I decided that if I’m going to grow blueberries, I’d like to eat a few, too. Last year I stood next to my blueberries, with fist raised to the sky, and shouted at the birds in the trees, “This means WAR!” I will never again water, fertilize, and mulch berry bushes to harvest only three berries. With this declaration of war, the wildlife around my garden looked a little scared, but I knew somewhere in the trees they had a war room in place and were strategically planning their attack.
I announced to my husband, “This year I will win!”
He looked nervous but pronounced, “Of course you will dear. Now what are we referring to?”
“Blueberries! We are going to build a fruit cage!” I declared.
“Why do blueberries need to be caged?”
And thus it started. After exchanging many ideas, arguing a little and a lot of hand gestures, we started building a fruit cage for my blueberry bushes. I’m very proud. We used PVC pipe and glued only certain sections together, so that it can be taken apart and stored each year. It is 5 feet high and around 10 feet long. We attached wildlife netting to the piping with long twist ties and we pegged it down to the ground by taking a wire cutter and cutting long wire pegs out of coat hangers. This keeps it pegged to the ground and a little more stable. I’m very happy with it, but I think next year I will paint it a dark brown or black to make it less noticeable.
My children believe that any day now I will go out into the garden and find Chip and Dale, giving me a little innocent wave from inside the fruit cage.
Redhead Garden 