When Dave and Cherie first dug out the garden in 2020 (COVID project), we spent a lot of time fighting (and losing) the crops to the local mule deer around here. Several times the garden was eaten to the ground. It was very sad for me. Then we came up with a much sturdier, taller fence…and lost the plants to a big buck ( he left large mounds of evidence!). He ate all my corn tassels!🥺. So back to Google, and I found a way to make the fence “taller” without having to rebuild the fence. You add a string pennant flag thing above the fence which moves in the breeze. It keeps the deer from being able to clearly figure out how tall the fence is- they cannot see the top of it clearly. It has been magic for saving my crops, such as they are!
Then there were a couple of rats the last year. They ate occasional green beans and the squash…annoying but OK, I can share. Then came Tish’s rescue cat, McDaddy. He is a wonderful hunter and doesn’t go after my birds so I like him. And the rat problem has pretty much disappeared. I think I lose occasional veggies to mouse/rats still but hey, we live out in the country so it is expected. And the dang earwigs…. I now use diatomaceous earth around the young plants and this year even bought funny little earwig traps. And I buy ladybugs from Green Acres for the other little pests. I don’t use any pesticides so bug damage is to be expected. Since I primarily seem to grow miniature veggies anyway we can live with some uglies.
This is the third summer of my garden and there is a new pest- a cottontail rabbit. I have only seen one or two the entire 20+ years we have lived here. It found my garden. The fencing is big enough that it can wiggle through, although it barely fit in its panic (something about this crazy lady stomping her feet and yelling). So I did reinforce where it finally got out but I don’t think we have a long term solution. As it left, I could see 5 or 6 full sized green beans in its mouth. And then….I found the baby butter lettuces. Or lack of them. Sigh….apparently it appreciated me planting them for it and it seems to have thoroughly enjoyed taking them to the ground. No evidence of plants left. It also ate some Romaine leaves but not to the ground. I layered a bunch of fencing remnants over the Romaine that is left but…I might lose this battle. It didn’t seem to go after the broccoli or celery, and the snow peas are just sprouting so?? Unfortunately the Romaine is one of my favorite veggies so I will try again. One spot got chewed up but the other planting seems to be OK. Monday I will be forced (oh the pain of shopping at my absolute favorite place) to go to Green Acres again for some lettuce starts. Sometimes it is quite unfortunate that I am such an animal fanatic. I’m trying to figure out a way to get the bun some food that is not in the garden!
Otherwise the garden is going ok. We’ve got a ton of green beans which is the primary plant that made it through our absence. I did get one last yellow summer squash today and the next to last zucchini. One more on the vine. The green beans are slowly fading, but still flowering so we probably have a couple weeks left. Of course the fact that it is still in the 80s helps but this weekend should see a drop in daily temps. We might actually get an autumn season. Doesn’t happen every year!!
