At House1, bunnies were an issue but we managed to keep them out of the garden with the Great Wall of Chickenwire. We did have a deer problem when a mama ? decided that our street would be a good place to raise a family (so did all the humans, ?!) I have videos of Mr. chasing the deer family out of our backyard. So when we moved, I was thinking that in our new, more urban area we would be able to avoid the garden-eating pests. Nope. The bunnies here are out of this world! Even the resident barred owls do not make a dent in their population. Mr. planted a tiny fig tree only to discover that it was eaten to the ground by next morning. Argh. Now the tree is surrounded by a very expensive metal “fence” made from some mesh used for stucco reinforcement. ? By the way, it works great! The tree is sprouting new twigs and leaves. This is the stuff (and it does not look that ugly either):
The cherry tomato plants are still producing, but the leaves are getting fried int he heat/sun. The basil came back (something possibly ate it and I don’t mean us, though we did get a lot of great leaves to put under our mini caprese on a stick appetizers). The peas were an epic fail.
I pulled everything but my kale and zinnias at my community garden last week. Will plant garlic in the next week or so. Did pick out a bunch of green tomatoes left on the vines and am trying to turn them - can’t bear to waste them!
Hi, I just found this thread. I am not a vegetable gardener, but have always had perennial and hosta gardens and used to work installing and maintaining them for others. This year I learned about how to help restore natural systems via native plants. In case anyone is interested in pollinator gardens, bees, butterflies and birds, I wanted to share the name of this book that really changed my outlook. I am obsessed now with plants native to my area to help dwindling insect and bird populations. This book explains it really well! I did not rip all my exotics out but I am having fun replacing some lawn with native plants, and anything new I bring in will be native. Planning to seed some areas today with native pollinator seed.The book is Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy. Check it out!
We had glorious weather this weekend and H and I pulled all the flowers except the alyssum. I also didn’t cut back the roses yet.
It is so difficult for me to pull flowers when they are still blooming! However, there won’t be such a great weekend again until at least late March/April, and I’ll be glad I did in a week or two when it’s cold/wet/snowing.
We ate our last tomato tonight. S1 lives a mile away and has a huge garden. Think I’ll plant a tomato next year and pick the rest from his
I’ve also got green cherry tomatoes on the vine. In the past, I made fried green tomatoes with them. Lol, not like the true FGT I’ve had in the south. I halved them.
I can’t pull my flowers yet. Most of them besides the impatients still look GREAT!
This time of year I usually take a walk around the yard the night before garbage day and reluctantly pull any flowers/pots that are on their last leg. It’s like ripping the bandaid off slowly!
@chardonMN - I have that book and love it. It is so important that we start planting natives to help the birds and the insects. Those plants are tough and are made to live in their local environment. It sure is hard to get people to think differently! As for our vegetable garden- done! It has been put to rest and today the flower garden got chopped down (although I don’t tidy it up like I use to- save the critters!)
