A Box Of Rocks

With the strawberries in the garden in full bloom I once again took up my crafty skills and painted some rocks to look like strawberries.

Many of you may recall the last two years where I have been putting out these ‘decoy’ rocks around the plants in the strawberry patch when the blooms come on.

In theory, the rocks are supposed to attract birds early on before there are any real strawberries to be pecked on. The decoys make the birds disgusted with what they perceive as a delicious morsel to be a ruse. Then, when the real berries start to redden and ripen they remember how crappy the painted rocks were and head off to pillage someone-else’s garden.

In reality, the strawberries are a good conversation piece as visitors walk through the garden and lift a leaf only to find a decoy grinning at them. As for the birds, I think that the decoys do work to an extent but not in the way it was described to me. I believe those birds are so busy laughing at my silly decoys they forget to go eat my berries.

All in all, I count this as a success.