Kind of a self-reminder, but i totally need to take pictures of the family garden and post them tomorrow! We have over 30 tomato plants and 4 rows of corn its Big and beautiful
This pic is the best full-view I could get without climbing a tree ahaha Spoiler The raised bed has yellow squash, cucumbers, zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, and butternut squash! The dirt is a lot more rich because we fertilize it and put manure and compost in it. Spoiler These 2 rows have concord grapes, hybrid tomatoes, and a few various pepper plants (the short stubby ones in the second row) Spoiler This row is all cantaloupes and watermelons Spoiler This row has okra at both ends and a bunch of pepper plants in the middle (mostly bell, but a few jalapeño and I think 1 or 2 habañeros?) The one after that is just onions. Spoiler The row with all the strings doesn't have anything, we just haven't cleaned it up since last year >_>. The one with the poles is rattlesnake beans! They're still little, but I'll post a pic once they've really started to climb. And then the dirt patch past it is 4 rows of ambrosia corn. (andthe trees in background are peach trees and one plum tree) Spoiler Whew! That's the garden!
...Who remembers the yarrow plant? The one that looked like this? Well... a few months, a lot of watering, a bigger pot, moving it outside and a bout of leaf miners that meant I had to strip a lot of leaves off it, and now it looks like THIS:
Does anyone have tips on keeping deer out of a garden because i am P I S S E D like i'm honestly about to haul out the .308 and kill a deer out-of-season because they've eaten all the beans, the tops off of all the peppers, most of the corn, and all the okra. Please help me out you guys
Tall fences they can't jump over. I did a research on deer browse, to set up the "no deer impact" plot the group basically built up a three or 4 meter tall fence with wire mesh around the whole plot.
Ahh a fence isn't really feasible bc we have to be able to mow in between the rows and get a tractor/rototiller in there easily, plus we just don't have the money to fence in an entire huge 30+yd plot :( We've got pie tins hanging from tree branches, plastic bags tied to strings of yarn, mothballs, and we even tried tying the hound down there for a night but so far nothing has had a significant impact >:(
I moved the plants that don't topple over without the window supporting them (looking at my basil here) out on the window sill. The chives really appreciated being planted in an actual pot and not a repurposed mushroom thing.
Time for the HARVEST This is just from today, because for some reason mom decided that we absolutely had to pick the peaches and a bunch of tomatoes today, in 95F heat, at 1 pm. why. i almost DIED. Anyway, my suffering aside, I'm really proud of what the garden produced this year!! Spoiler: THE PEACH HARVEST Fun fact, these are the worst things ever to peel, they're full of worms, and half of them were hard as a rock. I still made some bitchin cobbler from them though. Spoiler: THE TOMATO AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH HARVEST
Aww man, major jealousy. I've been proud this year that the new zucchini cultivar I was trying out - 'Black Forest' which in theory is a climbing variety but these guys don't seem to want to climb they just want to sprawl like big losers - means we've been getting a twice-as-big-but just as tender zuke from the garden every few days, and a TON of really tiny gherkin-sized cucumbers. I really want to pickle them because I love making pickles, but mum seems to like eating them fresh. Everything is so juicy with all the rain and sun we've been getting that it bleeds clear sap on the counter for minutes after cutting, which would be disturbing if it wasn't so delicious XD But then, it's really just me and mum eating them, so idk what we'd do if we had excess. Oh! And the sugarsnap and regular peas have done really well this year - we're still getting a few odd pods now. The patch with the cucumbers and zucchinis - and technically the butternut squash too, but I think I planted that too late, it hasn't even flowered yet - it looks so fucking ghibi right now it's ridiculous. I'm gonna take a picture tomorrow if the weather allows :)
Oh! Also, have you tried spraying with chilli pepper? We don't get deer as a pest in our yard, but the neighbourhood bunnies used to like to come and munch on my kale before I took to spraying mum's hot sauce on them in situ XDD
PICTURES! Not as impressive as @Jojo 's but I try :P Spoiler: The Ghibli patch! Behold! The smaller viney one is the cucumbers, the paler, rounder one is the mini butternut squash (who I might have been too quick to decry - I looked today and there are buds, so there is still time!) and the giant fuckoff triffid leaves are the zucchini. No seriously, I'm slightly scared of how well they've been doing this year. Also the grey thing is a smol badger butt. Also todays harvest! Which is a couple of giant zucchini and a couple of really little warty cucumbers with a pen for scale XD Spoiler: Again, not as cool as Jojo's Also I did the thing and left one of the zukes for too long on accident - I swear blind the buggers actively hide from me - and here it is with my forearm for scale :/ - Spoiler: it would probs make your eyes water if you tried :p
Anyone know a good way to keep cats out of a raised bed? I have a four tier vertical garden and the darn stray cats keep using it as either a litter box or a sleeping spot and killing nearly everything I put in it.
I'm not sure about keeping them out all together, but if I've got some seedlings I don't want my cats sleeping on and crushing, then I just put some sticks there - either upright in the soil if they're small straight sticks like bits of bamboo or chopsticks, or sideways if they have prickles or thorns. I've got some gooseberry and rose bush cuttings with absolutely lethal spines that are perfect for when I don't want my girls napping where they're not wanted XD
