Tomatoes saved (maybe)

 

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.  ~Lou Erickson

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What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.  ~Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871

Two days later and I feel a little more optimistic. I found the bird netting I needed at Lowe's yesterday. It may have been there in past searches as I was looking for a roll and it comes in a clear cellophane envelope.
The sheet is quite a bit larger than I needed, but does the job. I managed to cover both surviving plants, the Bush and the Porter.  Even though the plants look bad, the fruit is turning color.  The birds obviously scout out likely gardens and make note of ripening fruit.  Every tomato I found that had turned had a big hole pecked in it.

The netting is draping all the way to the ground and I think will make it difficult for the little opportunists to get to the fruit.

We will see.

I am anxious to see if the flavor will be more intense vine ripened than the green ones I ripened in the kitchen. They were quite bland.