by A.J. Coltrane
Squirrels have been digging in any “unclaimed” dirt in the containers. I thought I could stop the digging by laying bird netting over the dirt. That seemed to work for a while, until a really determined squirrel pulled on the netting. The netting dragged across the seedlings, uprooting a few and damaging a few more. So:
It’s what I should have done in the first place — I added galvanized hoops that we had left over from last year’s Row Cover Experiment. The pictured seedlings are tiny – they were all planted way too late for a winter harvest.
The boxes pictured below were planted early/mid September, which is still too late for a winter harvest (L-R – Dragon radish, mache, carrots, mache again with bunch onions scattered through all the boxes):
Next year we need to start seeds in mid-August at the latest, even if it means transplanting things that aren’t traditionally transplanted. we’ll also use bird netting and hoops over everything — I’d guess the squirrels destroyed up to 20% of the seedlings, and that’s just not cool.
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
FlatbreadGarden 
Every year I seem to learn a few more lessons when it comes to both pests and timing. I’m the worst when it comes to timing veg for fall harvest. I know you are supposed to add a couple of weeks to the days to maturity, but in my garden, some things seem to take much longer than that.
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Squirrels (aka tree rats) in the garden are always bad news for me. Timing is always tough for me too, especially in the fall and winter. I got my cold frame veggies started too late, and I am crossing my fingers the weather doesn’t get too cold too fast.
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Could be worse. My penpal in Alaska was complaining because her sizable garden was pretty much all eaten up by a moose. What wasn’t chewed up outright was trampled on or sampled and then spit out. Her husband is going to put up hoops, as well (albeit on a larger scale).
I asked about just putting up a fence. “How high can a moose jump?” I asked.
She told me the fence would need to be at least 8 feet tall and very sturdy. It’s not so much that they can jump (though they can, a bit). It’s that they weigh at least 1,000 pounds and simply walk through/over any fencing you put up. Hoops, however, seem to stymie them, so hoops it is.
You’re in good company.
k
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A “moose” (Holy Grail) reference that will be lost on almost everyone:
Moose Trained by Yutte Hermsgervordenbroti
Special Moose Effects Olaf Prot
Moose Costumes Siggi Churchill
Moose choreographed by Horst Prot III
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If you think I didn’t see that coming, you’d be dead wrong.
k
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