly they are for the birds. One day i will walk by and they are ripe and full and next time I am by everything has been picked clean. I have even watched the "squad" of feathered friends arrive in great numbers and clean the bushes. Quite a site to behold and most fun to watch. I really like your "Daisy" photo. Have a wonderful day :)
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteFruit and vegetables grown in the garden were always a nightmare for us. The nurturing through late frosts, the vigilance needed to ward off pests and diseases, the watering in times of drought, the feeding, the protecting in times of heavy rainfall.......and, then, after all, defeated by the midnight marauders.
There are shops we told ourselves......
A neighbour in France had an old cherry tree which only fruited every few years. In the year that it decided to fruit it did it in spades....the tree was too tall to cover with netting, so he tried all the tips to keep birds off; a radio playing the the branches, old CD discs attached toi branches at risk of life and limb on his ancient ladder...even guinea fowl in cages at the foot of the tree.
ReplyDeleteAll was well...not a bird in sight...and the fruit was ready to pick. He promised his wife he would do it when he returned from an old comrades reunion and set off in the morning. He returned for lunch, checked the tree - not a cherry in sight.
While he was away a cloud of starlings had descended on the tree...we could hear the row from our house...and went out to see what it was about. The tree was alive with birds.
His wife was not very happy....
If you like steamed suet puds what about a steamed gooseberry pud?
My brother on the farm managed to have his kids and grandkids out to pick the pie cherries before the birds got to them. There is a moment between just ripe and the bird gatherers appearance, I guess.
ReplyDeleteIf I had all those berry bushes, I'd be overrun with bears! Rather the birds that show you the respect of leaving when you approach. I threw out Shasta seeds in fall and now have swaths of them in the front wildflower yard. I like your furry-looking Marguerites.
ReplyDeleteScuttlings and scuddings and scrabblings and scratchings, love the way you describe things.
ReplyDeleteBalisha
I wish my gardener had not moved away to New York. The yard is horribly overgrown with invasive vines and weeds. I pull what I can, but it's difficult with a cane in one hand. Almost ready to chuck it in and the I find some plant or other looking absolutely splendid in the summer heat. The gardener's life is not always a happy one.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised you like Dorothy Parker. My Mom's favorite poet. Mom quoted her or Robbie Burns almost every day.
Ach je hebt s,zomers dan ook geen voederplek meer nodig.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought they were daisies, Friko! It's always a joy to learn the garden lingo from you.
ReplyDeleteBirds and berries - now that should be a sequel to this, don't you think?
Hope you have been well; I'm just catching up after a month-long blogging hiatus.
I've missed you, and I really enjoyed reading this post. My grandma used to make the best gooseberry pie. Reading about your berries brought back some great memories.
ReplyDeleteWe have some very territorial blackbirds at our house that constantly raid anything I put out for the other birds. I am not too fond of them, the way they squawk at me as if they own the joint.
;)
I topped and tailed so many gooseberries in my wee life that I went completely off them. Can't bear them today.
ReplyDeleteI was never a bird in a former life, obviously.
XO
WWW
My blueberries never make it to the table, the birds are there before me. The raspberries are okay, but then I don't have that many. Worse than the birds are the squirrels - they are beheading my sunflowers, and that really makes me mad. The squirrels usually are at the bird feeders and I don't mind that since there is ample left for the birds still; but when the feeders are empty and I don't refill them the squirrels look for other food. In come my sunflowers. Now they're gone as well (all beheaded) I won't even refill the bird feeders just to get rid of at least a few of the squirrels (I think there were entire families coming). The birds find enough to eat at the moment, so I don't worry about them too much - yet.
ReplyDeleteThe sneaky little things - and nary a song? Sounds as though there no saga to be told of two gardeners running into each other now!
ReplyDeleteYou have a delightful bird sanctuary, I'd say
ReplyDeleteThey're all daisies to me.
ReplyDeleteDear Friko, what's making me happy is that you have berry bushes to share with the birds. I'm so negligent of them that I forget to fill the birdfeeders. And just a few minutes ago I saw a hummingbird looking for nectar. I need to make some sugar water and put it in the red feeder I have and get it out there!!!!! Peace.
ReplyDeleteThis year my gooseberries are really miserable. They weren't properly watered while I was away. Such a contrast from last year when I got pounds and pounds. The birds will get thin pickings from me this year!
ReplyDeleteDaisy is a fine straight-forward name for them. I can be a little lax about filling my feeders, especially in the summer when I know they can food elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThat's so annoying when the birds take the best of the crop. Berries are so delicious and go well in pies.
ReplyDeletetoo late in the season here for berry bushes to be bearing. later though the red tip photinias will be covered in berries until the cedar waxwings migrate through. they will have the bushed striped in a day or two.
ReplyDelete"Little brown job". Is that a technical term? No, seriously-- I'm totally unfamiliar with the local flora and fauna. Are they ACTUALLY called little brown jobs? Or is that just a nickname?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've never seen "daisies" quite like those! What a proliferation of petals. Quite interesting. They kind of look like sea anemones! (I find it funny that the actual anemone flower looks nothing like the sea creature…)
Netting may be a job for the new gardener. But you have some happy birds. Too full to even sing for you. ;)
ReplyDeleteRandomly: I have been wondering, in recent weeks, if you've ever read Jane Gardam's OLD FILTH trilogy. It is bringing me great joy and--for some reason--keeps making me think, "I bet Friko would like this."
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of things flying around gardens: we have "hummingbird moths" that come out at dusk; they move exactly like hummingbirds and fool everyone!
Hi Friko - it's going to be and already is a great black-berrying year ... and I love the LBJs and the blackbirds with their song in the early morning ... sadly our crows, magpies and gulls kill everything in sight ... I like a gun to shoot them! An unlikely acquisition methinks ..
ReplyDeleteCheers Hilary
Since I am reading backwards, I'm wondering what happened to Gardener. Perhaps in an earlier post -- teach me to be gone so long! We put netting over the strawberries but it's pretty hard to net a whole bush and in any event, they can get through that if the berries are small. But it sounds like quite the crop. I don't think I've ever had a gooseberry... someday!
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame. Is it worth getting Paul to reconstruct the fruit cage? Here in Normandy we have three cherry trees, each a different variety and the birds barely make a dent on what they produce. That may be helped by the fact that our neighbour has several more huge trees full of fruit to tempt them.
ReplyDelete