Posted on 03/15/2012 4:40:37 AM PDT by orsonwb
One of the best ways to combat the deer, the dirt, and freezing temperatures, while optimizing your available garden space, is with the use of raised garden beds...
(Excerpt) Read more at howdogardener.com ...
Yup, human hair works...but it’s quite a job keeping it fresh (only lasts a few weeks) on a 75’x 75’ garden.......
A 30-30 works well, also!
A good read. But contrary to the article, you can use the current pressure treated wood. Copper arsenic is no longer used for pressure treating and the current chemicals pose no threat to your garden. This is from the horticulturalist who taught my Master Gardeners class last year. I used 5/4” x 6” decking planks for my new raised beds built last year. I think its more sturdy, and certainly less expensive, than the Trex or other composite decking material.
Anytime I needed more hair, I just dropped by the barber shop or beauty parlor and asked them if I could sweep it up for them and took it with me in a shopping bag or two.
We’ve not had luck catching them out where we could use the mini cap method (& we have the means to implement readily available) .... if they do come out, if you try to crack a window or the door, they are so observant, they run immediately & there are plenty of places to duck into close by.
We’re trying some other options .... but it has come to WAR .... they’ve really made a mess around the outbuildings & the barn.
We put dog fur around ours. We have an abundance of it (dog sheds like crazy). It seems to work!
Check out “HOW TO HAVE A GREEN THUMB WITHOUT AN ACHING BACK,” by Ruth Stout. An oldie but goodie. She used newspaper covered with straw. Same idea. You can plant through it and as it decomposes you just add more straw. She was in her 80’s and developed this idea so she could keep gardening. I’ve tried it and it will keep down the weeds and enrich the soil.
Years ago my Dad read that hanging mesh bags of dog fur around your garden fence would keep the deer out.
I honest to gosh brushed the GSD and saved the fur AND mailed it across the country to him.
It didn’t work. ;). But we had a good laugh over it..
Didn’t say it does. :-)
Won’t keep the rabbits out.. chewed right through mine last year.
Very tidy and attractive garden.
I have successfully used newspaper and cardboard instead of landscape fabric. I just wet it, put it on top of the grass and assorted lawn greens in my raised beds and added soil.
Make sure you wet the newspaper and use layers of 4 pages or more.
This is the hoophouse I built last year. 12ft wide x 35ft long. It's covered with chicken wire along the bottom, and deer netting over the top. The shade cloth is to protect the plants during these scorching Texas summers. The cattle panel is for climbing plants. The raised beds were built from scrap lumber and filled with horse manure from a local ranch. Watering is done with a simple drip water sprinkler system.
This years project is to widen the hoophouse and add more beds.
don't raised gardens drain water very fast and make it harder to get ground water too???
Hsving enjoyed roast squirrel & rabbit from way back, I wish you good hunting with marauding woodchucks.
Ain’t the size of the rodent, it’s how much sage & onion & garlic you use. Cover & cook at 350 degrees, results guaranteed. Enjoy!
;^)
I have never had the opportunity to ‘try’ woodchuck although we regularly eat venison (& occasionally turkey, dove, quail, pheasant, squirrel & rabbit). If we can ever catch/shoot one of the wee beasties, we’ll give it a roasting. :-)
We’re doing the square foot gardening, too. However, we’re on a hillside so there is quite a slope. Nothing can be easy for my husband! He’s having to do a terrace of sorts and only has one 4x8 bed complete with the second one almost done. We eventually want to have at least 16 of them but are hoping to do 4 this year. I need to plant a money tree so we can have it all at once! :0) I’m not very patient.
Did you ever get anyone to send you those mimosa seeds? I found one pod that had five good seeds. All the other pods must have been picked up by my bagging mower.
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