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05/18/2007: "Hay Corn May"

It's been another busy week as we hit the peak of planting season. All of the corn has come up, the melons are planted, the squash are growing, the tomatoes and basil thriving, and potatoes planted. We also have a surge in wildlife. Here are a couple of nice little corn starts, with a cucumber beetle looking for lunch.



And here's some quail damage. The little guys sneak out of the hedgerow and pick over the garden. They've left the corn alone this year, and have only damaged a few squash plants. We make regular trips down to the garden to flush them out. It's kind of like a game.


We've been having fantastic weather, with days in the low 70s and soft winds. Today the clouds moved in and brought some rain showers. This has saved us from an irrigation. I hope to find a picture of the corn when the ground is wet, when the green is a little more vivid. But you can still see the rows of corn marching down the plot.


Winter came down to the garden with us for an evening walk and quail-flushing. It was a long way from the house for a little kitty, and she was a little disturbed by that. She stuck very close to Nate and I, but also took a keen interest in exploring the unsual scents and sights. I wonder how she feels about the smell of basil?



MMMMMMMmmmmmm... Cherries.
We could use some advice on keeping the birds off the cherries. Last year we anticipated a beautiful crop off of the three cherry trees, only to lose 90% to the birds. We put up "scare tape", which is long bands of flashing metal streamers, red on one side, white on the other. It didn't seem to help at all, or maybe it accounted for the 10% we got! Any ideas about owl decoys or nets?


Nate also made some hay in the nice weather we had this week. In fact, most of the farmers in the valley with a hay crop harvested this week. Sprinkles started this evening and turned into a steady shower. We managed to load up two Sidekicks full of beautiful and fragrant green hay. It'll make a fantastic winter feed. We should have more nice weather coming, and with plenty of green grass we're going to try and make more.



Queen Aura is growing and growing, with her right side bulging enormously. I'm not sure how much longer she can go!! We've found that she can't keep up with the grass growth. In fact, we moved her out of her upper pasture two weeks ago and it has grown to over knee high again. To help out with this, and to help them out, we're taking in two young mustang mares. They should be arriving in two to three weeks. Right now they're on pasture that's under too much pressure to feed them, and they aren't receiving any training. My hope is to condition and gentle the horses over the summer and find one or both a nice home in the fall or winter. While they're here, they'll pay their rent by mowing the pasture!

Jason said:

You're probably losing most of your cherries to the invasive European
starling. Flashing streamers and fake owls won't work. About the only
thing you can do is locate and block off any nest cavities they are
using in any of your buildings and trees and then put netting over your
cherry trees.

Kurt said:

Jason, you're right, they are the starlings! And we do have nest cavities in the barn, and in the shop! OK, now we know what we need to do for next year.

Jason said:

I'm glad I could offer some advice. I know there are plenty of other jobs to keep you busy this time of year, but if you block some of those cavities sooner rather than later, you might (or might not) still make a big difference. Your local starlings are likely causing most of the damage. They should be just about finished raising their first brood right now, but they will then lay second and, later, sometimes even third clutches. If the colony suffers a large enough disruption now, the rest may choose to abandon your site to raise their secondary clutches elsewhere. You can listen for begging young at a cavity (they're very loud) and only plug cavities that are silent to avoid starving any youngsters.