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Old 19-03-2018, 11:58 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Terry Coombs Terry Coombs is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2012
Posts: 678
Default Foiling Bugs and Bambi

On 3/19/2018 5:10 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 3/19/2018 8:16 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 3/18/2018 10:18 PM, songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:

...fence...

Â*Â* i would have went 1ft on the ground and 3ft up.
rabbits will do a little climbing and groundhogs
will too.Â* the electric fence will help.Â* Â* we
don't have that fancy technology here yet.Â* not
sure i'll ever do that, but some day i may...

Â* There's a 'lectric wire right at the top edge of the chicken wire ...
I figger they'll be well grounded when they touch that one .


Â* Â* Things is beginnin' to pop around here , the bees are building up
for
the spring flow , seedlings are (mostly) coming along nicely , and we're
getting just about the right amount of rain at the right time . Got 29
strawberry plants in the ground with landscape fabric as a weed barrier
, 2 kinds of lettuce , bok choi , and green onions in the ground and
well mulched with straw and preps for the rest coming along . I sure
hope this is the year for outrageously huge crops , the wife thinks I
need to just give up since the production has been so abysmal the last
couple of years ...
Â*Â* diversity and persistance will get some return, but
last year wasn't the best here either for some crops
(especially the beans which i grow the most).Â* i just
assume that some percentage of what gets planted will
be animal food.Â* last year they got 99% of the
edamame soybeans and the three remaining plants had
some chewing from rabbits.Â* the chipmunks that ate
those soybeans pretty much ignored all the rest of
the bean plantings.Â* only minimal sampling of those.

Â*Â* i'd hate to be up against bear.Â* deer, chipmunks,
groundhogs and grackles are the worst i have to
contend with (and mice in the walls and in my car
but that's not garden related, mostly...).Â* the
raccoons as of yet do not get into most of what
we plant other than uprooting a few here or there
if they think there's some goodies under them (they
smell the fertilizers used by the greenhouse for
the starts).Â* as of yet the raccoons have not dug
up any of the worms/worm compost i put under the
plants even if it is only an inch or two below
the surface of the soil.Â* i top it with plain
garden soil and that seems to not attract them
enough so they don't disturb them going for an
easy feast (thousands of worms per planting).
i hope they don't read...Â*

Â*Â* there's a vast number of other creatures around
but as of yet they are minor and temporary when
they are noticed at all (skunks, minks, muskrats,
fox, possums, ...).Â* i'm hoping there will never
be a large feral pig population around here.Â* in
some other wilder areas they are about, but the
closest i've ever heard of one getting to here
was 3 miles away.Â* there's a lot of open land and
people with guns around here.Â* too bad they don't
get more of the deer.


Â*Â* songbird

Â*Â*Â* We've had possums , rabbits , armadillos , and raccoons , but no
ground hogs yet . The bear thing I suspect was just a chance occurrence
, they tend to stay a little more out in the woods as a rule . Feral
hogs are not here yet , but have been sighted within a couple of miles
of us - those will end up in the freezer if I see them . I haven't grown
worms , we seem to have a pretty good population since I quit treating
the ground for chiggers and ticks - that's a trade-off , I hate ticks
(ever since I had Lyme Disease ...) with a passion . Ground squirrels
are a potential problem , but we now have a cat - she just showed up one
day - and she's a hunter . She has thinned the small rodent population
and the dog likes her (70 pound dog playing with a 5 pound cat makes for
some amusing scenes) , I guess we'll let her stay .

We have a neighborhood feral cat that the neighbor has been feeding off
and on so it has decided our block is it's domain. My husband thinks it
may be sleeping under our house and getting in through a small hole, but
he also said he hasn't seen any mice at all in the house or around the
house, so I guess the cat is eating everything it can find!

Â* Miss Kitty isn't feral , but doesn't like to be held , and will only
take a little petting before she jets off . That's just right for us .
We feed her , but not necessarily enough to totally meet her needs .
Some may disapprove , but she also manages to catch and eat an
occasional bird . I call that natural selection ... and it hasn't seemed
to affect the local population other than to make them more watchful .

--
Snag
Ain't no dollar sign on
peace of mind - Zac Brown