Excited Gardening This Year
Return to DiscussionsTomatoes and peppers are doing very well, one pepper had a bore about 6 inch above ground but shot out new branches. I lost 3 squash plants to bores. The other squash are doing very well, except that the deer got used to the "Liquid Fence" I was using, so switched back to "Irish Spring" bar soap and a vegetable peeler to leave soap chips around the garden. The deer are now staying away from the garden again ;-)
I had a customer that was an avid Gardner. He tried an motion activated deer lights to scare them off. He said it worked for a time and then he thought the lights after a while just lit there way. We live in live a country setting , deer are more pesky than even moles when it comes to gardening or planting new trees. Recently a very young spotted deer discovered Luann's fruit trees... yippee! :( Almost has become a yard pet. The war goes on. Good thing for them I can do away moles but not heart to shoot a deer.
I tried a commercial motion activated sprinkler and it works fairly well; at scaring off the critters. The problems I experienced were that you need to leave the hose on all the time and at some point all that pressure causes the weakest link to blow out. Also, the range and spread of the motion detection is fairly limited. And lastly, I have been known to forget it's on and get a nice shower.....
I'm ready to work in the garden. Bought me a plow to turn the soil over that I have covered with growing oats and clover. Be good fertilizer for the plants. After I plow with garden tractor and plow, go in with tiller on back of tractor to loosen soil up. Then it's start planting in the nude cause it will get hot doing it.
Thanks for the update, Rueben!
I can appreciate your comment about poor soil, it's one of the worst parts of nude gardening here at White Tail Resort in Virginia. It's yucky, worn out gray clay for the most part, and ten inches down it turns into old river rock. I put in a double dug raised bed last year and though it was mostly experimental to see what would happen (and little did), we got a little produce in the way of radishes and a few carrots and leafy stuff. It's difficult for a few reasons besides my lack of prowess around manure-usage. I think I burned a few plants down with applying it too generously as I rebuilt the bed. Higher hopes for this year, and a second, larger (by a foot wide) raised bed I'll be digging as soon as the weather mellows out. We've learned some important things and the second bed will mostly be my sweetie's bed to plant in. She's a freak for green beans!
Yes, I said 'White Tail Resort' and it's aptly named with deer a constant fauna we deal with by tall netting around the bed and so far that's been working. We've got some nasty frakking squirrels though, hee! Can't shoot em! They mostly stick to the spilled bird seed - mostly.
Good luck and update some more when the moment avails.
It is now 2022. Time to start the next season's plants. No squash this year. I have had really bad luck with squash, only a fruit or two from 8 or so plants. Not a good return on my investment. Will try plum tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard, and peppers. Hope the herbs produce too.