Garden

[Nightowlz]

@On It 

If you have never watched Homestead Rescue you should check it out. 

The Raney family helps families living off the Grid figure out how to grow a garden when all the wildlife is eating the crops. They figure out to get them water if you can, how to build what you are living in to keep warm etc.

They have made greenhouses, gardens in all kinds of places using all kinds of different material. Things you would never think of. That should give you some ideas. 

I think it's on the Discovery channel. 

I need to find it to see how many new episodes there are. I think we watched all that was available when we ran across the show.  

[Icegoddess]

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@Nightowlz wrote:

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@Carmie wrote:

I have deer who like to eat my foundation plants at the front of my house.  They have destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of plants by eating them down to the roots.

I don't have a fence, but I have plastic forks.  I mixed them in with some metal forks I got at the dollar store and pushed them into the ground.  It does keep the deer out.  They won't walk through the forks.

Maybe this will work for you. It's worth a try.

(stock photo, not my garden)

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@Carmie 

I had to do that with my potted plants to keep the squirrels out. I think I put the upside down forks in the pots 3 years in a row. The past 2 years the squirrels have not been in the pots much? I will see what they do this year.

DH made round cages with some type chicken wire with smaller holes. He just places the cage over the plants so they can grow.

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I call the forks forktresses.  I have to use them in pots to keep the chipmunks & squirrels out, especially any freshly dug ground.  They'll dig up the freshly planted plants and just toss them to the side.  I'm always on the lookout for something I can use as a cage to put over emerging plants to keep the rabbits from eating them.  However, most of them will not keep the squirrels and chipmunks out since they can go through the small holes.  The forks won't keep the rabbits away.  They might not eat what's in the middle of that bed, but they can stand on their back feet and get over the outside forks for a snack.  

[Icegoddess]

@On It I don't have any advice for you besides if you build a fence, it will need to be tall to keep deer/elk out of it.  You could put a barbed wire section at the top that angles outwards which might also discourage them.  I have also seen people around here cage their entire vegetable garden as in chain link across the top too.  

I do have a greenhouse, but it's small, only 6x10, and you'll always want a larger one.  Really wish mine was wider and taller too as it's a bit claustrophobic.   I don't grow veggies in mine though, at least not in summer.  I don't get enough sun in summer for veggies.  I do try to grow some cool season veggies in winter though.  More sun, though lower in the sky, since the leaves are off the trees.  I do have to hand-carry water to mine which is a huge pain, but I do have minimal electric to run lights and a heater in winter.  

If you're really wanting a greenhouse or high tunnel or something like that and you're on Facebook, you might look into joining a Greenhouse group to bounce ideas around and get advice.  

[gardenman]

We have an abundant deer population here, so local farmers will often plant a sacrificial crop in the end rows for the deer to feast on while keeping their cash crop safer. The end rows (tractor turn-around areas) tend not to be very productive anyway, but by planting a sacrificial deer-feeding crop (wheat, rye, oats, etc.) there they can better protect their main crop. If you can't beat them, feed them. Just feed them something they like more than your cash crop.

It's not a perfect solution as deer will occasionally wander past the end rows to get a snack, but it's pretty effective. If you have the land, giving the wildlife their own garden filled with crops they prefer is a good solution to wildlife issues. It can stop them from wanting to eat your crops. If your favorite food in the world is right in front of you, will you walk past it to eat something you don't like as much?

[On It]

@gardenman That is a clever idea to sacrifice some of the outer plants. We never noticed what the wildlife took back in our farm days, but we only had small critters. The garden areas covered acres. Even the smaller areas that contained the higher maintenance plants next to our homes were not a particular problem.

Our situation here on the mountain is having to work with a small area of level land. Our house sits on a mountainside. We drove through a few neighborhoods. We saw no outdoor gardens. There were a handful of greenhouses in smaller sizes. We noticed a community garden at the ranger station enclosed by an extremely tall fence. We will talk to them later this week. My husband said he felt we should give up the idea of doing anything at our location entirely. The challenges of the wildlife coupled with the short growing season may mean it would not be a productive effort.

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and suggestions. We took them to heart and pondered how to make it work. 

Growing up on a farm spoiled me to fresh, picked-that-day foods. I need to let it go. Farmer's Markets that are scattered around this village during the summer and early fall are more craft show than fresh produce and there is probably a reason why.

[gardenman]

@On It 

You might want to consider a hoop house. The folks at Vevor have a 20'X10' one that's seven feet tall for just $161 at their site. (They call it a "walk-in tunnel greenhouse.") You might find a used hoop house on Facebook Marketplace also. Most used ones will need new covering though and that can cost as much as buying one new. A 10'X20' garden area can be utilized to grow a decent amount of food by using dense planting.

There are quite a few options available at a not too bad price. For well under $500 you can buy a hoop house that will extend your growing season and offer some protection from pests. (By the way, if you've never heard of Vevor, they seem to offer lots of support to various YouTubers who all say the products they get from them are very good. Granted, they're being given the stuff and want to keep more free stuff coming, but the reviews I've seen of their stuff seem pretty good.)