GARDEN STRATEGY
WOODLOFT
Woodloft vegetable garden
What a beautiful garden, right? Wrong! What started out as my vegetable garden is slowly but surely turning into a chomping ground for some bean varmint. And it’s not only the beans, but the impatiens as well. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love my bean garden. I grow the very best each year. Sometimes, I order them from Italy. Beans like fagiolo rampicante or fagiolo nano or maxibel filet or haricot verts all have their place in my garden.
My garden journal -- beans are my number one concern each summer
I use a very pungent -- and that's saying it mildly -- organic fertilizer with chicken manure. You would think the smell alone would scare off any creature. Nevertheless, it seems the entire vegetable garden is doomed this year. My basil, which is my cooking prize, is pitted. This seems unthinkable since I plant marigolds around the ends of the row. Marigolds are supposed to ward off bugs of all kinds.
Basil garden
I have begun to try to outplant the varmint. Each morning, I plant a new packet of seeds, hoping that whatever it is -- rabbit, ground hog, chipmunk or ? -- will get its fill and move on. But so far, every day starts with me finding the remnants of another night's destruction. I'm starting to feel like Bill Murray in "Caddy Shack."
I hate to think that my beautiful garden of impatiens will be gone soon. Each morning, I find them bitten off at the root, lying hopelessly in small heaps.
Today, in addition to planting a packet of beans, I'm going to use an old method I’ve used in the past to scare off the critters. I use dish soap and hot pepper. This time, I chose hot chilpote pepper and the pepperchino that I purchased last time I was in Italy. I mix them with water and spray the mixture over the entire area. I’ll try to hit the basil and hope for the best. If all else fails, I guess I could resort to purchasing a Havahart trap. Then what would I do with the creature? I know! My friend, Marcia, across the street, has told me she wants a little pet. Hee Hee… .
If anyone reading my blog today has any idea of how I can solve my garden problem this year, please let me know. I'm running out of bean seeds; and I'm becoming impatient with the fate of my impatiens!
Pepperchino, dish detergent and water
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Your poor garden :(
ReplyDeleteThere are rodent traps that you can place in your garden, they're safe for the rodent. Its like a cage, you put some yummies inside to entice it, when it enters the door will shut. You can find it there and free it somewhere else :)
You can probably go to your local hunting shop for something like this. My brother used them for squirrels and they worked quite well. People even use them for cats!
Good luck :)