Some kind of record

TZ-OH6 · May 23, 2009

It took deer more than a week to find my newly planted strawberries and destroy them. I put in my first four tomato plants last night and in the morning two were chewed off...Deer? so I replaced the plants, put up fencing and planted a second area, put up a fence, came back TWO HOURS later and two plants were chewed down...New record...Chipmunks! Out came the cut off 2-liter bottles for those durn fuzzy cutworms!

habitat_gardener · May 24, 2009

You need to have a talk with your critters. Seriously. I used to suggest this as a sort of footnote, but lately whenever I suggest it to real live people, they either say it worked for them, or they know someone who does it.

And before anyone starts with the California jokes, I'm originally from the Garden State myself, and I got the idea from a book by an Australian, Michael Roads.

Basically, you have a talk with the critters who are eating your garden and you establish boundaries. This is my garden; anything outside this area is yours. Or else.(Of course, you also have a fence or some other way of marking boundaries/territory.)

IIRC, Roads said he bought property where the previous owners had been unable to have a garden inside a fenced area because the wallabies ate everything, so he had this talk and was able to garden. Then he sold the land and told the new owners they would have to negotiate a new contract with the wallabies. They didn't; the wallabies ate the garden.

May 23, 2009	#1
TZ-OH6 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mid-Ohio Posts: 850	Some kind of record It took deer more than a week to find my newly planted strawberries and destroy them. I put in my first four tomato plants last night and in the morning two were chewed off...Deer? so I replaced the plants, put up fencing and planted a second area, put up a fence, came back TWO HOURS later and two plants were chewed down...New record...Chipmunks! Out came the cut off 2-liter bottles for those durn fuzzy cutworms!

May 24, 2009	#2
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	You need to have a talk with your critters. Seriously. I used to suggest this as a sort of footnote, but lately whenever I suggest it to real live people, they either say it worked for them, or they know someone who does it. And before anyone starts with the California jokes, I'm originally from the Garden State myself, and I got the idea from a book by an Australian, Michael Roads. Basically, you have a talk with the critters who are eating your garden and you establish boundaries. This is my garden; anything outside this area is yours. Or else.(Of course, you also have a fence or some other way of marking boundaries/territory.) IIRC, Roads said he bought property where the previous owners had been unable to have a garden inside a fenced area because the wallabies ate everything, so he had this talk and was able to garden. Then he sold the land and told the new owners they would have to negotiate a new contract with the wallabies. They didn't; the wallabies ate the garden.