by Charlene Burgi
Night Marauder
Someone is eating my green beans, and it isn’t anyone living in the house! All the plants that were started in the greenhouse were set outside to climb on the netting for the space-saving vertical garden. Each day I noticed one or two leaves missing from the plant closest to the end of the row, until nothing existed but the stem. After stripping the first plant, the mystery diner moved on to the next. Watching the slow disappearing act prompted me to plant more seeds and cover the few plants left with wire cages. The strategy behind this maneuver was to determine if it was insects that could enter the wired area or furry critters that knew a way to scale the fence.
It is now clear I have something very small and (assuming) furry that ventures into the garden while we sleep. I learned it cannot get to the leaves in the caged area. The critter leaves no sign of paw prints or scat to help me solve this mystery. And the real enigma is this critter has select taste for green beans only. It has not touched any other veggie in the garden!
You might ask what I am going to do about this dilemma. First, I plan to plant bush green beans instead of climbers and use a row cover to protect them from predators. Next, as soon as the rains pass, I am going to sift a layer of flour around the existing green beans to see if I can find out who the culprit is. With this information, I can better determine what I will need to do to protect the plants—or change my thoughts on vertical gardening.
Anyone have a similar experience they would like to share? If so, what was your solution?
April Showers?
What I mean is, June showers bring July flowers? This late rain is confusing but what a pleasant surprise to have rain this far into June! And to think we had over an inch and a half of rain in just one day!
As I walked around the garden this morning the plants seemed as if they had doubled in size overnight. (Well, not the green beans!) The rains must have provided more than the plants were getting from irrigation water. With anticipated high temperatures this weekend, we’re assured to see even greater results!
The rains did bring a few things to mind to share with you:
- What better opportunity to weed? The roots will easily slip out of the moistened soil now.
- Softened soil will make it easy to create swales to naturally capture rainwater and carry it to the plants. Fill the swales with mulch or rock to keep the waterways open.
- Set boards down on the soil where you are working to prevent compaction. The boards will better distribute your weight than your footprints.
A Simple Tip
The Fourth of July often finds us away from our gardens. If you have a few plants that are not covered by your irrigation system, you might consider employing this idea: Cut off the top of a one-gallon milk carton or one-liter plastic soda bottle, and poke several small holes around all four sides and the bottom of the carton. Fill the void of the carton with sphagnum moss, and dig a hole deep enough to bury the carton close to the plant needing irrigation without disturbing the root system. Invert the removed top of the carton (to act as a funnel) down into the sphagnum moss and fill the carton with water. The water will slowly seep into the soil; the sphagnum moss will hold the moisture for an extended period of time and buy you a few days away without losing your new posy!
Just this week I woke up to find that our beautiful hydrangia had been “mowed” sometime in the night… The plant is 4-5 years old and it took this long for the deer to discover it. I actually had no idea that deer liked hydrangias. I think maybe it’s time for some Deer Stopper.
Merrygarden,
I am so sorry to hear that the deer demolished the hydrangea after all these years. It will come back, but the secret is out now! Try mixing one whipped egg white in a gallon of water and spray it on what is left of the plant. If you have overhead spray, it will wash this mixture off and you will need to reapply it. The egg white method is what we would use on the hydrangeas in the nursery many years ago. It is cheap, easy and typically the ingredients are as close as your frig!
Night Marauder ….. Our 2012 winter garden was mowed down to the stem last year — whatever was doing it loved the collard greens. It was too late to reseed so I let it go. This spring it started happening again. Every new transplanted tender succulent seedling was fair game — We were totally perplexed! Maybe it was squirrels — as I had seen a squirrel digging away in one of my garden containers. I went out and got pellets for the old pop gun and laid in wait. Nothing showed up and the pop gun got put back in the closet. So, disparate to succeed we went into overdrive and as it turned out –over kill so to speak. We built a four ft. wire cage all around one of our raided beds. It worked — but it looked like a scene out of Shawshank Redemption. The marigolds were next. Then the cosmos …… They even nibbled away on the tomato leaves. Like your marauders, they left no foot prints — We bought a $14.00 box of critter rid ….. sprinkled it around. Felt like we were whistling in a wind storm. Possums? So I made sure the garden was wired-off with chicken wire. Next to disappear was our arugula seedlings — it was like a sheep grazed them — flat to the earth. Still no signs of what it was. So with that I started to set rat traps — big ones. Thwack — we heard as we watched the Daily Show — I ran out to find the bait gone and the trap sprung. Nothing there —until one night. With double traps set in tandem and rat sticky paper surrounding we finally got one! Then a few nights later another. The lettuce is starting to grow as are the other tiny seedlings. I am now convinced our marauders all along have been RATS — We’ve set-up a couple of rat traps around the parameter of the garden. It’s also the middle of summer so there should be plenty of food around for any hungry rat. Its interesting that I have gardened for years but have never before been stumped by a garden eating rat pack. My dear Mrs. showed me an article a few days ago. Bells went off as I said — “Ah huh! So that’s what started it!” …. Beware putting down raw compost on a garden because the smell and the fat worms I suppose attracts the rats. Once there — they just start eating. That’s what rats do, you know. I don’t poison as I do not want to harm non-target animals like predictor birds that dine on rats. But for me its all out war — I am protecting my home, garden and summer salads against those rats. It seems my local rats had their own private territory as I have not seen anything else of late. One day another rat will come my way — hopefully next time he or she will not smell the ripeness of my unfinished compost and keep on traveling……..
Submitted by David Haskell , Fairfax
Mr. Haskell,
I cannot even begin to tell you how amused I was reading the account of your personal war on rats in Fairfax! Despite the fight of losing your garden, you have a gift with words. Thank you for brightening my day, and we will take your advice and set out rat traps to see if we can put an end to the night marauders! Have a delightful weekend.
Charlene