Battle to Protect the Apple Harvest

 

Two years ago I published post "Apples&Birds". That was about how we prevented birds from destroying our apple harvest.  The main subject of the post was how to put bird netting around apple tree. Within last two years I refined that technique and on photo above you can see latest installment. I believe it looks much better now. In addition  to bird netting  I put wooden barrier around the trunk. The purpose of it  is to keep away from the tree rodents (squirrels and, possibly, rats.) Obviously such a low barrier can't stop rodents on its own, but sprinkling its regularly with "Squirrel Stopper" liquid should do the job. Let us see how it will end up eventually in October, when there will be time to pick up apple fruits.

I published detailed description of the project on my Instructables Page.

Here I would like to show method which I used to install  wooden barrier. I came to this method on my own. There are two components I use for installation:

• Electrical two whole strap (1/2 ").
• Anchoring  spike.

 Strap I normally attach near the  edge of the board  (~ 1/2 inch from the edge).

Than after putting board on the ground I nail it to the soil  through the strap opening with anchoring spike.

This method  could be used even for regular bender boards in place of bender board stakes.