Does anyone know what these mysterious red berries are? I’m too afraid to try them but the chickens seem to gobble the berries up faster than I can pick them. I vaguely remember somebody mentioning something but I can’t seem to remember now.
Speaking of chickens…. Look at how PLUMP they are getting.
We are hoping to get the coop finished today and once we do, I’ll do a proper show and tell with lot’s of pictures.
Meanwhile in the rain forest garden where the plants grow like mad and everything seems just days away from ripening/picking….
It was all going so well until I wandered out to the garden this morning and noticed the tops of all my dried bean plants had been nibbled off.
And the leaves on all the sweet potato plants too. I don’t understand it…. Yes there is quite the bunny population here, and I really don’t think I could ever keep them all out of our garden, but WHY ON EARTH aren’t they eating the chard and beet tops instead? Wouldn’t those crops be more appealing to a bunny? I don’t get it? The bunnies never bothered with the other beans {which are 8 feet high on teepess right now} when those were young plants. What has changed?
Maybe they don’t like chard…. and maybe I need to plant a 2 foot chard barrier around the entire vegetable patch to keep them at bay next year? Would a scarecrow keep bunnies away? Maybe I need one {or twenty} of those in the garden.
I’m totally disappointed about the beans…. And it’s too late to get another crop of dried beans in seeing how they need about 90 days. 🙁 🙁 🙁 But the sweet potatoes…. Don’t you think those would be okay since they are underground?
Maybe I will need to break down and invest in some sort of bunny proof fencing after all. The squirrels and chipmunks though…
Oh well, there’s always next year I guess.
Keep clam and garden on, right?
~Mavis
Jamie says
do you see any deer tracks because that would be my guess. Good luck, it’s always something!
Cheri says
We just moved to big farm in NE WA. Lots of deer. I heard the Department of Natural Resources uses a product they ordered online. I can’t remember the name of it at moment but when I looked it up it was over 90% putrified eggs( rotten eggs). I didn’t want to give up any fresh eggs however my husband was asked to take care of our neighbors chickens for a week.
He realized the last day he had forgotten an entire section. So lots of bad eggs!
I smashed them around our garden and it seemed to work wonderfully. The animals don’t like the smell.
Robin says
Rotten eggs – was it Liquid Fence? I used to use that to repellent rabbits.
Carolina says
Yep, we are looking forward to ridiculously high humidity today. I hope you got out into the garden nice and early to beat the heat—and humidity.
Pam H. says
Bunnies don’t like the smell of marigolds! A border of those may help next year. Other peeps around here (NE WI) also get hair clippings from their hairdresser and scatter about the garden. The bunnies don’t like that either. Or at least save your own when you trim your hair or the HH’s hair. The birds also appreciate the clippings for building their nests. Good luck!
Emily E says
Yep, I’ve heard of using hair clippings as well!
Mary says
A few mint plants are a good repellent for animals. Just contain the mint in low pots because it will grow everywhere!
Gwenn says
We used the hair we brushed from our German Shepherd mix around the garden and used (minus the chunks) clay kitty litter. Both worked well to keep out the bunnies.
Marybeth says
I use human hair and dog hair in my garden to keep the bunnies out. I also have lots of marigolds planted all around.
Kim says
I agree, the deer eat our green beans plants
Veronica Vatter says
I can’t recommend enough mulching with your grass clippings. Bare ground between your plants is not a good idea in the NE. Late summer drys them out horribly. And it helps keep soil from splashing up when we get down pours. Blight can be a real problem here.
Linda Harber says
Maybe it’s another kind of critter. I have groundhogs munching on my veggies A LOT. I have pictures of the buggars out there from my kitchen window. (There was more than one) I had to set a Havahart trap for them so I could relocate them to a local forest area. Our squirrels are also tomato marauders. I catch them all the time with my smaller green tomatoes in their mouths – scurrying across the top of the fence. I am going to fence the entire garden in next year because this year most of my garden has gone to the various critters.
Indio says
Two years ago the only tomato I got was a green one. My garden is fenced but not the top and the chipmunks were small enough to fit through the wire holes. This year my garden has 12 ft poles holding up bird netting and it’s attached to the original garden framing. Used the same netting on top of the wire so nothing can squeeze thru. Buried vinyl coated pvc 8 inch down along all the edges. It was a huge time investment but so is the garden. Now I finally have tomatoes ripening.
Deb says
I was gonna say deer as well… they’ve eaten all my hostas! Then the mice have rearranged what’s left of the hostas… always something!
Pat says
Beautiful garden. do you have a County Extension agent you could have them come out and look at it and tell you what the red berries are I wouldn’t eat them until someone tells you what they are.
Anne in VA says
Your red berries look like currants to me. They make excellent jelly.
Rather sour if you eat raw but great in things.
Maureen says
That’s what I thought as well. We used to have a current bush and it does make delicious jelly.
Karen says
The red berries do not look at all like my red currants! Double check before eating!!
Kate Dering says
The color is similar to currents, but not the growth habit. They don’t look like my currents. Check and double check before eating!
Angela says
No!!! These are not currants. My best guess would be nanking cherry. They would have a little pit inside. they are sweet and yummy but do not eat the seeds.
Denise says
The leaves don’t look the same. Mavis, take a cutting to a nursery or extension for id. Then you will know if you can eat them, if they are invasive, if they are poisonous. Pretty though!
Betty Richardson says
Try website called Picture This to identify plants and flowers. It’s free.
Lacy says
Mavis, please don’t get discouraged. The amount of work you’ve done in a few short months is more than I’ve been able to accomplish in the 4 years we’ve been in our house and I’m a stay at home mom. The success you’ve had already is super impressive. Think about everything you’ve grown already,so if you’ve lost one or two crops out of 20+ I think you’re doing pretty darn well. Welcome to nature, where gardening doesn’t always go to plan.
Caitlin says
Yep, deer ate the tops of my Jacobs cattle bean. Your damage looks the same to me.
Maggie Ann says
We have some that look like that and are ‘currents’ but better check yours out to be sure they are safe to eat. Our berries are tart but tangy….yum!
Tanya says
I would guess that much damage overnight was a deer (or several.) Human hair or urine (but ummm …) will deter them from your garden. The other thing you might try is a sprinkler with a motion detector, at least at night when the chickens are cooped up and the critters are foraging.
erin in ia says
I was going to say motion censored floodlight. They make solar ones
JoAnn C says
I think your red berries are currants.
Peggy says
First, your garden looks great!! The red berry is Japanese Honeysuckle, but it’s very invasive, it will take root anywhere it can. I would cut them out and keep an eye for it trying to come back. If you keep cutting it to the ground, you’ll eventually kill it. Very, very invasive and it will choke out natives. Next the beans, I know it’s heartbreaking, and I’ve had it happen. It is bunnies and maybe groundhogs, but the fix is simple. When your beans are starting to flower, cover the row with floating row cover. I weigh mine down with rocks, but I’m sure there’s something like garden staples that looks much neater. 🙂 Anyway, this will allow air, water, sunlight to get in but will keep the little critters out, it doesn’t in anyway harm the plant and you can use it only when and where you need it, it’s been a lifesaver…or beansaver for me. 🙂 I use it on brassicas too, and blueberry bushes. Really whatever needs covered at any time, and it’s affordable. Your chicken coop is so cute too, I really enjoy your posts I hope you have a great day. Oh, I’ve always thought it was funny that the little critters don’t bother with the pole beans, even the blossoms close to the ground. 🙂
coleen says
Hi Mavis, we put fishing line all around and over our bean plants and that seems to of stopped the bunnies.
Tanya says
We use s product called liquid fence to keep out the bunnies. It may work for deer as well. I found it at local garden center. ( s wi)
Knico says
I recommend getting an inexpensive game camera and finding out exactly what sort of critters you are dealing with. Moving it around to the various areas gave me a clue on how and when to combat nature’s foragers. I found that human hair was the least effective deterrent, but urine works well for woodchucks, rabbits and even voles. I’ve also had moderate success with spent coffee grounds sprinkled around., I don’t know if tea leaves would work the same way. Dog hair works if you put it in tufts in and around a fence, just putting it on the ground seemed ineffective. I tried the Irish Spring soap trick as well and found most of the cheesecloth packets all chewed up. Bloodmeal is effective against bunnies but must be reapplied frequently.
Linda says
I believe that you have choke cherries.
Mrs. C. says
The deer ate my sweet potatoes. You may be able to salvage them by giving them a dose of fish emulsion every 7-10 days. Mine are coming back, but I have covered them with netting.
Veronica Vatter says
If you put states around your garden and string fishing line, you will keep the deer out. They can’t see it but they can feel it and it freaks them out. Just take it down in the fall and put it back up in spring. Works like a charm.
Mrs. C. says
On Amazon, you can buy netting, the kind people drape around beds, for cheap. They are easy to wrangle alone. and are effective deterrents. I covered my blueberry bushes with them.
Indio says
I use cheap mosquito netting to cove blueberry plants. Found bird netting still let the birds in.
Mrs. C. says
Me, too.
Teri says
Your garden looks great! Love the chicken coop — your HH is doing a fantastic job! Your girls look well fed!
Martha Buchanan says
just let some of your green bean plants go to seed. I do that every year and harvest them dried for use in baked beans. good stuff
Cyndy says
I have several currant bushes. Those are NOT currants.
JAN WALKER says
I screenshot the berries & then searched image….came up with Shepherd Buffalo berries (Shepherdia argentea).
Here is the page link….there is a pic on there that is identical to your shrub, Mavis!!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherdia_argentea
Denise says
I don’t think they are the same. The leaves are rounder on the tips than Mavis’s. Stems look different also.
Julie K Whitmore says
My guess is deer also. They love novelty.
Nothing works like a seven foot fence. Nothing.
Robin says
I used to use Liquid Fence to repel animals. It worked but it was expensive. I came across a recipe for homemade stinky stuff that included water, dish soap, cayenne pepper and garlic. I sprayed it around the edges of my raised beds and it helped. I also used wire cages. The rabbits never ate the sunflower seedlings the squirrels “planted” all over the lawn (from the bird feeder) but they ate the sunflowers I grew in the garden beds. Go figure.
debbie in alaska says
those berries aren’t currant or holly (based on the leaves alone).
debbie in alaska says
Is it possible it is a honeysuckle?
Heidi says
I don’t believe those berries are currants. Might be chokecherry though. If they are chokecherry, don’t eat them raw as the seeds are poisonous, but you can make jelly out of them. I would check with an expert to be certain.
Thelma Morrow says
You really have made such a huge amount of progress with your garden.It looks amazing! Hang in there! You can dry any bean! Bush beans grow quickly 56 days and Scarlett are pretty fast as well and very productive ( 45-55 days) You could try Blood Meal sprinkled around your beans to keep bunnies away , it helps but needs to be replaced after rain. If you can find Bobbex its a pretty good and safe Deer repellant. Love your Chicken Coop!
Karen says
Maybe the red berries are huckleberries?
debbie in alaska says
Oh they do look like red huckleberries don’t they? Leaves are pretty similar too. You might be on to something!
Mavis Butterfield says
Nope. Not huckleberries.
Angela says
Possibly nanking cherry. If do, they are yummy and make great jams
Diane says
The berries look like chokecherries to me, too. The berries are VERY astringent, sour/bitter.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about chokecherries: “The wild chokecherry is often considered a pest, as it is a host for the tent caterpillar, a threat to other fruit plants. However, there are more appreciated cultivars of the chokecherry, such as ‘Goertz’, which has a nonastringent, and therefore palatable, fruit. Research at the University of Saskatchewan seeks to find and create new cultivars to increase production and processing.
Chokecherry is toxic to horses, moose, cattle, goats, deer, and other animals with segmented stomachs (rumens), especially after the leaves have wilted (such as after a frost or after branches have been broken) because wilting releases cyanide and makes the plant sweet. About 10–20 lbs of foliage can be fatal. Symptoms of a horse that has been poisoned include heavy breathing, agitation, and weakness. The leaves of the chokecherry serve as food for caterpillars of various Lepidoptera. See List of Lepidoptera which feed on Prunus”
Deb says
I am guessing they might be serviceberries? They do resemble currants, though the leaves look different.
Serviceberries are edible and supposedly delicious, but please check with pictures online before eating!
Kipper says
Deer netting is what I’d use. Used it to make a top for the chicken run so predators can’t fly down and hens can’t fly out. It is less expensive at HD than bird netting and comes in a wider width. Think it is $19 for a bit roll.
Linda says
Rabbits chewed my sweet potatoes (right next to a row of beets!) earlier in the season, but they seem to have branched out and recovered, so you mat be okay. We don’t have deer here, but rabbits are everywhere this year for some reason.
The berries could be currants. if the bushes are low to the ground. But they look like the berries we called “choke cherries” when I was a kid in Maine. The birds eat them but they aren’t people food. The bushes are tall is they are choke cherries- over 5 feet. But pictures can be deceiving- surely your neighbors will know what they are and whether they’re safe to eat.
Earlene says
I was thinking the berries are choke cherries that make great jam
Candy C. says
I use lots of onions, garlic and mint to keep the rabbits at bay..and a couple cats! With that combo, I haven’t been bothered by rabbits yet this year. I have heard though that human hair keeps them away..pay a visit to the hair salon and ask for the hair clippings to scatter around the plants.
Rajena says
Hi Mavis! If those berries are on the same plants with the pink flowers in your May 23rd post Mystery Plant #2, they are honey suckle berries. Don’t eat them, they are not for people. They are poisonous. I think I tried them when I was little just because they do look good and if I am remembering correctly they are a tiny bit sweet and very much gross. I could be confusing them with another berry though. Birds do really seem to like them and I am guessing that is how the seeds are spread.
Mavis Butterfield says
No, these particular ones did not have the pink flowers… these red berries are along the side property line. No flowers that I noticed. There has also been a bird sort of guarding the berries the last few weeks and every time I’d go pick some, he’d start chirping like mad, like they were his.
Sherry says
Your sweet potatoes look like the deer got them; they will keep at it until the vines are completely denuded and you won’t get any sweet potatoes ☹️ We had to use 7.5 ft deer fence around our orchard to keep to deer from eating our young apple trees in late winter/early spring. We grow our sweet potatoes in the apple orchard to keep them from robbing us of our sweet potato harvest! Good luck and you might want to consider the deer fencing option.
leslie says
The best way to eat currents (or Groseille in French) is with a thick plain yogurt and sprinkle a tiny bit of raw sugar on top! yum. Hopefully that’s what’s in your garden.
Priscilla says
It’s Autumn Olive… perfectly edible for livestock or yourself LOL. It’s invasive. Watch this to learn more : https://youtu.be/YhOeNbf-S6k
I know because it grows here! we make jelly out of it and feed it to our pigs and chickens
Kathy says
My boyfriend hangs his sweaty shirt from a tree branch near the garden every night and he has been successful at keeping the deer out of our garden for 2 years now. He switches it out most every day, but even if he doesn’t do it for a few days, it still works. We have a lot of bunnies around this year but so far they have been content eating the clover in the grass and have left the garden alone.
Laurie in CA says
I believe you have lingonberries. Lingonberry jam is supposed to be really good. I would take a small cutting of the plant to your local nursery to verify its identity.
Mary Ann says
The leaves are wrong for lingonberries. The leaves are right for choke cherries.
Gee says
As urine seems to be one of the better options, I’d ban your males from the bathroom. You could assign them territories. 🙂
But we’re just starting out in new deer territory, too, and they are especially fond of tender, new growth … not so fussy about what it grows on. I, too, lost a bunch of hostas. And that’s in the nice weather. I read an article about gardens and deer, and they said that in the cold weather they’ll eat whatever they can. In the nicer weather, they have more choices so they can be more finnicky.
And fences really are the only reliable answer.
E in Upstate NY says
Place concrete blocks about 10-15 feet apart, or at the corners of your garden. At night have the males in your house “mark” each and every block before coming in for the night. As long as the deer haven’t learned that humans are safe, this will keep the deer away. [We currently live in a small city, and the deer that roam the city have learned that they will not be harvested in the city, so this method will not work.]
Keralee says
Definitely those are honey suckle berries. Not tasty. Absolutely not currants, choke cherries, lingonberries, etc. Invasive, but if the chooks like them thats great, free feed. Birds spread the seeds which is why those bushes are everywhere here in the midwest too.
Human urine repels most small garden pests and doubles as fertilizer if well diluted. Mulch is critical for multiple reasons, I have no lawn to clip so I use fall leaves instead, works great.
Laurel says
For bunnies, use a mesh strainer and dust your plants with Cyan pepper. Wet the plants first.
Nancy says
You might want to take a cutting of the berry plant to your local extension office for identification.
Beryl says
I think those berries are Japanese Honeysuckle, a significant source of food for deer, rabbits hummingbirds. And other wildlife. From my Picturethis app!
renay says
The only sure way is deer fencing. I am in Bellevue WA and we have them all over!
Staci Wickard says
iNaturalist is a great app, too for plant and animal identification. Best of luck determining for sure what it is. Seems a shame if something so delicious looking and plentiful can’t be turned into jelly. But then again, if your hens enjoy them – that’s great!
Amy says
The red berries might be choke berries
Wendy says
Those berries are Honeysuckle (I have them in my yard). Birds love them but they are poisonous to people. Do not eat them!
Nancy from Mass says
Funny, no one else seemed to notice your “Keep CLAM and carry on” sign-off at the bottom!! You must be on your way to becoming a New Englander!!
Nancy from Mass says
Sorry, Garden on, not carry on.
CathyB says
This blog post has how to identify an autumn olive versus honeysuckle. One is edible, the other is not. https://www.wellnessgeeky.com/autumn-olive-berry-plus-fruit-leather-recipe/
C says
Probably deer. They easily hop short fences.