Gardening for the Aging Soul...and the Quail!
Mother Quail watching over babies
As a teen,I spent hours each summer day planting weeding, picking, irrigating, or helping to can the fruits of the one-half acre garden and orchard that ran behind our house and four others on our dead-end street. For a family ofnine children, the garden and orchard provided much-needed food all year long.
I’m sure I complained a lot about the work, but even back then I felt there was something almost mystical about seeing seeds turn into plants and then into food for the table. Blossoms on the trees turned into cherries, peaches, pears and apples that were pealed and preserved in boiling water in a house with no air conditioning. But the food grown and preserved always tasted better than what came from the store and there was usually plenty of it.
As I’ve aged, I’ve retained my appreciation for home-grown food and the satisfaction of working in the dirt.For me,gardening isboth creative work and food for the soul.
At 78, I still enjoy having a vegetable garden, raspberry bushes and a peach tree. I wear a back brace and compression stockings to help me “work in the dirt,” and two hours of working in the shade is about the limit of my stamina. But I still anxiously await the first garden tomato and the other fruits of my efforts. With produce now so expensive, saving money would be an added bonus…except for the quail!
You’ve probably seen a mother quail with five or six babies hurrying after her. They’re so cute!However, maybe the changing climate is making food scarce for them, too, because the past 3 years they’ve made it almost impossible to grow beans. This year even cantaloupe and cucumber seeds and sprouting plants have become a part of their diet. Last year I told myself I wouldn’t plant beans again, but I did.
Maybe some of you avid gardeners have succeeded in spite of quail and have lots of suggestions as to what will help my seeds and the quail coexist or will encourage the quail to go elsewhere for dinner. A friend asked me if home-grown beans are really worth all of this. What do you think?
Let me tell you what I’ve already tried, in addition to growing starts in my house:
Netting:
This is supposed to discourage all birds from eating seeds and newly sprouted plants because they fear their feet will get tangled in it. This year I waited until the soil was very warm to plant my bean seeds and some cantaloupe starts from the nursery. I didn’t want spring rain to rot them in the ground. I covered the entire area with netting. Two bean seeds had sprouted before I left for a two-week vacation. When I returned, there was nothing there but the netting and the dirt. I didn’t see the quail eat the seeds and sprouts, but I did see the mother quail and her children rushing out of the shelter of my raspberry bushes.
I turned to Google for other ideas:
Fake Birds that Look Like Owls and a McCaw:
One article had a link to a pair of owls that I could buy on Amazon for $16.00. I realize I could have purchased a lot of fully grown beans for that amount, but I
had to try it. I planted pole beans the second time and encircled the hills with tomato cages. The quail were not convinced the
owls were harmful, nor did the cages keep them from getting at the seeds and especially the easier-to-see sprouts.
I also purchased a windsocktype of McCaw. The bright colors and movement were supposed to be a deterrent. Even my young granddaughter told me the birds would know that wasn’t real.
Paper Cups with the Bottoms Cut Out:
This solution had limited success. It’s been very windy this summer! If I put the cup over the ground the minute I saw that a seed was about to push through, and the wind that night didn’t blow the cup off the spot, I could end up with some leaves. However, as soon as the leaves got higher than the top of the cup, they became quail food, too.
Tinfoil hung in strategic places on the cages, if it wasn’t blown away, did not seem to scare away these perhaps domesticated birds. A shiny balloon that quickly deflated seemed to help a little, although the sprouts on the right also had paper cups to start with.
A late frost meant no peaches on my tree this year. I did replant cucumber seeds with cups over them, but I don’t know if there’s enough time to get cucumbers big enough to eat before it freezes again. I am enjoying eating and sharing lots of zucchini and tomatoes.
I read just yesterday that crushed egg and nut shells around plants will keep birds away because they’re painful to step on. I don’t eat enough eggs or nuts to even try that next year. But I’m saving the cups. If my aging body still makes it possible for me to get up from a kneeling position, I’ll be planting beans for my soul and the quail again next year.
