Seedlings

i need to fortify my woodchuck defense before growing greens, cauliflower, broccoli, etc, again. last year i got the seeds in very early and had beautiful looking plants growing. previously i had started them too late and they bolted from the heat. last year, the woodchuck got through the fence around the raised beds and had itself quite the feast leaving me with mostly plant stumps.

this spring i'm going to rototill a trench right next to the fence all the way around a foot deep and as wide as the tiller tines, about 2 feet, and bury galvanized expanded metal vertically and horizontally along the fence in the trench. which reminds me. i need to source the expanded metal and get my oxy-acetylene tanks filled. welding for gardening? would that make it heavy metal gardening? :P

Chicken wire . I use a 24" wide 1" chicken wire with the bottom 6" folded to the outside . I have a steel wire supporting the top with 3 strands of electrified wire above that . The bottom electric wire is just an inch or two above the top of the chicken wire so small critters can't just crawl over it . This has stopped everything but armadillos including the local bears . 'Dillos just bull thru , they're like tanks . The only 2 things I've found that will stop them is a bullet or my dog . If Max (75 pound Mountain Cur) gets a hold of one it's crunch city .

Although my garden didn't work well last year,I DID manage an effective rat defense. Marigolds and spearmint.

snipped-for-privacy@sdf.org wrote: ...

they can climb so you need some kind of fence they won't like trying to get over. raccoons are the same and why we don't even bother trying to grow sweet corn here. they end up getting it before we do.

chicken wire may work for a short time, but it isn't very good longer term and fails within a few years.

songbird

Small furry mammals don't live long around here . Miz Kitty FatCat , Mr Black , Mama Ruby and recently shown up Lady Marmalade are all accomplished hunters . Added benefit of lower rodent population is lowered copperhead population ... we live in a clearing out in the woods and it's always a trade off with the local wildlife . I'm going to be trying some container gardening this year . A local hardware/lumber/etc store had 2 cf bags of Miracle-Gro potting mix for

Lucky you!

Container gardening can be fun! Here's one difference, Watering isn't the same as they have no connection to the water in the soil. YYou need drainage holes but you can dry out fast due to them. We line the bottom with the legs from okd jeans which helps ot not drain too fast amd retain some water.

We do similar with sales meat.

We just finally got eggplant, tomatoes, and pepper seed in a seed flat. A little late in the season, but not too late. We're direct seeding squashes and root veggies tomorrow. Hoping for a good year with lots of stuff for canning and drying in our new Xcaliber dehydrator!

nice.