Country Mouse Monday: fall starts
Monday, October 21, 2013 at 09:30AM 
Fall is such a funny time around these parts: cold in the mornings but so very hot in the middle of the day, as if rallying to keep that summer feeling going. The pumpkin is still sending out new vine, pushing energy into little green orbs, all thanks to this crazy daytime heat.
This weather weird is normal, but it can still turn your head.
It gets me, too: this cold-hot-cold of each day. By 10am, I've forgotten all about the down jacket and beanie I wore on a walk earlier in the day, hands stuffed into my pockets for warmth. I'm slathering on sunscreen and wearing a wide-brimmed hat when I step out into the garden, eager to soak up some heat.
And railing at the birds for eating all but one of the cilantro starts.
They're doing the same as me and the squirrels: taking advantage of this last blast of summer to eat and store whatever they can. Sure, I know that, but still it makes me feel grim and sad, to know the lettuce and herbs I started have been eaten. Of two tidy rows of golden beets, only three survived the endless scratching and pecking. Damn it.
But because I've been reading Modern Farmer magazine, reading it page by page, even the ads, I'm undaunted by the setback. I'm determined to eat from our plot of land year-round. So I hatch a plan.
What we need is some way to keep the birds out while the plants are young. I eye some old tomato cages we have in the back by the shed; maybe we could cut them in half, line them with some hardware cloth, create little protected wind-rows? And we're off to the hardware store.
From a 10 foot roll of hardware cloth, we end up making 3 3-foot-long row covers, with capped ends to ensure the birds don't get in. They're super-crafty, not elegant, but functional. Done! We make another stop so I can pick up pea seeds, and naturally the consolation prize of some fall starts.
Back home, at 2 on an autumn Sunday afternoon, I turn compost into Bed 1 and plant the peas, scattering some pansy seeds in front of them for fun. I put leeks in next to the arugula and kale (which the birds ignored), put red leaf lettuce under our cute little bird cages, put in brussel sprout starts.
I stand up, sweaty, the knees of my jeans muddy, dirt on my face. And couldn't be happier.
The fall starts are in, the delicates protected by plastic-free cages of our own making, the possibility of eating from our plot of dirt over the next few months secured.
Let the cold come. I don't mind. We'll still eat. Nothing is better than that. Nothing.
XX
Reader Comments (1)
Hello,
Nice as well as useful description. Thank you so much. From the first picture, any one can easily understand the method caging.