Birds? Mice? Rats? Squirrels?

[jtjmartin]

You trap more, faster, with quick oats of course! hehe

There are those that set the traps, and those that write the papers. I was just a worker bee.

[dtnmmz]

I have had the same problem in NY, Crows looking for water. I have counted about 20 in my backyard . I also now pull tomatoes at first sign of ripeness to ripen in doors. once i started to
do that birds disappeared. I do like the plastic bag idea , I will try this on a few, Thanks

[korney19]

Well, now I have seen it all!

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by dtnmmz

I have had the same problem in NY, Crows looking for water. I have counted about 20 in my backyard . I also now pull tomatoes at first sign of ripeness to ripen in doors. once i started to
do that birds disappeared. I do like the plastic bag idea , I will try this on a few, Thanks

I started covering my tomatoes with gauze (I just had a lot of old, expired gauze lying around) and my figs with organza bags. The covering obscures the color, which keeps birds from getting interested. The rodents go by smell and don't attack anything until it's verging on overripe, and if I neglect fruit long enough so that it's overripe, I figure they can have it. So far, I've had good luck, despite voles, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, and groundhogs that visit my yard in addition to the birds. I'm actually harvesting a lot of figs this year. Last year, I didn't bag my figs, and the critters didn't leave a single one for me.

Now that it's later in the season, I don't need to cover my tomatoes at all, as there's no interest in them from local wildlife anymore. Don't know whether it's because they don't associate the tomato beds with food anymore or because there are other, better things to eat in the vicinity (I live in a very old, very established suburb with many huge, old oaks, locusts, and other fruit/nut/seed bearing trees). They do still go after my cherry tomatoes, though, but there are so many that I feel OK sharing them.

I was in a panic earlier this year because groundhogs live in an overgrown stretch of ditch that separates the back yards of on my street from the houses on the next street over, but it turned out to be not that big of a deal. I've seen them up in my yard twice and ran out and scared them away, but I doubt they're staying away all the time. I just don't see them often, but they don't seem to be going after the veggies (fingers crossed) except for an eggplant one of them sampled and didn't seem to like and probably the odd fallen tomato. You won't catch me planting beets in the ground, though.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by dtnmmz

I have had the same problem in NY, Crows looking for water. I have counted about 20 in my backyard . I also now pull tomatoes at first sign of ripeness to ripen in doors. once i started to
do that birds disappeared. I do like the plastic bag idea , I will try this on a few, Thanks

I have been bagging blossoms and letting some grow inside the organza bags. I also bought some red organza 60" tall (pretty sure) and next year will try wrapping some 5ft tall CRW cages with it after planting. So far, I haven't seen any organza bags bit or torn.

As for crows, I occasionally see crows on the power lines running from telephone pole to pole, but it's weird--I have never seen them in the BACKyard where the garden is. I know Buffalo has some "adopted" hawks that I've seen flying really high over the "field" across the street (former Little League diamond, grass cut by the city, multi-use) but never seen them dive...maybe they are keeping the crows away.

[korney19]

Gorbelly, I had a bid reply for you, but aI'm on a tablet now and somehow lost EVERYTHING! I'll try later maybe...

[EPawlick]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

My garden space is a rough 50' X 50'. I bought this Tenax C fence for 3 of the sides. I was able to use existing trees to string the fence using a guide wire at the top. It blends with the woods in the background really well.

The front of the garden is behind a row of tall ornamental grasses so I put up very cheap deer fencing from Tractor Supply. No intrusions at all this year even though the garden is the only really green space around with our lack of rain.

Our cats seem to keep the rabbits away.

This year, I created a tent like enclosure, using 6 foot tomato stakes, bird defense netting and dollar store tent pegs around the perimeter of each of my gardens to keep the squirrels out. Later in the season, I replaced some of the 6 foot tomato stakes with 8 foot poles to give the tomatoes more room to grow. I found that if the netting is not secured with tent pegs or patio slabs, the squirrels still get in.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by EPawlick

This year, I created a tent like enclosure, using 6 foot tomato stakes, bird defense netting and dollar store tent pegs around the perimeter of each of my gardens to keep the squirrels out. Later in the season, I replaced some of the 6 foot tomato stakes with 8 foot poles to give the tomatoes more room to grow. I found that if the netting is not secured with tent pegs or patio slabs, the squirrels still get in.

Those are nice beds, how deep do your corners go down or do they just float & hold the 2 boards in place? I did my beds in rough cut western red cedar in around 1998 and are falling apart and will need replacing soon; the ones I did in treated and redwood stained are 2-by's and fairing much better.

My configuration is almost impossible to tent because I have so many corners & intersections. Some sections have 5ft tall concrete reinforcing wire, some 3ft on the outside with 5ft down the center, some have round CRW cages, some have 5ft tall x 3ft wide triangular cages, about half are 5-gallon containers. At one point I bought one of those 10x20ft car canopies and had a new tarp made of a clear polyethylene but never anything with it.

Here's a little more than half my yard, scaled to 2 inches. The other section I have a bed I use for mostly lettuce and onions, a really small asparagus bed, and another section used for cole crops and some garlic. But much of the bottom half beds that need repairing I msy just tear it all out and just do long beds North to South! All the beds in brown need redoing, the other beds were added later if I change to long N-S beds I may be able to use netting over the crw sheets...

Are those the green plastic coated stakes like from Home Depot? I have some I bought wholesale I never used...
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[EPawlick]

Originally Posted by korney19

Those are nice beds, how deep do your corners go down or do they just float & hold the 2 boards in place? I did my beds in rough cut western red cedar in around 1998 and are falling apart and will need replacing soon; the ones I did in treated and redwood stained are 2-by's and fairing much better.

My configuration is almost impossible to tent because I have so many corners & intersections. Some sections have 5ft tall concrete reinforcing wire, some 3ft on the outside with 5ft down the center, some have round CRW cages, some have 5ft tall x 3ft wide triangular cages, about half are 5-gallon containers. At one point I bought one of those 10x20ft car canopies and had a new tarp made of a clear polyethylene but never anything with it.

Here's a little more than half my yard, scaled to 2 inches. The other section I have a bed I use for mostly lettuce and onions, a really small asparagus bed, and another section used for cole crops and some garlic. But much of the bottom half beds that need repairing I msy just tear it all out and just do long beds North to South! All the beds in brown need redoing, the other beds were added later if I change to long N-S beds I may be able to use netting over the crw sheets...

Are those the green plastic coated stakes like from Home Depot? I have some I bought wholesale I never used...
.
.
.

The raised beds are by Gronomics, 34 x 95 x 13. http://www.gronomics.com/

I purchased 2 online from Home Depot Canada in the early spring when they had a sale. Made in the US and shipped direct to my home. We stained them before setting them up. They are a dovetail design that slide together easily. You can check out their specs online under a tab marked "Instructions".

I liked the raised beds so much that the next time HD had a sale, we purchased 2 rustic 48 x 48 x 13 kits. These were modular and less expensive and gave us more choice for setting up--1 ft, 2 ft or 3 ft high. We joined the two rustic kits together.

The plastic tent pegs are cheap green tent pegs that I got from Dollarama but any type of peg will work. I also use stepping stones instead of pegs or heavy pieces of scrap wood where I can because it makes it easier to get at the garden to harvest and weed.

To prevent the squirrel from pulling out my plants and soil from my containers so that he can plant his peanut shells, I set up a perimeter around my containers and clay pots but this area I left open on top since I ran out of netting. I used six foot metal stakes in the ground and between the patio stones securing the black bird defense netting with twine at the top and bottom. This area backs up to my shed so it's quite irregular shaped. I still put in pegs or placed any extra netting under some of the pots so the squirrel couldn't lift the netting.

Where my garden is irregular shaped, I join pieces of Bird Defense netting together with twine, overlapping sometimes.
Hope I answered your questions...if not please ask again.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by korney19

Gorbelly, I had a bid reply for you, but aI'm on a tablet now and somehow lost EVERYTHING! I'll try later maybe...

Darn! I hate typing on anything without a keyboard. I hope you post at least an abridged version.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by gorbelly

Darn! I hate typing on anything without a keyboard. I hope you post at least an abridged version.

I don't remember much but will start with the organza. I and a friend in Europe have been buying organza and bagging blossoms, not with any intention of keeping pests out but keeping bees from cross-pollinating tomato & pepper blossoms... I don't know what size you use for figs but I started with small ones, maybe 4x6". then 5x7", then 8x11", then she went to 30x40cm, and I went to bottle bags 6x15", and 30x40cm, then 35x50cm, and I even bought some 15"x25" bags! Many of these were from Chinese sellers and the wait is usually 2-3 weeks, but one seller I told them all I was willing to pay, including express shipping, and had problems getting my #s I wanted to fit their cart--they said they will ship them to me then to paypal them after I receive them! So I did and got them in less than a week!

My intention was to only use the bags for avoiding cross-pollination, and I did lose a lot of tomatoes when we had a 90+ heatwave which burned the blossoms, not to mention I have many containers directly on my blacktop driveway. My problem is getting the yard ready takes longer every year, especially the older I get, and the less help I get. So my plan now is to get ALL the tomatoes & peppers planted by Memorial Day Weekend, which is typical of this area; This year, many factors prohibited the tomatoes and peppers from getting put in by then, matter of fact some didn't get in until MID-JULY!

Back to the bags, I still harvested some bags with fruits inside, which I believe inhibited the rats or squirrels from getting them. I always order silver bags when available. My friend in EU says she'll have her godmother sew a bunch for her out of organza yardage. She wants bags she can put completely over pepper plants.

I also bought yardage of red organza 60" tall (I think) that I'll try wrapping around CRW cages and will cut a circular piece and attach to the tops of the 5ft tall cages with mini clothespins. I may even see some benefits surrounding them in red--maybe they will act like the red film mulch. Who knows, maybe they & the sun will warm things up inside, as long as I get them in/on early and rol them back or remove the tops when ht.. Plus with the cages wrapped, the birds will no longer be able to sit on the cage horizontal wires and peck away.

This year Buffalo has had record warmth, even Lake Erie is 6 degrees higher than normal, and it takes time to raise a degree on a lake that size. I think we had records break for the lake almost daily, record winter warmth and the least snowfall in many, many years. We have set records for warmest August, possibly september, and records for over 100 days over 70, most # of days over 80, etc. Plus except for T-storms last week, we had most storms veer to the south of us or north of us and only got hit a few times all season. That explains some of the biting & pecking. I'm on drip irrigation/fertigation, so I still have plants 6ft to 7ft tall with blossoms on the tops... now, if I can get another 45 days...

[korney19]

Originally Posted by EPawlick

The raised beds are by Gronomics, 34 x 95 x 13. http://www.gronomics.com/

I purchased 2 online from Home Depot Canada in the early spring when they had a sale. Made in the US and shipped direct to my home. We stained them before setting them up. They are a dovetail design that slide together easily. You can check out their specs online under a tab marked "Instructions".

I liked the raised beds so much that the next time HD had a sale, we purchased 2 rustic 48 x 48 x 13 kits. These were modular and less expensive and gave us more choice for setting up--1 ft, 2 ft or 3 ft high. We joined the two rustic kits together.

The plastic tent pegs are cheap green tent pegs that I got from Dollarama but any type of peg will work. I also use stepping stones instead of pegs or heavy pieces of scrap wood where I can because it makes it easier to get at the garden to harvest and weed.

To prevent the squirrel from pulling out my plants and soil from my containers so that he can plant his peanut shells, I set up a perimeter around my containers and clay pots but this area I left open on top since I ran out of netting. I used six foot metal stakes in the ground and between the patio stones securing the black bird defense netting with twine at the top and bottom. This area backs up to my shed so it's quite irregular shaped. I still put in pegs or placed any extra netting under some of the pots so the squirrel couldn't lift the netting.

Where my garden is irregular shaped, I join pieces of Bird Defense netting together with twine, overlapping sometimes.
Hope I answered your questions...if not please ask again.

I will check their site; I did buy some kit that has the swivel corner brackets that can be stacked, I think they are designed for 2x6's.

[Raiquee]

Let me tell you a little rodent story...

We bought our beautiful homestead in 2014- May. I hustled like nothing else to till the ground of a 50x50 garden, i've never dreamed of having something that big! But there it was! I went to stick my hand in the fresh tilled soil, and lifted up a handful of.....beach sand?

It wasnt that year, that I found out how great beach sand was for ground squirrels (gophers, whatever you call them) to dig in. The year of 2014 was a gorgeous garden, but a lot of wasted space as I threw things in just to get them in on time!

2015 they found my garden. It started with my spinach being gone, then i was noticing nibbles on my green beans. I had hubby put up the game camera and there those fuzzy annoying jerks were. As every single green bean I grew, they took one perfect little bite out and left the rest; I claimed war on the rodents. I posted my husband with his gun, said "Take out those rodents, but don't kill my produce." (He offered, I didn't demand haha) And with his great gun shootin' abilities he took out 52 of those effers that year. 52....

Year 2016 I was happily planning out my garden, knowing we at least put a dent in those ground squirrels population last year! Hubby kept taking them out, anytime he saw them. Now that it's September we found out our 2x3" grid fence doesn't stop little bunnies from getting in.

Needless to say, I am wrapping the whole bottom 2 feet of the garden in 1/2" hardware cloth and it's going to cost me a million dollars i'm sure. But i'm sick of losing produce to them. It probably won't keep out the mice, but I set traps and that seems to keep them in place.

[EPawlick]

Originally Posted by korney19

I will check their site; I did buy some kit that has the swivel corner brackets that can be stacked, I think they are designed for 2x6's.

Just in case, you see something--I got an email recently with a moving sale code for 40% off until Oct 15th. MOVINGSALE40 It doesn't do me any good because of the Canadian dollar so I thought I would pass it on.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by Raiquee

Let me tell you a little rodent story...

We bought our beautiful homestead in 2014- May. I hustled like nothing else to till the ground of a 50x50 garden, i've never dreamed of having something that big! But there it was! I went to stick my hand in the fresh tilled soil, and lifted up a handful of.....beach sand?

It wasnt that year, that I found out how great beach sand was for ground squirrels (gophers, whatever you call them) to dig in. The year of 2014 was a gorgeous garden, but a lot of wasted space as I threw things in just to get them in on time!

2015 they found my garden. It started with my spinach being gone, then i was noticing nibbles on my green beans. I had hubby put up the game camera and there those fuzzy annoying jerks were. As every single green bean I grew, they took one perfect little bite out and left the rest; I claimed war on the rodents. I posted my husband with his gun, said "Take out those rodents, but don't kill my produce." (He offered, I didn't demand haha) And with his great gun shootin' abilities he took out 52 of those effers that year. 52....

Year 2016 I was happily planning out my garden, knowing we at least put a dent in those ground squirrels population last year! Hubby kept taking them out, anytime he saw them. Now that it's September we found out our 2x3" grid fence doesn't stop little bunnies from getting in.

Needless to say, I am wrapping the whole bottom 2 feet of the garden in 1/2" hardware cloth and it's going to cost me a million dollars i'm sure. But i'm sick of losing produce to them. It probably won't keep out the mice, but I set traps and that seems to keep them in place.

Wow, it looks like you bought a gopher homestead! Is it WI or MN that has the Golden Gopher melons?

I had planted cauliflower in 4 gallon containers about 13 inches tall, maybe more, back near the turn of the century, and had planted a cover crop of clover. Every day I noticed my cauli had less leaves.
I didn't figure out what was eating it, but one morning a jackrabbit, right in the city here (Buffalo), was hopping down my neighbor's driveway! Houses here are 8 or 10 feet apart, with chain link fences separating yards.

That was also the year a groundhog, big & fat, slowly walked past me, I thought it was the neighbor's cat brushing up against me until I looked! My first thought was if it was heading south past me, where was it coming from?? Maybe the neighbor's crawl-space? My 2nd thought was the game at the fairs in which you whack the gopher on the head when he pops up out of holes! By the time I got a shovel it was gone, maybe under my shed...