Well the pigeon peas are producing copious pods again & of course the king parrots are testing those pods daily just waiting for them to be ready. Thankfully at this time of year the parrots don't have young to feed so they aren't quite so ravenous.
Since there are about 12 mature trees scattered across the greater house & granny flat yards, I feel I am not being greedy by netting off just 4 for my own use & allowing the parrots to have the rest. Even though the one growing in the chook pen was for chook food, I don't have enough net left to net that one too so the parrots will get those pods as well.
I spent several afternoons just looking at the 4 trees which were planted in pairs around 3m apart, their shape, height, width, what bamboo I had & how long, how big the main piece of netting was (it's the piece for the lychee tree & will go back to that use once the pods are picked). But mostly I was trying to visualize how I was going to get this piece of netting over those trees without crushing or breaking them. Before I started there were many holes made late last year by those very same parrots as they devoured tomatoes that were too close to the netting.
So with my plan formulated, I rolled the netting half way onto a long smooth bamboo pole & gently placed it in the crown of one pair of trees leaving the rest of the length of netting hanging down on the ground. Then using my cultivator tool that has a long handle, I hooked a tyne into the end of the bamboo pole which enabled me to push the other end of the pole right up over the top of the other pair of trees. It slipped off the tool & dropped to the ground on the other side of the trees unrolling just right . I pushed the thin bamboo lengths up from under the netting to form the peaks & tied them off to branches of the pigeon peas.
I used 80-100cm lengths of hibiscus branch as long 'needles' to stitch the ends together. Then tied the bottom of the netting on each side down to the base of the trees. Some of the branch ends are pressing against the netting so the parrots will get some of the pods. But hopefully they might already be full from the other trees & might leave mine alone.
Eventually I'll net the whole garden & orchard using this type of structure only much bigger bamboo poles that I already have. They'll be held upright by being attached to star pickets driven in the ground in a 5m grid pattern & be topped with 2lt milk bottles upside down to prevent ripping the mesh. I just have to wait to afford 3x150mx5m wide rolls of knitted bird netting like the stuff I'm using here in these photos! By then the mangoes will be finished fruiting & I will cut their tops out to keep them under 4.5m high once regrown.
Since there are about 12 mature trees scattered across the greater house & granny flat yards, I feel I am not being greedy by netting off just 4 for my own use & allowing the parrots to have the rest. Even though the one growing in the chook pen was for chook food, I don't have enough net left to net that one too so the parrots will get those pods as well.
I spent several afternoons just looking at the 4 trees which were planted in pairs around 3m apart, their shape, height, width, what bamboo I had & how long, how big the main piece of netting was (it's the piece for the lychee tree & will go back to that use once the pods are picked). But mostly I was trying to visualize how I was going to get this piece of netting over those trees without crushing or breaking them. Before I started there were many holes made late last year by those very same parrots as they devoured tomatoes that were too close to the netting.
So with my plan formulated, I rolled the netting half way onto a long smooth bamboo pole & gently placed it in the crown of one pair of trees leaving the rest of the length of netting hanging down on the ground. Then using my cultivator tool that has a long handle, I hooked a tyne into the end of the bamboo pole which enabled me to push the other end of the pole right up over the top of the other pair of trees. It slipped off the tool & dropped to the ground on the other side of the trees unrolling just right . I pushed the thin bamboo lengths up from under the netting to form the peaks & tied them off to branches of the pigeon peas.
I used 80-100cm lengths of hibiscus branch as long 'needles' to stitch the ends together. Then tied the bottom of the netting on each side down to the base of the trees. Some of the branch ends are pressing against the netting so the parrots will get some of the pods. But hopefully they might already be full from the other trees & might leave mine alone.
Eventually I'll net the whole garden & orchard using this type of structure only much bigger bamboo poles that I already have. They'll be held upright by being attached to star pickets driven in the ground in a 5m grid pattern & be topped with 2lt milk bottles upside down to prevent ripping the mesh. I just have to wait to afford 3x150mx5m wide rolls of knitted bird netting like the stuff I'm using here in these photos! By then the mangoes will be finished fruiting & I will cut their tops out to keep them under 4.5m high once regrown.