Great thread, LSS!
My wife always gets frustrated. She tries growing tomatoes and peppers, and as soon as they start to ripen, the birds come along and peck one hole in each of them, as if they are making fun of her. When she grows cantaloupe or squash, she gets fire-ant bit when harvesting. She will not eat anything that has had poison around it, so I couldn't keep the ants out. Netting on tomatoes, meant holes poked in every tomato that touched the netting. This year I decided was going to be her year, so I built her an anti-bird cage, with everything raised up to "no-bending" height for comfort AND so I can keep the ants poisoned away from the growing soil. While building it, she decided that she might want more than it would hold, so I raised some containers for plants the birds tend to ignore outside the cage.


Door is on the back side of this picture, shelves are slanted away from the walkway so watering doesn't leave you with wet feet.


This cage is 8'x8'x8', and I used one 16' cattle panel cut in half to make tomato supports. These panels hang in notches cut in 2x4's, and can be pushed back against the wall if not needed. I put removable "windows" behind the tomato trellis to harvest the hard-to-reach beauties. This year, if we fail to have a good harvest, it will be because of my black thumbs or the weather, birds and ants will not be an excuse! Tomatoes are on the south wall so they don't shade the other plants. There is room for smaller plants on the shelf in front of them. All wood is pressure treated, and bird wire is 1" galvanized. The cost for everything(except plants and containers) was between $200 and $250.

A couple months back, LSS mentioned Heatwave tomatoes. Well, yours truly messed around with a bunch of other projects and didn't get them started in time. So after questing for them all day yesterday, does anyone know where to buy them in the metromess already growing?

Thanks guys!!!

Great thread, LSS!
My wife always gets frustrated. She tries growing tomatoes and peppers, and as soon as they start to ripen, the birds come along and peck one hole in each of them, as if they are making fun of her. When she grows cantaloupe or squash, she gets fire-ant bit when harvesting. She will not eat anything that has had poison around it, so I couldn't keep the ants out. Netting on tomatoes, meant holes poked in every tomato that touched the netting. This year I decided was going to be her year, so I built her an anti-bird cage, with everything raised up to "no-bending" height for comfort AND so I can keep the ants poisoned away from the growing soil. While building it, she decided that she might want more than it would hold, so I raised some containers for plants the birds tend to ignore outside the cage.


Door is on the back side of this picture, shelves are slanted away from the walkway so watering doesn't leave you with wet feet.


This cage is 8'x8'x8', and I used one 16' cattle panel cut in half to make tomato supports. These panels hang in notches cut in 2x4's, and can be pushed back against the wall if not needed. I put removable "windows" behind the tomato trellis to harvest the hard-to-reach beauties. This year, if we fail to have a good harvest, it will be because of my black thumbs or the weather, birds and ants will not be an excuse! Tomatoes are on the south wall so they don't shade the other plants. There is room for smaller plants on the shelf in front of them. All wood is pressure treated, and bird wire is 1" galvanized. The cost for everything(except plants and containers) was between $200 and $250.

Great looking project...How's your shark boat doing?

Have six silver lace wyandottes & one production red right now. Got them last May 22 from Ideal Poultry. Avg. four eggs a day right now. Wouldn't necessarily recomend the wyandottes for dissposition, seem more destructive than dominiques we had in the past. Prod. Red is a sweetheart though. I.P. mails them when they are one day old. I was amazed not a single chick perished. Cats do not bother them at all once they get some size on them. Dogs can be a problem, but not as bad as I thought. Can answer many questions about getting started.

I'll see if the store down the road from me still has some and I could maybe be talked into driving somewhere near the metromess to bring them to you...

Oh hon that's the sweetest thing! I'm gonna be in Meridian next weekend.... is it anywhere in that general vicinity?

Plain old corn meal mix will get rid of fire ants, IME.

I grow cantalopes and small watermelons on my chain-link fence. I cut up old pantyhose and make little hammocks so the fruit doesn't break off the vine. Works really well but I had to start planting them on the outside of the fence as my Huskies developed a taste for 'em.

Ellis county fire ants seem to thrive on corn meal, or at least I didn't have luck with it when I tried it. I may try the cantaloupe on the fence, we intended to put them beside the tomatoes, but then she bought too many tomato plants...
I think she intends to use the large containers outside for squash.