i chased that marauder around for 20 minutes, phone in hand to take photos of course. it ran past the gate at least 10 times before it figured out that was its only escape route. fun times gardening.
snipped-for-privacy@sdf.org wrote: ...
i usually have to hunt them here a few times a year. they constantly are trying to eat anything they can get at. we don't have the right fence even around the fenced gardens so they sometimes get in there too, but not as often as they do the unfenced areas. when/if i ever get the chance i'm fencing with better stuff to keep them out of most of the yard. only a few hundred more feet will do it and i will be done with deer, rabbits and groundhogs. i'm looking forwards to that because i sure lost a lot of plants this year to deer in a large garden. it bites to do all the work of planting, watering and weeding and then have it all get destroyed.
songbird
snipped-for-privacy@sdf.org wrote: ...
i'm not familiar with soil testing terminology so sorry i can't say much other than if it isn't expensive and you have issues then it may be worth it.
so far my issues are more critter related than soil/nutrient ones so i don't do much soil testing. i think from how much i have to water this year that my pH will be higher.
songbird
Bob F wrote: ...
we've never had any deer jump over the 6-8ft fences here. there's a lot of obstacles and things in the way so they don't have clear taking off or landing spots.
songbird
i picked up their sampling containers yesterday and have the sample drying a bit, is too wet. will mail it tomorrow or friday, not sure when i'll get results. i'm going to test the sample with the LaMotte kit (pH, N-P-K) and compare the results also.
everything i have is growing well but i think there's much room for improvement, hence the soil testing. the only problem i'm having is a little powdery mildew on cucumbers and zucchini plants. also some on the passion flower vines. just noticed it and will be treating it with neem oil.
critters i'm learning to live with. they're extraordinarily brutal this year due to the drought. everything is dry and brown except for those of us watering our gardens and it's attracting more critters than usual.
it's making for something interesting though. in my front yard around our flag pole we planted sunflower seeds. last year the only problem we had was robins pulling some seedlings out. we kept planting and prevailed. this year the woodchuck was getting at them. i took the 4 survivors, two seedlings and two 18" tall plants that got mowed down, and transplanted them in the safety of the fenced veggie garden. the seedlings are growing fine. the two plants that got mowed down are mutants now. one is now growing 4 stems with growing buds, and the other sent a stem up from near the bottom off the side with a growing bud. will be interesting to see how they finish growing since they're not normal.
snipped-for-privacy@sdf.org wrote: ...
powdery mildew here is endemic, there's just way too many other host plants around that i'll never be able to remove or control so i've learned to live with it. most the times it doesn't kill my entire harvest in any thing we grow - it just doesn't look good when it happens.
yes, that's been a large part of the problem. every animal is hungry for some green and we're the supplier. recently the road commission redid the road out front by spraying tar and putting down gravel on top of that. the smell and change may have been enough to get the three family deer (Momma and two little ones) to stay away now and perhaps to break their habit of coming by each night for easy goodies. the farm fields around us are now grown up enough in corn that they can hide in there all they want.
sunflowers grown here rarely make it above 2ft high and repeatedly get mown down by the deer. more often the seeds and seedlings are eaten by chipmunks, rabbits, etc. i don't even try any more to grow them. sometimes if i've been trapping a random seed might grow and even flower but it isn't too likely unless they end up inside the fenced gardens.
songbird
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