On 1/30/2018 9:50 AM, Nyssa wrote:
songbird wrote:

it has been a while and not much new to report
when it comes down to garden items.

at least until the weather warms up and spring
gets closer...

however, before then i have to test out a few
things yet, one of them, is a post to here to see
who's still around.

in the meantime i'm discovering a lot of new
varieties of beans i'd like to have, but most of
them are climbers, so i don't have nearly enough
fence space to grow them all.

hope everyone is well and avoiding the flu?


songbird

Looking through the seed catalogs and thinking about
when to pull the plant lights and seed starting stuff
down from the attic and get it set up.

My big problem that I'm pondering is what to do about
the deer this planting season. I'd never had more than
a nibble or two in previous years, so it wasn't much
of a problem. But last year, they wiped out my garden.

I had planted 10 tomato plants, and all were nibbled down
to nubs. Never got a tomato off of any of 'em. Same thing
for two rows of green beans. I managed to get six cukes
out of a row of burpless cucumbers before they chowed
down on the vines and wiped those out.

I don't have to tell you all how much frustration there
is to working the vegetable beds after starting seeds,
raising transplants, and doing all the other stuff only
to get pretty much nothing out of eight beds.

Any ideas on how to prevent a repeat this season? If I
can't come up with something affordable and practical,
I may have to go back to just a pot farm....only grow
stuff that can be done in pots on the deck, which
means no full size tomatoes, green beans, peas, and
the rest of the good stuff.

I've considered hoop frames with netting, but that's
a PITA to weed and harvest. Ditto individual netting
or chicken wire around each bed. Spraying eight beds
all spring and summer with a milk/water mixture isn't
too viable either over a long period.

Help!

Nyssa, who after two whole days of gloom and rain now
is getting snow showers instead

Simplest thing would be to put stakes around garden and hang netting.
Deer can jump a 6 foot fence but they do not have to be that high. Deer
just nose around like world is their salad bar and bumping into netting
will deter them. They are not particularly interested in things like
tomato plants or beans but nip at anything green. Their fondness is for
things like nuts and apples and they will seek them out.

Deer and shade drove me to the deck but it was a lot of work. I got a
new deck last year and hauling big pots of dirt off old deck ,10 ft.
high, was not worth the work of putting them back.