Well, it seems my homemade fence is a success. There was dear (or elk?) poop all around it when I went out to mow and weedwack today. Unfortunately I now have smaller critters to deal with. Almost all my lettuce, cucumber and green beans have been nibbled so I'll be taking a trip to my favorite garden store for some organic bug killer. If I could just wring their little necks I'd do it.
I did find out that to keep slugs off my plants I can circle them with crushed egg shells (thanks Berdie) which I always have on hand. So I went compost diving and dug them back out and crunched them up. It seems that the little slimy guys don't like to crawl over the sharp shells. Diatomaceous earth works well too but the egg shells were free.
I like free!
Also, while weed wacking I came across two mature kumquat trees in the back corner of our yard. I forgot we even had them under all those vines and weeds. So I cleaned them up, trimmed them and I'm looking forward to some Kumquat Marmalade this winter. They are a citrus fruit that blooms in the winter so I have no idea why some crazy person thought they could grow in Washington State.
Hello.....rain?
I've also been dabbling with some front yard gardening. I have all kinds of flower bed space in my front yard and while I like flowers, I would rather have edible plants growing. So I'm taking it one bed at a time and I've planted a pumpkin patch in the bed under our front window. I figure it's so close to the house that the deer and elk will leave it alone. It's where the kids (who are in charge of the pumpkins this year) are planting their starts and they are growing well.
So as soon as my garden doesn't look so pathetically nibbled I'll put up some pictures. Until then, I'm dreaming of fresh homegrown produce. I'm so envious of all you out there with longer growing seasons who are already getting to eat the fruits of your labor.
Leave me a comment and tell me how YOUR garden is growing.
11 comments:
I tried to have a garden this year, but just as all the veggies were starting to produce we got hit with a record stretch of 100 degree days (in May). The carrots have survived but my zucchini is not doing so great.
Coffee grounds help keep some bugs away. My husband was the one to do all the reading on it (and I'm too tired and lazy to look it up now, but I'm sure you can goggle it to see what bugs). Anyway, he gets free grounds from various coffee shops or from work and goes and around and sprinkles them on the plants and worked very well for both the lettuce and the beans that were getting eaten.
we also discovered vinagar kills some of the weeds we have coming up through our layers. That one's not free but it's pretty cheap!
I was having problems with deer at the beginning of the season as well too. I put out (stinky) moth balls but it has seemed to help keep them away. My garden is going great now. In fact, I felt like you do now. I waited until just this weekend to take a picture because things finally started looking really picture perfect!
Good luck with yours!
The veggies in my garden are doing great. My onion s look like they are ready to pull to have with sandwiches. I have blossoms on the tomato plants. (can't wait for a juicy tomato.
We have a bunny that is living in the backyard. He (or she) is so cute. My hubby said that I won't think he's so cute when he eats all my lettuce. I did catch him eating the leaves off the beans. I had to go out and yell at him and chase him away. He really doesn't act too afraid of me. I think he's the same bunny that's been hanging around for a couple years. I looked at the neighbors garden yesterday and his beans are missing leaves too. I think I'll have to invest in some short fence to help keep the bunny out of the veggies.
We have 3 4 by 4 garden squares. Somewhat following square foot gardening but not exactly. We've got 12 tomato plants, 4 cherry, 4 roma, and 4 a regular tomato variety I think early girls, 4 pepper plants and a whole square of bush green beans. My dear husband put on chicken wire around the green beans yesterday. Hoping that will keep the rabbits away. The beans are just sprouting now. I bought the tomato and pepper plants. I ended up getting 4 plants for less than $2 at Kroger and they seem to be doing well. I have some oregano and basil seeds that I want to get into pots on the patio but otherwise everything is planted (We're in Ohio so last frost date is mid May although this year we had a warm May) I'm going to really try to get the beans to grow this year otherwise I'm giving up on growing food for the rabbits.
Years ago, we bought some good snails. They only eat the snails that eat your plants. One $20 investment has taken care of all the plants on the north side of our house for years. And I like that I'm not worried about the kids and poison.
We have limited our garden this year. Mostly because by the end it becomes a lot more work than we can handle because we are out of town a lot. So this year we are growing herbs (doing wonderful), pepper (coming in a few at a time, and tomatoes (a bunch that are green and hoping they will start to turn red soon). We are growing most of our garden in pots up by the house, I don't think the deer and rabbits are brave enough to come that close. The birds are what we have to worry about.
I just took pictures of our garden. Most everything is growing by leaps and bounds. We have gotten a few things out of it.
We had to replant the corn. Hubs accidentally planted it too deep the first time.
Our beans are starting to come back after the deer nibbled off almost all of the leaves. Ugh.
Our strawberry bed is producing tons, as well as our blueberries. I can't wait until the blackberries are ready. Yum!
I have garden envy now....but I am working to get a good garden going--I'm just brand spanking new at it...I love the idea of having an edible garden in the front yard, too!
My garden is not going this year. It has been over taken by some sort of viney clovery stuff. No idea what it is. We dug up the few plants that were growing last night and tilled the whole thing again. I replanted my green beans, peas and squash (about 6 plants total) into flower pots for the time being until we can get the viney clovery stuff under control. Some animal has been nibbling my strawberries too. I'm so bummed because of all the time wasted (not to mention money) on our garden and it isn't doing well.
to get rid of slugs, open a can of beer and pour about half of it out, then bury it up close to the top and the slugs will go in the can looking for the beer, get too drunk to come back out. =) I think that's a Jerry Baker gardening hint.
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