Vegetable Gardening

[OakLeaf]

They got in again last night. For the time being I've put floating row covers over all my beans. Crazy way to protect against deer! If they dig through those, I give up.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll make a run into town and get some more netting to make smaller enclosures that hopefully they won't try to get in. It'll make it really tight trying to walk between the beds, but I can't think of what else to do. Maybe I should just leave the row covers on.

Stupid deer not only have plenty of grass and weeds, they've got acres and acres of other people's soybeans to chew on. But nooooooooo. (Okay, I'm sure they're chewing on those too.)

[GLC1968]

Smilingcat - that is one gorgeous yard! So much nicer than lawn and tastier, too!

Oakleaf - I'm sorry about your deer issue. I know people around here have real trouble and for the most part, only a tall, sturdy fence truly works.

We are very lucky. We have 8 ft tall buffalo fencing (and bison) on two sides of us, a 6 ft tall ancient privacy fence covered with wild grape vines and blackberry brambles on one side and the fourth side is the road (where we are lucky if cars slow down to 45 mph to make the turn. ). We seem to be fairly well protected and so far, haven't had any deer visits. We do hear coyotes every night, but they don't eat our veggies. So far, our biggest pests are moles - but again, they don't eat veggies. They just make a mess of the yard and screw with the root systems on the fruit trees.

Oh, and we do have mice, but so far they haven't really eaten anything of importance either in the garden or in our basement pantry. They only seem interested in the cat food. Both our cat and one of our dogs is constantly catching them and bringing them to us, so we figure they'll eventually find a safer place to live.

We planted more beans, and transplanted more squash and tomatoes. Next weekened, we'll do our second planting of corn. I have been harvesting spinach and kale like crazy. My basil is finally sprouting as are a few other herbs. I planted three kinds of lavender to replace the plants that our dogs destroyed last summer. I also got the last piece of the fencing puzzle to set up my permanent herb garden (or one of them). I can't wait to get started with it!

[Tuckervill]

I think I'd pen up one of my barky dogs out there over night for a couple of nights. My one dog would scare the deer away before they got near the garden. (my other dog, not so much.) I would hate waking up to the dog barking, but I could handle it for a couple of nights, and I might plan on going out there to scare the deer some more.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

The row covers kept 'em out last night.

I just measured, and turns out the fence is only 7.5' in the lowest spots, not 8.5. So I think I'll get some more PVC pipe to prop up the sags. The ground's uneven, even my 6' step ladder is pretty scary, so there's really no building it higher than 8.5', or sturdier, unless I were to erect scaffolding, and that is more than I'm willing to do. I'm not sure that sturdy is really the issue. They haven't shown any inclination to knock anything down; they just go over. I've read that deer are most wary of getting tangled in things, so I don't really think they'd attempt to go through the netting.

House mousie got in the trap. I'll drop it off at the recycling center on the way into town. GLC, you're lucky with your mice - here, it's not what they eat so much as the destruction they cause building their nests. $600 just this most recent time for the car - some irreplaceable souvenir T-shirts before we learned to put everything in plastic tubs - the hose for a pneumatic wrench in their most recent foray into the tool chest, plus a lot of gnawage on a (formerly) beautiful wooden case for a set of taps. Never mind the garden variety destruction of shop rags, drawer liners, more easily repairable wiring, books, cardboard containers, basically anything not made of metal, plus the general disgusting-ness of mouse turds everywhere in the garage.


This guy has taken up residence in the garage - not really big enough to eat adult mice I don't think, but I'm hoping its presence will be a deterrent anyhow. Now if I could only find a big blacksnake to live in the car.



Tucker - I don't have dogs any more, but when I did, honestly I think I'd trust deer with my garden more than I would have the dogs.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Our cats keep mice out of the living areas of our house, but the cats don't go in the garage or the basement. I regularly set old fashioned mouse traps in both those places, baited with peanut butter. You have to keep checking them- also sometimes the mice manage to eat the PB without setting off the trap, so keeping the traps clean and baited is necessary. The traps kill mice regularly and they never get to multiply or settle in. 98% of the time it seems like the mice are killed instantly. I like the old traps much better than the idea of glue traps or poison, both of which i personally consider cruel ways to kill. Outside mice are not a problem for us.

Oakleaf- wow you have some persistent deer! You have my sympathies.

[tulip]

I think I nipped my mouse problem in the bud. I had seen one several times, and had definitely seen (and cleaned up) mouse droppings--lots of them. In my NEW kitchen!

I set traps and got one. And that's been it.

Smilingcat--your garden is wonderful! I love front yard gardens, especially in small spaces. I'll snap some pics of mine and post them soon. The potatoes are going crazy!

[GLC1968]

here, it's not what they eat so much as the destruction they cause building their nests. $600 just this most recent time for the car - some irreplaceable souvenir T-shirts before we learned to put everything in plastic tubs - the hose for a pneumatic wrench in their most recent foray into the tool chest, plus a lot of gnawage on a (formerly) beautiful wooden case for a set of taps. Never mind the garden variety destruction of shop rags, drawer liners, more easily repairable wiring, books, cardboard containers, basically anything not made of metal, plus the general disgusting-ness of mouse turds everywhere in the garage.

Yes, we do have destruction, but so far, nothing irreplaceable. I cannot believe that they haven't knawed their way into things like oats and crackers stored in cardboard in the basement! But, so far, so good.

I did find the entire bottom of the bag holding my wedding dress chewed to shreds...but they didn't touch the dress, thank goodness. They have eaten the random blanket or cardboard box, too... If they touch my books I'm gong postal on them. I am now making a mental note to store all our winter clothing in rubbermaid tubs this year. Thanks for the idea!

We do have another annoying garden issue. Pets. Our cat and the neighbors cats and the neighbor's dogs seem to like to walk in our boxes and in the case of the cats - deposit extra fertilizer. They've messed up planted seeds too many times to count! Luckily, we've trained our dogs to stay out, but it's awfully hard to train someone else's dogs and the cats are a pain. I've discovered that coffee grounds sprinkled on the surface will keep the cats away if I keep them fresh...but it does nothing for the dogs. I'm starting to get annoyed by it, actually. As the chance for starting seed passes me by, I get more pissed off when they disturbed before they sprout.

[Tuckervill]

I put cayenne pepper on the soil around my house plants to keep the cats out. Maybe that would work in your garden?

I'm also using up the last of a roll of farm fencing curved over some boxes to keep the animals out (mostly my hypertufa flower boxes in the front of the house until the caladiums come up).

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Well tonight we had our second salad for dinner this week using our very own garden lettuce!

All the leaf lettuce from seed that I planted about three weeks ago is doing well and is about 1 1/2" tall and frilly, too small to eat leaves from yet....but I had planted about a dozen little leaf lettuce babies at the same time to get a jump start, and those plants have tripled in size and I can now get a couple of nice young 4" leaves off each one every few days.
This gave enough for our first two nights of fresh green salads! I added a few young tender leaves from my Swiss chard as well- they were rather spinach like. To round out the salad, a few red radishes, sliced cucumber, and baby white turnips from our local organic farming family operation (they built some greenhouses last year to extend their season).
The salad was our whole dinner with a big glass of local milk (delivered to our back porch in glass bottles, from a local family run dairy).
The salad dressing was not local though- they just don't make olive oil around here in the northeast!

[spokewench]

Yes, we do have destruction, but so far, nothing irreplaceable. I cannot believe that they haven't knawed their way into things like oats and crackers stored in cardboard in the basement! But, so far, so good.

I did find the entire bottom of the bag holding my wedding dress chewed to shreds...but they didn't touch the dress, thank goodness. They have eaten the random blanket or cardboard box, too... If they touch my books I'm gong postal on them. I am now making a mental note to store all our winter clothing in rubbermaid tubs this year. Thanks for the idea!

We do have another annoying garden issue. Pets. Our cat and the neighbors cats and the neighbor's dogs seem to like to walk in our boxes and in the case of the cats - deposit extra fertilizer. They've messed up planted seeds too many times to count! Luckily, we've trained our dogs to stay out, but it's awfully hard to train someone else's dogs and the cats are a pain. I've discovered that coffee grounds sprinkled on the surface will keep the cats away if I keep them fresh...but it does nothing for the dogs. I'm starting to get annoyed by it, actually. As the chance for starting seed passes me by, I get more pissed off when they disturbed before they sprout.

Little spikes that stick up - like a stick with small tacs in it will keep the dogs out. They only have to step on them once.