[gardeners] Threaten to disband and they will come...
Dan Dixon (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 25 Jun 2001 09:28:24 -0500
I mostly lurk, primarily to read George's garden reports, which are usually
embued with a distinctive style that I find entertaining. [disconnects lips
from George's posterior]
OK, ok, so I'll contribute something... :)
A while back I asked the list about bird netting over raspberries. Listers
may recall the problem was that I had miscalculated when covering our
raspberry patch with bird netting and had left gaps near the ground. My
concern was that birds and squirrels would just go under and eat the
berries. George suggested using CD-ROM disks hung from a line to scare the
critters. Sort of a dot.com version of the old pie tin trick. So I hung
about a dozen or so about 2 feet off the ground around the perimiter of the
patch. I learned that the squirrels and most birds are definitely wary of
hanging CD-ROMs. I've been thinking about why this is. The CD-ROMs reflect
the surroundings a visual illusion of rapid horizontal motion with the
slightest breeze. My guess is that the sensation of rapid horizontal motion
is disconcerting to the critters, since it looks like more is moving than
actually is. The only birds which were undeterred were a couple of
(ostensibly) very smart mockingbirds. I pondered removing them from the gene
pool (what gardener wants smart mockingbirds around?), but in the end
decided just to let 'em have some of the berries.
Dan Dixon
> From: George Shirley <gshirl@bellsouth.net>
> Organization: Sacred Order of St. Pectina of Jella (Saints Preserve Us)
> Reply-To: gardeners@globalgarden.com
> Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:53:00 -0500
> To: Gardeners List <gardeners@globalgarden.com>
> Subject: [gardeners] Re: Sunday in the garden [sic]
>
> There has been no gardeners mail for at least a week now. If volume doesn't
> pick
> up soon we will disband the list for lack of interest. Come on folks we know
> you're lurking out there. Is everyone busy gardening?