Raspberries without netting.... the story from both sides

I just picked a bowl of raspberries from the garden. I did not have to battle with netting; I have very many birds all flitting about .... so why didn't they get the raspberries? Camouflage!

 

 

I planted raspberries along a flimsy fence I put up when I first came here, to separate chooks and vegetables. The winds that first year were ferocious so I let some very strong mallows continue to grow on the chook side of the fence to help protect the vegetables from the wind and to disguise from the chooks what I was doing inside the vegetable garden!

Lazy gardener that I am, all I have done since, to the mallows, is to trim them like a rough hedge. Now they are flowering with masses of lilac flowers. Luckily the raspberries, on the vegetable garden side of the fence, have managed to flourish. I have been meaning to put up bird netting over the whole row, as people said I would not get one raspberry if I didn't keep the birds out.

 

Well, lazy gardener that I am, the net never did get put up, the raspberries are ripe and I have just picked a bowl full, with not a single berry missing from the canes, as far as I can see!

It is very hard to see, from these photos, but that is the point! It is also hard to see for the birds! From above, the row of raspberries is disguised by the purple flowers from the mallow. Magic! And so simple.

 

Sometimes.... in fact, often.... its best to wait a while and see what happens before rushing off and buying yet more stuff. I try to outsmart the birds and the pests and camouflage is one of the easiest options in a lazy gardener's compendium.