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Garden・Defend
Jun. 22nd, 2016 07:29 pmBenny is apparently under the impression that any item within his reach in the yard is his to eat. A couple weeks ago, I made the mistake of harvesting a few carrots in front of him, and he suddenly realized that there was even food under the ground, free for the taking. I came home from work one day to find that big pits had been excavated in three of my garden beds, where he had tried to get at the carrots and potatoes.
I hurriedly re-planted any of the items he had uprooted and watered them in the hope that they might survive. I wrapped fencing around the bed with the carrots and threw chicken wire over the potatoes to keep him out.
The cherries on my tree have all been ripening over the past couple weekends as well, so I spent a number of hours picking, inspecting, washing, pitting, and freezing several quarts of them. My strategy of enclosing the tree in a tent of insect netting worked fairly well. I did have a small amount of insect damage, but not nearly as much as last year. It also protected the tree from a certain hungry beagle, who liked to lie in the shade of the tree and casually strip the fruit off the lower branches.
This past weekend, I noticed that my beans were starting to get to the tender snap stage, so I spent several hours putting up more fencing around the most valuable experimental plots. Just in the nick of time, too; I came home today to find that one of my non-fenced beds of beans had been trampled and ravaged. Thankfully, it was only my plot of beans for eating that I planted around the experimental corn, so it's not a huge loss. If I'm lucky, the plants may even survive and keep producing. Clearly I need more fencing.
I hurriedly re-planted any of the items he had uprooted and watered them in the hope that they might survive. I wrapped fencing around the bed with the carrots and threw chicken wire over the potatoes to keep him out.
The cherries on my tree have all been ripening over the past couple weekends as well, so I spent a number of hours picking, inspecting, washing, pitting, and freezing several quarts of them. My strategy of enclosing the tree in a tent of insect netting worked fairly well. I did have a small amount of insect damage, but not nearly as much as last year. It also protected the tree from a certain hungry beagle, who liked to lie in the shade of the tree and casually strip the fruit off the lower branches.
This past weekend, I noticed that my beans were starting to get to the tender snap stage, so I spent several hours putting up more fencing around the most valuable experimental plots. Just in the nick of time, too; I came home today to find that one of my non-fenced beds of beans had been trampled and ravaged. Thankfully, it was only my plot of beans for eating that I planted around the experimental corn, so it's not a huge loss. If I'm lucky, the plants may even survive and keep producing. Clearly I need more fencing.
