Regarding your first question, birds got too many of my blackberries last year, and I discovered that just throwing bird netting over the berries creates a tangled mess that still doesn't give great protection. So, this year I built a bird screen using PVC tubing over rebar as posts. I then used fittings to connect the ends of the posts to horizontal pieces of PVC tubing, creating a rectangular frame, which I covered with bird netting. With the netting raised over the berries, I can keep the birds out without getting everything tangled up. I pinned down the edges of the netting at the sides and back so birds won't hop under it. Then, for the front, I attached the bottom edge of the net to two long pieces of PVC pipe and used them as weights to hold the front down. When I want to go in, I just lift up the pipe in front and duck under. I can also roll the netting up around the front pipes, hang it from some clips that I attached to the top front part of the frame, and leave it open when the flowers are in bloom so that the bees can get in to pollinate them. The whole thing cost about $60 at Home Depot and took about an hour and a half to build. If I can figure out how to attach pictures here, I can post a photo so you can see what I mean. Regarding your second question, my Darrows have primocanes up, but you're in a different zone than I am and I don't have any experience with Kiowa, so I can't help much. Good luck! Rob

Semi, Fake anything, whether it is owls or snakes or whatever, only works for a couple of days before the birds figure out that the fake animals don't move and aren't a threat to them. I have two terrific scarecrows that a very dear friend of ours made for my garden (a most wonderful and unexpected gift), but many songbirds sit on the scarecrows and use them as a perch. However, the hawks (who are quite a problem and often try to get our chickens and guineas) seem to think the scarecrows are real, so they are effective in that regard. With strawberries, the first thing to understand is that every critter in your neighborhood that is an omnivore or herbivore will try to eat them, and this includes not only the birds, but mice, rabbits, voles, insects, turtles, etc. So, netting is perhaps your best bet. It needs to be raised up a little so it does not lie directly on the plants and fruit, or the birds will sit on the netting and peck at the fruit through the holes in the mesh. It also needs to be secured at the ground level to keep out small animals. You also could use a Remay-type floating row cover. I don't know if any place in Ardmore sells them, but think TSC or Orschlein's or Bluebonnet Feed might be the best place to look. (I haven't seen them at Lowe's.) These row covers are very lightweight and keep everything off the plants except for insects that can navigate their way up through the soil, like sowbugs and pillbugs. If you can't find floating row covers, the "sheer" curtains sold in stores are a reasonable substitute. Things that move tend to scare off birds more than things that are stable. There is a commercial product called bird flash tape that is iridescent and supposedly scares off birds as it blows in the wind. I haven't tried it, but have used surveyor's tape (you can get a roll for just a couple of bucks at Lowe's) for the same purpose. Strawberries are one of those crops that gardeners love to grow (especially new gardeners). However, they are VERY labor-intensive and are very hard to grow organically because keeping them "safe" from both pests and diseases requires a LOT of chemicals (esp. commercially). Some people have a lot of success with them. Others don't. I think Plantermunn is quite accomplished at growing strawberries, so perhaps he'll see this post and give you some tips. You also can go to the Noble Foundation website and read about their work with strawberry plasticulture. If I ever were to grow strawberries again, that's the route I would go because it seems very efficient and probably has a high rate of success. I don't grow strawberries myself because I think they require too much work/cost in return for the amount of berries you harvest from a small patch. (I did grow them in Texas, but I had a smaller garden and landscape to maintain.) But, that's just me. I have a huge garden area to maintain, so I can't give high-maintenance plants like strawberries the attention they really need. Good luck, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Bird Scare Flash Tape

Thanks, everyone. The cloth type treatment may work, but seems to exclude a lot of light. I'd also prefer something a bit less visible, as the area is in view from every angle. Maybe I could use wire instead. DH is not a fan of wire because he thinks it should be taken down in the winter, and wire would be hard to store and less manageable to handle. I'll keep looking for an appropriate material and post if I find something.

Some birds, yes, other birds not so much. When the Migratory Bluebirds hit my bushes, there were quite a few other berry type sources in my yard and it was just early 'winter'. Later in winter I had a few Mockingbirds pick the last few berries, but vanished quickly from the bluebirds. My resident pair of bluebirds have never really shown much interest in the Beautyberries though, preferring to go after insects.