It’s always something. No sooner did I rid myself of the ants in the kitchen, now it’s birds stealing the basil in the backyard – not just mine, my neighbor’s too. They swoop in, swipe a leaf, smirk, and fly off. They didn’t touch the rosemary, oregano or sage – however, I wasn’t about to let this flock of hooligans pilfer my future pesto – this means war!
I cut the bottoms off of a seltzer bottle, poked some holes in it, and covered what was left of my plants. It was a stopgap measure, as the plants would soon outgrow their makeshift greenhouse. My cousin suggested netting, and my friend Don proposed a danglng pie tin – since I don’t play favorites, I decided to try them both.
I didn’t really know what I was going to use for netting, until I spied a bag of onions in the kitchen. I dumped the onions, and grabbed some skewers which I inserted in the soil around the plant to keep the net around the perimeter of the pot. I used some twine to secure it in place.
Finally, I poked a hole in an aluminum cake pan and tied it to a pole above the plant with twine. The slightest breeze made it swing and twist, and a stronger breeze made it flip over the pole. Trial and error folks. So, I punched a second hole across from the first one, tied another piece of twine to it, gave it some slack, and tucked the end under the saucer of the plant. The cake pan still spun enough to ward off my feathered fiends, and I imagine in a month, I’ll have enough basil for my first batch of pesto!
