...we discovered yesterday that a bird family has nested in the tree next to the vegie patch. They pick our chillis and cherry tomatoes as soon as they're ripe. Jay's solution is to make a scarecrow and we've been swapping lots of ideas today... I have a sneaking suspicion that our 5x4 metre vegie patch will resemble Mr McGregor's garden by the time we're through......
From post on 23rd Feb
Hi Everyone,
Well....today we finally built Mr Scarecrow! There was much excitement as we gathered up the shirt and jeans donated by my husband (did I catch a smile of relief as he handed over the shirt I bought him 2 years ago which he somehow never managed to wear??).
We hammered our stake with crossbar attached into the ground between the tomatoes and corn. With much discussion and debate, we then forulated a plan of stuffing old stockings with dried grass cuttings and securing them to the stake.
Next we dressed Scarecrow, attaching an old straw hat from the dressups. Jay and Freida insisted on using a carrot for a nose, oblivious to my reasoning that it would actively encourage the birds into our garden...oh well, it will disappear within a couple of days and Scarecrow can get on with his job of scaring the birds away.
While building our scarecrow, we discovered that the beans are ready to pick and some cherry tomatoes are just about ready to harvest. Now that the birds have been dealt with, perhaps we can enjoy the rewards of our efforts.
Overall this was a very successful afternoon. The children declared that this is indeed a very scary scarecrow and we all feel good after being out in the sunshine......gotta love homeschooling :)
Talk Soon, Cynthia x
