I must have been watching too many TV commercials about "effortless"
tilling. I went out early bird this morning, rented a nice Honda rear
tine tiller (1/2 day), and watched while it bounced harmlessly off the
adobe brick my garden had turned into over the dry, dry winter.

I stupidly did not pre-water to soften the soil last week thinking the
rain would be adequate. After two hours I had broken up the top 6-8
inches of a 10 x 16 plot. It felt like I had actually plowed the back
40, by hand, with a rucksack of iron bars on my back. Also, all the
previous year's organic material seemed to be in hiding.

I'm watering now and will add some thoroughly composted stuff through
the week. Hopefully it will be ready to plant next weekend.

My garden is open to a utility easement that crawls with deer, possum,
and dillos (not to mention the neighborhood cats, dogs, and primates).
I'll be erecting a defensive barrier and am still in the planning stages.

Anyone out there have some perfected methods they'd be willing to share?

ps: I also saw a couple of mature anoles giving each other the eye,
flaring their throat sac, and changing from green to brown and back again.

jOhN

Now you remember to water clay soil at least 48 hours ahead will make any job easier. I read on another forum although I've never had the problem that deer if they cannot see on the other side of the fence they will not jump over it so instead of all these "products" that make yards "safe" from roving mouths, you might want to research that option further. Put up a fence that deer cannot see through. A option.

http://propagatingperennials.blogspot.com

bullthistle wrote:
Now you remember to water clay soil at least 48 hours ahead will make
any job easier. I read on another forum although I've never had the
problem that deer if they cannot see on the other side of the fence
they will not jump over it so instead of all these "products" that make
yards "safe" from roving mouths, you might want to research that option
further. Put up a fence that deer cannot see through. A option.

http://tinyurl.com/ynubjv




Since my garden is pretty small and in an open area an opaque fence high
enough to block the view would cut off morning and afternoon light to
the plants adjacent to the fence. Food for thought, however ;-)


My neighbor that is totally fenceless had them foraging on his back
porch with his potted plants this winter. He also had a small Bradford
pear take a beating from a buck that was using it as a rub.


jOhN

"bullthistle" wrote in message
...

Now you remember to water clay soil at least 48 hours ahead will make
any job easier.


don't get it too wet, it will come out as little hard balls

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:01:35 GMT, jOhN
wrote:

[snip]

My garden is open to a utility easement that crawls with deer, possum,
and dillos (not to mention the neighborhood cats, dogs, and primates).
I'll be erecting a defensive barrier and am still in the planning stages.

Anyone out there have some perfected methods they'd be willing to share?

ps: I also saw a couple of mature anoles giving each other the eye,
flaring their throat sac, and changing from green to brown and back again.

jOhN

I use a 7' high polymesh sold by Deerbusters.com. It will not do much
for primates or racoons, but it keeps the deer back. For my tomatoes,
I also use bird net as they are not much detered by the deer fence.

--BS