What's YOUR least favorite VARMINT?
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:35 am
My vote today is the whitetail deer. Early in the season they chomped down my pumpkins and squash to nubs. When I got back from Japan Saturday night I ran out with a flashlight to find all my sunflowers were gone. About 1/3 acre. Weeds were there, of course. I guess I'll stagger my cultivating over by a 1/2 row and keep the weeds down and plant a rye cover crop. I need an electric fence. Can't do anything but bow hunt in this town and the deer pour into the yard like a jailbreak after my cousin gets down from the stand and packs up.
Woodchucks take a close second- they nailed my cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. 100% loss. dug under the fence into the garden, but at least I can control that by burying some of the fence wire. When I get the time, that is. Makes it difficult to get the tractor in there if I need to spread compost so I will probably bury a short piece and hook my above ground section to that so I can still roll it back to drive in when I need to. I read that it is good to bend it away from the garden for 6 inches or so about 6-8 inches down, that way they hit the corner if they try to dig under the buried section.
And of course the bird love the blueberries. I have not been able to justify 100 feet of cage. I still have 15 gallons of berries in the freezer from last year's bumper crop so I guess I have enough to share.
At least they did not get into the corn. One of the farms nearby just stopped growing sweet corn (he is retired) and converted the fields to hay after raccoons came in and destroyed the entire field in a couple of nights. My mother told me a local farmer was on the news and his cornfield was raided by birds. He can't sell a single ear as they were all damaged. She said he was in tears.
here is a picture of my very first corn crop. I planted 3 kinds to stagger the picking but I can see i will be overwhelmed with corn soon. I think some of the corn has grown a foot since this was taken Monday. Silver Queen is a good 7 feet tall at the end of these rows. What an awesome plant.
Woodchucks take a close second- they nailed my cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. 100% loss. dug under the fence into the garden, but at least I can control that by burying some of the fence wire. When I get the time, that is. Makes it difficult to get the tractor in there if I need to spread compost so I will probably bury a short piece and hook my above ground section to that so I can still roll it back to drive in when I need to. I read that it is good to bend it away from the garden for 6 inches or so about 6-8 inches down, that way they hit the corner if they try to dig under the buried section.
And of course the bird love the blueberries. I have not been able to justify 100 feet of cage. I still have 15 gallons of berries in the freezer from last year's bumper crop so I guess I have enough to share.
At least they did not get into the corn. One of the farms nearby just stopped growing sweet corn (he is retired) and converted the fields to hay after raccoons came in and destroyed the entire field in a couple of nights. My mother told me a local farmer was on the news and his cornfield was raided by birds. He can't sell a single ear as they were all damaged. She said he was in tears.
here is a picture of my very first corn crop. I planted 3 kinds to stagger the picking but I can see i will be overwhelmed with corn soon. I think some of the corn has grown a foot since this was taken Monday. Silver Queen is a good 7 feet tall at the end of these rows. What an awesome plant.