Last year, the garden was devastated by animals coming down from the dry mountains to eat the succulent, tender shoots of my vegetables coming out of the ground. This year, I'm determined not to let that happen again, so the main theme of this weekend's gardening is animal repellent.
No, I'm not using any chemical or traps. I'm not interested in harming anything...at least proactively. My goal is, however, to make my plants look uninviting and a bit hazardous for critters to get to so maybe they'll find greener pastures to feed in.
This year, I've got new onion, tomato, zucchini, and corn seedlings. There's already evidence that something has been chewing on the onion seedlings, which I left in the open after transplanting. No one seems interested in the corn, so I'll just leave that one alone.
So here's my plan...
I'm wrapping tomato cages in chicken wire.
It's a bit tricky when the wire comes on a roll to flatten it out so I can cut it. I hold it down with my foot and snip away.
After wrapping the cage, I make cuts in the edge at the top to form little spikes in case any animal gets adventurous and climbs up. The poke should make 'em think twice about going over the top.
All done.
I'm using the temporary wire cover I used for the tomato seedlings to cover the onion plants to give them a chance to survive the season. Let's see how all this caging works out as the season goes.
Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
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