Clean Up Day/Possum Party

GoDawgs · October 23, 2019

A lot got done in the garden this morning. Clean Up Day.

The four fall tomatoes in buckets got moved to pallets on the sunny side of the garden and I took up the old pallets they had been sitting on. Fire ants had started a mound in one of the buckets. That's the first time ever and it's probably because there had been no tarp put over the pallets.

Speaking of pallets, while I was dealing with soaping the ants I heard Pickles laughing and hollering for me to come look. She was busy taking down the tomatoes on pallets by the house. Lo and behold, she had discovered a possum party in one of the pallets! She pulled the tarp off and there they were, three of them squeezed in side by side between pallet top and bottom, taking a snooze!

Pickles had to upend the pallet to dump out the possums and they scattered, leaving a nice cozy little nest of leaves and pine straw they had made. Never a dull moment!

Back at the garden, the broccoli plants were pushing up against the deer netting so I deployed some hoop extenders I had rigged up two years ago to cover up big old field peas.

The 1/2" hoops normally fit inside 17" lengths of 3/4" pvc pipe pushed into the ground as anchors. To make it all taller I had cut some lengths of 1x1's and tapered one end down to where the end would fit into the 3/4" pipe. Wood into the ground, 3/4" on top of that and hoop end into the 3/4" pipe. It was too high so I just pushed the wood pieces 6" farther into the soil and that fixed the problem. The cauliflowers at the other end of the bed are short enough not to need taller hoops.

More ants... this time building in a corner of the turnip bed. Death From Above coming in the form of a jug of soap water.

The pea plants have been pulled and pea fence rolled up until spring. They just didn't perform well. It was just too hot early in their life.

There were a few small garlic cloves left over from garlic planting so I stuck them in their own space; 7 Siberians and 14 Russian Infernos.

I am out of pipe anchors for deer netting hoops and I need to cover the turnip bed. There were hoof prints in that bed this morning and fortunately no baby turnip greens munched. There's some old black irrigation pipe of various sizes out back in the possibles pile so I'll see if there's anything I can cut and use.

Finally, we had an awesome sunset last night. October and November have the prettiest ones of the year.

Worth1 · October 23, 2019

Nice possums.
I had a very big dog (Mama Dog) dig under my tomato plant pallets and made an underground home.
She would come out from under them and scare the devil out of people.

October 23, 2019	#1
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	Clean Up Day/Possum Party A lot got done in the garden this morning. Clean Up Day. The four fall tomatoes in buckets got moved to pallets on the sunny side of the garden and I took up the old pallets they had been sitting on. Fire ants had started a mound in one of the buckets. That's the first time ever and it's probably because there had been no tarp put over the pallets. Speaking of pallets, while I was dealing with soaping the ants I heard Pickles laughing and hollering for me to come look. She was busy taking down the tomatoes on pallets by the house. Lo and behold, she had discovered a possum party in one of the pallets! She pulled the tarp off and there they were, three of them squeezed in side by side between pallet top and bottom, taking a snooze! Pickles had to upend the pallet to dump out the possums and they scattered, leaving a nice cozy little nest of leaves and pine straw they had made. Never a dull moment! Back at the garden, the broccoli plants were pushing up against the deer netting so I deployed some hoop extenders I had rigged up two years ago to cover up big old field peas. The 1/2" hoops normally fit inside 17" lengths of 3/4" pvc pipe pushed into the ground as anchors. To make it all taller I had cut some lengths of 1x1's and tapered one end down to where the end would fit into the 3/4" pipe. Wood into the ground, 3/4" on top of that and hoop end into the 3/4" pipe. It was too high so I just pushed the wood pieces 6" farther into the soil and that fixed the problem. The cauliflowers at the other end of the bed are short enough not to need taller hoops. More ants... this time building in a corner of the turnip bed. Death From Above coming in the form of a jug of soap water. The pea plants have been pulled and pea fence rolled up until spring. They just didn't perform well. It was just too hot early in their life. There were a few small garlic cloves left over from garlic planting so I stuck them in their own space; 7 Siberians and 14 Russian Infernos. I am out of pipe anchors for deer netting hoops and I need to cover the turnip bed. There were hoof prints in that bed this morning and fortunately no baby turnip greens munched. There's some old black irrigation pipe of various sizes out back in the possibles pile so I'll see if there's anything I can cut and use. Finally, we had an awesome sunset last night. October and November have the prettiest ones of the year.

October 23, 2019	#2
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Nice possums. I had a very big dog (Mama Dog) dig under my tomato plant pallets and made an underground home. She would come out from under them and scare the devil out of people.