No Animals Were Harmed

In my early teens, I holidayed on a farm each summer. The farmer gave me an air rifle and encouraged me to shoot the parrots that pecked at the fruit in their kitchen orchad. The sight of the dead birds saddened me less than the desire for ripe fruit.

Vegetables growing in our backyard.

Fifty years later, even though I live in a big city, I still find wildlife eating from my backyard garden. Some years it is rabbits eating seedlings; recently it has been birds eating the grapes, and every year the squirrels (or possums or racoons) sample the tomatoes, apples and pears before tossing them on the ground and trying another.

Emotionally, I am caught between the desire to enjoy the ripe fruit, and my respect for life in its many forms. However, I've stopped planting more fruit trees because it seemed pointless.

This summer I tried a new approach that did not harm any animals, though it may have left them hungry. I purchased organza mesh gift bags and enclosed each apple, pear, tomato and bunch of grapes within its own bag, tightening the drawstring neck around the stem.

Apples protected by mesh bags

I've seen success with the tomatoes, pears and grapes, but the apples provide some mysteries. Out of the 12 bags I collected from the ground or the tree today, half were empty (completely) - yet we made sure each enclosed a fruit when we applied them weeks ago. One apple had been nibbled, with the pieces inside the bag; three fruit were unripe, and two were ripe and a decent size. There are still a few bags on the tree with fruit that I hope to harvest in a few weeks.

My mood lifted by this success, I am already thinking about adding a new plum tree to our backyard.

Don