Bears happen. Here in Montana black bears do wander into our town (well, small city) and cause a lot of problems in orchards and dumpsters. Fish and Game or Wildlife and Parks will humanely deal with them pretty quickly. Usually they dart them and relocate them, sometimes trap. They almost never find it necessary to kill them. I've taken to carrying pepper spray when I'm in the mountains now (as much for wolves and cougar as for bear) and you might consider it. This is a pint aerosol that goes off with a very loud bang and sends a cloud of capsaicin. It has been known to turn charging grizzlies, which is a good trick. One experience with it will convince Black Bear to seek friendlier neighborhoods. Expect to pay forty or fifty bucks for a can. Local bear expert Jamie Jonkel says it will, in fact, deter 9 of 10 grizzlies .... There's no warranty for the tenth bear. You'd have to lay in wait for your bruin, so it may not be practical. I can imagine trying to convince my wife that I needed to sit up and stare at my trees until daybreak! Good luck. We all sympathise. :-)M

Yeah, it would. As you only can harvest 2/3 of the plant. You can plant early, mid and late summer bearing. Some good ones are Encore (late), Prelude (early), and Taylor. I have these and also Cascade Gold. I have yet to evaluate the latter, but the others produce well, and have good tasting berries. Prelude though acts like an everbearing, so not sure why it is considered Summer? It produced a fall crop. Great tasting berries on this one. I really like them. I had a number of fall bearing that also produced late, but I believe it is because they are new. Fall Gold did the same thing for a couple years, but now the fall crop was the first finished of all cultivars. It needed time to adapt I guess? I like both types btw. And yeah you do need a lot of plants to get a decent harvest. But they propagate easily, room is my problem. I'm maxed out, but for a good 7 weeks I was getting about 30 berries a day, this was decent, and expect even more next year. Some fall and almost all the summer bearing didn't produce the first year. Rosanna, Double Gold, and Honey Queen fall bearers bloomed too late. I will keep canes for a summer crop. Himbo Top, Caroline, Polka, Fall Gold, Kiwi Gold, Crimson Night, and Prelude did produce. So next year I should get around 50 berries a day probably for over 9 weeks. Here's a recent photo of part of my full sun patch. The back bed is raspberries. The front beds are blueberries, and strawberries. I also have 2 black raspberries, and 8 blackberry or blackberry-raspberry hybrids. Next year I'm going to be drowning in berries! This year between the 4x4 beds I added 1x4 beds to add beneficial flowers to attract bees and predator insects. I did a little research and have already purchased annual and perennial flower seeds that have those features. Here is a link that might be useful: Flowers for Beneficial Insects

Love Orange Orangetan, I'm into the broken colors & oranges, this has the best of both. Carl & Sissy is beautiful, I don't think I've seen that one before. I think you have a better picture of Gypsy Romance than I got from mine, & I took LOTS of pictures trying to get it right. A really lovely iris.

One of the dad's made it.....?.....how cool...He's good (the bear and the artist...) I would love to do something like that...Wonder if he used a chain saw....I'm afraid of those....I think it's because I got my fingers all cut up in a hedge trimmer once. I have a bear.....a lady bear I made. She's dressed in a long dress. She's skinny and about three feet tall... I have her in my bathroom...When my grandkids were a few years younger...everytime they would come...and use the bathroom....I'd find it turned around to the wall...One of them was afraid of her. I think it was my grandson Nate who is now 15 and a darn good wrestler... patti