We love birds. Just about all birds. I would say the only bird I don’t appreciate are the doves. They are supposed to be these symbols of love and beauty, but I think their false hoot (so-called coo) and slug-sized poops are bothersome. Unfortunately we seem to have a few that have been hanging around lately, despite all attempts at making our yard less enjoyable.

Chasing the birds out of the yard made me really miss Ellie the other day. She has always been great at not letting birds linger, despite me encouraging her to let some hang out, like the Robyns or finch. When it came to the doves, she was excellent at running right to them before they could even land properly or get settled, so it was rare that they hung out here. For the most part, they instead frequented the neighbours yards. Although we had to still hear them, it was less annoying.

Basil we thought would have the same prey drive towards birds, but we were wrong. Instead she has made fast friends with most and has come to an understanding, that as long as they leave her alone, they are free to do whatever they like in the yard. The other day, I came out of the shop to find the doves roosting on our tomato towers, pooping, and Basil laying on the path less than 5′ from them just snoozing. When I came over and scared the doves away from the tomatoes, she barely raised her head to look at them. I noticed that the Robins, Starlings, Finch and chickadees all happily come and get bugs from the grass or a bit of water from the bird bath while Basil is mere feet from them. She clearly poses no sort of threat.

The last few mornings, I have realized that the magpies, which I actually don’t mind at all, have bonded with her. Every morning, while I read my book before heading off to work, I leave the balcony door open for Basil to sun herself. The last few mornings, I have opened the door and no sooner has Basil settled herself in a sunny spot, that a magpie comes over and perches on the railing just above her. The magpie proceeds to squeak and burble and chirp at her. Not the aggressive cawing that they do, but rather soft noises like a conversation. It does this for a minute or so while Basil looks up at it, then it flies off to enjoy its day. Basil then proceeds to nap until I leave for work.

I tell this story because we have had to build a netted force-field over our strawberries to keep the birds out. Our original one on the tower was meant to be temporary and lasted 4 years (see “Protecting the berries” post). At that time, Ellie was very helpful in keeping the birds at bay while we built it. We even shared a story of Ellie vs. the Magpie on the blog due to a funny little encounter at the strawberry tower and cage just after we built it. This experience has been different due to Basil’s friendship with all the birds. Good for birdwatching, bad for the garden. If you look closely at the pictures below, you will notice that I am building the strawberry cage in the background. Lazy hound.

So here we are, once again protecting the berries. A good protection system will ensure no damage to the berries. We went “temporary” with our first one and it lasted 4 years. This time we intended permanent, and hope for many years of use. To help with this, we decided to go with lightweight PVC instead of wood. It should last much longer and provides a lightweight but rigid frame.

We went with 1/2″ PVC pipe. Since the bed is not a proper rectangle, we went the lazy-mans way of measuring and put the pipes in the bed and cut where they intersected. For the corners, I had hoped to get a 3-way PVC elbow, but of course could not find a store in town that had any in stock. It has been quite a battle finding supplies for anything this year. I guess more patience and instead of supporting local stores, I have to order online. This time around, I did find a work-around that allowed me to still buy the supplies at our local stores. and looks-wise, it didn’t end up too hokey. Instead of the 3-way PVC elbow, I used a standard PVC 90* elbow and a “T” connector. The T-connector ended up beside the elbow, so there is a touch of overhang on each end, but it worked out for the way we hung the netting.

We built the first frame as noted above, in the bed. We then lifted it off, and added the four corner legs. It was pretty wobbly at this point because it was so long and didn’t have centre supports yet. Once put together, we put it back in the garden to determine where our “centre” supports were going to go, which we wanted in line with the wall posts. So, it didn’t really end up perfectly centred, but if need be, we can always put a clamp on the post to keep the cage in place.

We then added the top cross bars to give the top of it some support. Originally we were just going to put one bar across the top, but ended up putting 2, again due to the length. We figured it would also support the netting better, reducing any sagging. I forgot to get pictures of this part.

The next conundrum was the netting and how we were going to attach it to the PVC. Originally, we thought we would just zap strap it into place, which would have worked fine. We also thought of weaving twine through it, but it seemed time consuming and if we needed to change the netting, time consuming again to take it all off. While pondering, we were standing where the old strawberry tower was, and I remembered a makeshift “PVC Bandaid” I had made for the irrigation when Kurt had accidentally nicked it with the weed whacker. I had used the flared end of one of the PVC pipes, and cut a section out so that it could snap on top of the other pipe. I figured since the regular pipe was supposed to slide into the flared part to connect them, then why couldn’t I use it to glue up the hole. Worked like a charm. So I used the same theory again, this time without the glue.

Using all the flared ends, I cut small rounds. I then cut a strip out of the round, making a bit of a clip. When we ran out of the flared ends, I did use a bit of 3/4″ pipe, but it is slightly loose, so I would definitely recommend the flared bits instead. I cut out as many clips as I anticipated needing. My hope was that it would hold tight without glue, and be able to be removed when we need to replace the netting. I have no doubt that we will have to replace the netting a number of times.

We took the frame out of the garden and set it on the ground so that we could more easily reach over it as needed while we did the netting. I grabbed a big role, because I figured we would likely need it other times as well. I would like to add green peas and will need to build a little trellis for them to climb. Anyways, once on the ground, the netting was 7′ wide which was just about perfect for fitting over the top and hanging down the front. Since the back will be flush against the wall, we didn’t need to have netting go down the back side.

Starting from one end, I started clipping the netting. It was a nice tight fit and held it in place perfectly. Continually pulling it tight as I clipped from one end to the other, we ended up with a nice, flat netting over the top. No droops or sags.

We then put it back into the bed, where I could add some sections of pipe to weigh down the sides and front, but be easily lifted and propped on the top for easy access to the berries. I once again used my lazy measuring and clipped the netting into place. It worked great. The netting is easily lifted and the bar plunked on top of the frame to keep the side or front panels out of the way while harvesting. We made it tall enough, that I can lean in all the way to the back, without having to duck down. Originally we had planned to make it so that I could walk into it, but we didn’t want something that big in the garden. I can reach all the way to the back if I get a good thigh lean on the front wall.

So far it has been doing a much better job then Basil at keeping all the birds out of the strawberries. Now we get to enjoy them as they ripen, rather than take the few that the birds missed. It’s sad that Ellie isn’t here to pose with it, and Basil was too busy sunning herself in the dirt-pile to make an appearance for a photo opportunity. The berries are once again protected.