I'm growing tomatoes this year, a patch with eight plants of three different kinds. We have not harvested a single fruit yet, but with about seventy green tomatoes on the vines – cherries, plums and Girls – things are looking good.
Today I looked out the window and saw a startling sight: two brilliantly colored cardinals hovering precariously over my tomato patch, their colors a striking contrast with the green vines. How nice, I thought, pretty cardinals. But then I thought, CARDINALS PECKING AT MY TOMATO PLANTS??? And I ran outside shouting to drive them away.
Now I know there's no way I can run outside often enough to keep the cardinals away, so I started hunting for something I might put on a post, perhaps some bright, flapping fabric, to keep scaring them. But while I searched, I also asked myself what they were doing there. We seem to have cardinals in our neighborhood all year long. Why buzz my tomatoes now? Then I remembered: two days ago, I saw a Japanese beetle (the hateful thing!) on a tomato leaf. I rushed to my computer and Googled cardinals AND "Japanese beetles". Sure enough, the birds were just trying to help me out.
I hope they come back.
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