What Did You Do In The Garden?

[catjac1975]

round [X] of groundhog battles. because it is not easy to see down the side of the ditch over the fence i didn't catch that they'd redug out one of the den entrances again until this morning. the weather was nice enough that i came back in and got my grubbies on and went back out to see what was up. they'd actually reopened both entrances and i began to suspect there might be other's i've not found yet.

after plugging things back up and armoring, putting down bricks, rocks, pounding in stakes and pieces of wood, putting huge rock over chunks of wood, etc. i came back up on this side of the fence and pulled the end of the smaller drainage ditch which is covered with pallets (that are rotting and falling apart. underneath is a gap and many animals use it as hiding spot and highway to get up into the gardens and such. sometimes the groundhogs have put dens under there too and i find them and get them plugged up. so today i pulled things apart and looked and found something that is probably more like a rabbit hiding spot. plugged that up too.

i decided that since i'm redoing the neighboring garden anyways and will likely have to deal with invasive grasses growing under the pathway, that i will now just fill in the end and then shift the gravel pathway over whatever i can get done at a time.

but wait, i'll need to put another drainage tube through there first for extra capacity if that is covered up. so someday soon i'll be doing that as i have a section of drain tube left over from another project and then i can get that whole end filled back in and move the pathway over about 4ft and that then will be reclaimed garden space (once i get the invasive grasses and irises out of there and screen the dirt to get the crushed limestone out of there too - a short version of that story is that we had another area with a lot of dirt and limestone mixed together and i decided instead of burying it all i would just use it along another edge where i could put some irises and hens and chicks along) . knowing that eventually the gravel would be washed by the rain of the dirt and i could move it a little at a time back into the neighboring pathway.

to make that go much faster last spring i had another project and needed to screen a lot more gravel from some dirt so i built a nice big box for doing that and i also built that knowing this project was coming in the future.

it's nice when plans come together...

so back to other thing, once i fill that end in, i will also armor edge of what i fill in so they won't use that as den making place and then as i get more tube and fill and time i will keep working back closer to house. already it has helped a great deal to have the end of the smaller drainage ditch closed off so that the only exit is via drain tube #1 which is already down there. that drain tube also has a screen over it so animals can't use it as a tunnel... having a nicer way across that space that doesn't involve walking on pallets (rotting, nails, etc.) is also a good investment for the longer term. it's rather a nasty hazard and getting worse...

Closing up the holes will do nothing. You have to gas them, poison them, shoot them, or trap and kill them.

 

[flowerbug]

Closing up the holes will do nothing. You have to gas them, poison them, shoot them, or trap and kill them.

we've trapped and moved so many of them over the years. also i've shot many with the air rifle, but also they are not visible as they are staying down in the large ditch so i'm not getting any chances to get them with the air rifle. i keep plugging up the holes as i sure don't want to give them easy ways to get into gardens. not that they won't go around some of the fencing or even climb some, but every way i can discourage them i will. it was fun to be out today playing back there. see pics... i just added...

p.s. if i come across any old fencing i'll also use it to screen that bank of the ditch. grass can grow through it...

 

[seedcorn]

Finally got around to starting plants to transplant later.

 

[ninnymary]

I planted Honeynut butternut squash, Scarlett runner beans, and cilantro. Pruned my meyer lemon a tiny bit. Thinned the fruit in my peach tree.

Mary

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Well we watered today, but happy to give a late report that we are planted 85% as of last Thursday!

 

[catjac1975]

we've trapped and moved so many of them over the years. also i've shot many with the air rifle, but also they are not visible as they are staying down in the large ditch so i'm not getting any chances to get them with the air rifle. i keep plugging up the holes as i sure don't want to give them easy ways to get into gardens. not that they won't go around some of the fencing or even climb some, but every way i can discourage them i will. it was fun to be out today playing back there. see pics... i just added...

p.s. if i come across any old fencing i'll also use it to screen that bank of the ditch. grass can grow through it...

My fence is buried 18 inches deep around my garden. And still they can find a way in. Lat summer we broke our tried and true rule-just forgot. Do not put their favorite crops near the fence. Peas and broccoli family must go near the middle. But , your mistake is in your heart. Relocating them, first of all, is illegal. All real naturalists will tell you this. At least here in Massachusetts. They will find their way home or get hit by a car trying. But more than anything, where do you bring them? To someone else's garden? No one wants your groundhogs.

 

[flowerbug]

My fence is buried 18 inches deep around my garden. And still they can find a way in. Lat summer we broke our tried and true rule-just forgot. Do not put their favorite crops near the fence. Peas and broccoli family must go near the middle. But , your mistake is in your heart. Relocating them, first of all, is illegal. All real naturalists will tell you this. At least here in Massachusetts. They will find their way home or get hit by a car trying. But more than anything, where do you bring them? To someone else's garden? No one wants your groundhogs.

20 miles away, large wild area, they do not come back. but as of a few years ago i decided no more of that when we went through the trouble of trapping yet another raccoon, taking it all the way there, letting it go and then it just happened to run out in front of the car and i ran it over, no way to see it or stop in time and wasn't even going that fast, just really bad timing on it's/our part there. as raccoons will easily reproduce and we can trap one a day here i said no more of this. so the air rifle and harsher measures are now for groundhogs (if i can't exclude them). as for legality... nobody said anything to us and i've never looked up the laws. don't do it any more. nu ugh...

for fencing them out, need a good fence and of course far enough away from a bank so they won't dig in. we've never had them dig under our fences, we have the whole edge lined by rocks/crushed limestone, sometimes they find a way through the bottom of the fence or climb up and through, but that is just because the job/fence isn't right to begin with. a little electric zap part way up and finer mesh and sealed up at bottom right and they would not be able to get in. they don't always get in anyways, but the little ones can crawl right through fence at bottom, it's just not a fine enough mesh and no elec. so they can do some damage at times. at least they won't take down a whole bean plant like the rabbits do. they usually leave enough to grow back and only get the tender tips. but they can have a lot of impact on seed production so i do fight them off. if they were like the raccoons i'd not even bother them at all. we don't plant corn so raccoons don't bother anything much in the gardens. mainly because we also don't use fish emulsion fertilizers. the greenhouse does and sometimes they'll nose around the plantings but rarely do they dig anything up. which amazes me because i use thousands of worms in the fertilizer i put down under some plants. i keep hoping they don't read this...

 

[ducks4you]

When I was pruning my apple tree I was bothered by some "blackened" limbs, so I did some research. Looks like blight, so I went ahead and kinda butchered the limbs where I saw it. It still has 3/4 good leaders and there was SO LITTLE dead wood that I think the tree will be ok. Wish me luck.

 

[Nyboy]

Ducks I think @journey11 battles blight with her fruit trees, she might have some suggestions

 

[journey11]

My best advice is get after it early. I cut down 3 apple trees year before last that were completely consumed by it. Once it gets to the trunk or main scaffold branches, your tree is pretty much a goner. If you don't cut it down, it will just continue to be a vector to spread the disease. If you catch it early and you're able to prune it out, be sure you burn those branches. I would definitely follow up with a spray after pruning, which I didn't do last time. And as many exciting varieties of apple trees as there are out there, I've had to conceed that I really should only plant resistant varieties in the first place. My climate is just too wet and humid and the bacteria loves that. (Here's a good link on fireblight.) They advise you not to fertilize unless absolutely necessary and only then with a low nitrogen fertilizer since tender new growth is most susceptible.