Garden

[GraceCO]

@JustJazzmom

I appreciate all your good thinking on this problem. The first thing my husband does in the morning when taking our dogs out for a walk is inspect his garden for overnight damage

Last week, he set a mouse trap at the base of one of the tomato plants and he always finds a mouse in it, so he was thinking that was the cause. But, it's too much damage for even a few mice to do.

You might be right about it being a larger animal, like a raccoon. We've had them in our backyard years ago--at least we were aware they were there. We woke up to the sound of things being thrown around on our patio and there they were--three of them!!! It was like something out of a cartoon. And, they looked right up at us. Very eery feeling. So, they could be back...I assume they can get over the fencing? I'll mention to my husband leaving bowls of ammonia out. That's definitely worth a try.

We have friends in Evergreen who have a camera they keep on overnight primarily for security reasons, but they capture everything & they are dealing with bears & lions foraging in their neighborhood. It's Animal Planet up there, so I'm glad we aren't dealing with that routinely. We do have mountain lions nearby. But, if all else fails, we might rig up a camera.

Thank you, again, for all your help with this problem.

[JustJazzmom]

@GraceCO

Oh yes!! They can climb trees so they definitely can climb fencing.

[debic]

Marigolds are supposed to be deterrents for many unwanted critters.   With an acre it's really too expensive for me to apply anything so I kind of let nature take it's course.  Also I'm not spraying stuff like cayenne when I usually have my hands in the dirt.  Moose are my biggest problems, they put a big dent in my trees.   I gave up on my tulips years ago.  

[GraceCO]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

@GraceCO

Oh yes!! They can climb trees so they definitely can climb fencing.

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My husband has all the bowls of ammonia ready, JJM! He thought your explanations and ideas were really great & he's thankful. I'll let you know how it goes...

[Tigriss]

Human hair from the salon can keep many critters out of the garden and decompose into the bed as the season progresses. Salons will give the hair away. It is the strong smell of humans, soaps, and hair products that keep the critters out.

[mousiegirl]

We put tall chicken wire cages around roses until they are really big, though something ate about a foot off the top of a two and a half foot rose before the cage.

Yesterday, I noticed that half of the apricots from our young tree were gone, I had forgotten to put the netting on, so I plucked all of the rest of them and they are ripening on the kitchen counter.  I thought to myself, nothing like battling the elements.  

One note about fish emulsion.  It draws raccoons, don't know about other **bleep**>

[GraceCO]

@JustJazzmom

I want to give you an update...

All was well in the vegetable garden for a few days with both the bowls of ammonia and the mouse trap in place. Yesterday, my husband found one of his largest tomato plants (about 2 ft.) chewed all the way down. He'd rememebered when he was working in the garden area the day before that he removed the ammonia bowls & forgot to put them back. So, I think the ammonia must be what's keeping the critter away--we're guessing it must be a raccoon. I doubt it's a mouse doing all that damage, right?

My husband has tried year-after-year to get a garden growing with all the challenges of soil (we have a lot of clay in Colorado), weather (hail storms) and critters (deer, elk, rabbits, etc.) He still has a few plants growing strong--tomato, pepper, herbs--so we're hoping we can keep them safe.

[JustJazzmom]

I definitely think its a raccoon-- they are nocturnal.

[mousiegirl]

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@mousiegirl wrote:

We put tall chicken wire cages around roses until they are really big, though something ate about a foot off the top of a two and a half foot rose before the cage.

Yesterday, I noticed that half of the apricots from our young tree were gone, I had forgotten to put the netting on, so I plucked all of the rest of them and they are ripening on the kitchen counter.  I thought to myself, nothing like battling the elements.  

One note about fish emulsion.  It draws raccoons, don't know about other **bleep**>

What happened to the rest of my post?  I posted a great story about raccoons and fish emulsion.  Grrrrrrr!

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