Gardening in the South Cariboo is challenging. I'm not sure if we're living in Zone 3, but whatever it is, we've got our work cut out for us. The growing season is short and there is always the constant threat of frost. If weather or insects don't take the plants, there's marauding deer to guard against. All the threats call for special weapons and tactics, and end up adding to the cost of production. Bringing something green and foreign to the landscape is a daunting task, but grow we must.

I don't garden on a large scale, however I do keep a few containers tucked away with flowers, and the odd vegetable. These greens, swathed in chicken wire, make me aware of the daily weather and keep me in touch with the challenges of local gardening.

Taking care of my string of 100 nest boxes in outlying areas reminds me of tending plants. The nest boxes also have special pests that keep me on my toes. And this is the time of year that I tour my box sites to see how the birds fare.

Of special concern to me are the 101 Mile Marsh boxes. Last year a bear discovered the nest boxes contained tasty nestlings, and egg treats, so he began pulling down boxes and eating the contents. By summers end the bear destroyed about 20 boxes in the north west corner of the fenced enclosure. At the time of the destruction, I happened to be housesitting some distance away, and despite my best sleuthing, I could not tell whether all the broods were lost. My hope was that some of the young birds flew away before the pillaging began, and avoided being eaten.

This year I am conveniently close to the 101 Marsh and made visiting it a priority. Still, with Tree Swallows in every box except one taken by Mountain Bluebirds, there is little I can do but hope a long winter's hibernation robbed the black bear of all memories of his easy box lunches. Thankfully the end of June came without incident and all but a few boxes of Swallows have fledged and flown. I call it a successful season.

The nest box story wasn't quite as rosy when I visited Exeter Lake. Here the problem is not with bears, but with an equally destructive domestic animal, the cow.

Last year, I placed almost two dozen nest boxes and tried to guess which side of the fence the cows would frequent. I speculated that the big pasture side of the fence would be the attraction, so I faced all the boxes south. At the end of last year I went around to check the Exeter Lake spot and found almost all the boxes unused, laying on the ground. Oh well, at least the boxes were dislodged before nesting even began, so it wasn't active nests that were destroyed. I rehung all the boxes this spring, once more facing them towards the south.

A few days ago, I checked the boxes at the Exeter Lake site; again the cows were at work. Every box was disturbed but thankfully, only one was on the ground. Tree Swallows actively fed young in many of the boxes, and they scolded me relentlessly as I made small adjustments to the most tilted of their domains. In a far off pasture, the cows chewed grass contentedly and showed no sign of their vandalistic nature.

I still have one group of nest boxes out by Buffalo Creek to check. Already though, given the successes at the other two sites, I'm declaring this year's harvest of box-raised birds to be a bumper crop. Some might say that cultivating birds is easy compared with cultivating plants, but to me both are worth the challenge.