Talkback: Blackbirds and blackberries - Talkback

22/07/2008 at 13:20

I say let the birds eat the berries. Birds add so much to the garden. In fact I think I'll grow some blackberries just for the birds next year in my garden.

Gardeners' World Web User

24/07/2008 at 15:28

This year has been great for young ones in my garden ive had sparrows,blue tits,great tits,robins and of course the yobish starlings. its been great to watch the feeders everyday. ive been feeding them on sunflower seeds and wild bird seed.the blackbirds,doves and woodpigeons clean up the ground below.ive also got a family of squirrels, my daughter has also named them all.my garden is very small but big in wild life its a pleasure.

Gardeners' World Web User

24/07/2008 at 16:04

I was watching Ma and Pa Blackbird feeding their babies on my cherries last night - it was very entertaining and the blackbird family repay us with their singing for the rest of the year. Fair exchange I think ..... they don't seem to eat the blackberries though. I do chuck out the odd soggy fruits for them and we live in harmony. My little moggie would love to catch a blackbird, but they are far too clever for her, even if she does slide sinuously through the lilac tree. I'm happy about that - she's just caught mice so far.

Gardeners' World Web User

24/07/2008 at 23:13

Putting some low cost supermarket sultanas on the bird table seems to have tempted the song birds away from my fruit this year, but sadly not tempted the pigeons away from the brassicas!

Gardeners' World Web User

24/07/2008 at 23:18

I have had the same problems with Blackbirds. One particular one used to give a very loud Blackbird type "Ha Ha - Beat you to another one" Still they are lovely to see and hear in the garden. Yes the ripe fruits do seem to disappear. Not only birds eye up our strawberry tub - our young yellow labrador saunters by sniffing all the time, and hoping nobody is watching. The joys of gardening

Gardeners' World Web User

25/07/2008 at 09:12

Don't lay the blame on the birds, I have had mice in the greenhouse for some years eating away at the tomatoes and the aubergines during the summer, during the winter I had seeds in plastic boxes and the mice chewed through the hard plastic. My birds seed is kept in a galvanised bin with a heavy weight on. Also my lupin seed and pods have disappeared I put it down to the mice they lay in wait as I often see them running from bed to bed, where is the Sparrow hawk when I need him

Gardeners' World Web User

26/07/2008 at 15:50

I was preparing ground to plant carrot seed when I disturbed an ants nest hundreds of ants were revealed I leveled the ground to prepare to sow as fast as I was putting seeds in drill the ants were taking the seed. Has anyone else experience this.

Gardeners' World Web User

29/07/2008 at 05:53

Given up the uneven fight between Blackbird and self over cherries and have done a George Washington. Sorry but as all the garden birds and other denizens keep me poor in providing repasts for them, year long. I need the space and am reduced to supermarket cherries.! So I am the greater loser.

Gardeners' World Web User

03/08/2008 at 22:09

Maybe thought it was OK to "sing for their supper". And someone who has so much free time they can grow strawberries to eat during Wimbledon ...

Gardeners' World Web User

06/08/2008 at 21:04

I dont know what I am doing wrong but I just cant grow blackberries, I know it sounds stupid the bushes that grow at road sides ext but not for me.

Gardeners' World Web User

19/08/2008 at 15:31

I sympathise! I built & netted a 14'x 14' x 9' cage for two cherries,strawberries 7 other fruit, 7 ended up having to let the blackbirds in as they kept getting trapped. They raised two large families 7 i got no cherries, & shared the strawbs. My outside blackberries got ruined by sparrows, who are small enough to run about on the canes. All last years fruit were covered in scabs from where they'd chewed them. & Yesterday when I was feeding my hens I saw what looked like a hamster (no, it wasn't) sitting up with it's arms folded in a grass hole at the bottom of the henshelter ladder, where I put their seeds! Just waiting for me to leave! Half their food goes down the local wildlife!

Gardeners' World Web User

28/08/2008 at 12:07

This is my first year of proper gardening, having reclaimed my garden from my son who has outgrown it and I have made a pond, planted lots of new plants and also tried my hand at veg. I have grown runner beans, tomatoes, strawberries and red cabbage, herbs and lots of packets of annual seeds have filled my garden with flowers and colour and given me much pleasure. I have lost all but the first two of my strawberries to an unidentified nocturnal thief and the cabbages and nasturtiums have been gobbled by the Cabbage White caterpillars!! But I don't mind, it's a small price to pay for the mix of wildlife I get in the garden. Birds, squirrels and butterflies, some new goldfish and a resident frog, to name a few. There is still plenty of runners and tomatoes for us and the garden looks beautiful! Live and let live, I say! Next year, though, I'll plant many more for sharing!!

Gardeners' World Web User

19/09/2008 at 20:27

I put out a few currants for my blackbirds each morning and evening.They love these and although I do not grow blackberries they have not touched my strawberries. I find that the blackbirds are watching and waiting for their feed and as soon as I go in the garden they appear from nowhere and start chirping away saying 'thank you' for the currants. Am I mad or what!!!

Gardeners' World Web User

23/10/2008 at 22:59

My strawberries went untouched,as did my blackberries. Pigeons had every gooseberry ,but unlike last year when they were only taken when they were ripe,this year the went as soon as they formed.

Gardeners' World Web User

25/05/2010 at 16:24

my names derek and have been gardening for only afew years.one problem bugs me every year guarding my cherries.this year i bought a scarer.and the chap next door thought ide started breeding parrots. oh well i do get a few

Gardeners' World Web User

28/11/2011 at 18:36

Adam, I think you're too fond of the wild birds to keep them away! Couldn't you try micromesh? They couldn't get tangled in it, and you could leave some fruit on the bird table. Let us know what happens next year.

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