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chocomouse.
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May 24, 2023 at 2:23 pm #39320
At $7.50 each these might be a bit pricey, though once you figure material cost and your time (and skills) it might be a reasonable tradeoff.
I can't get the link or image to post, but I searched on Amazon and found:
6 New Small Wire Plant Protectors, 12" square, 12" high (Vinyl Coated Rust Resistant Wire)
May 24, 2023 at 9:57 pm #39323I'll keep those in mind, Mike. We decided that we would move some dog poop to the entrance to the burrow. Maybe we can encourage the chipmunk to vacate.
May 25, 2023 at 12:54 pm #39324If nothing else, the Amazon item might give your husband ideas about things like size. It appears they're open at the top, I was wondering if critters would just climb over them. I don't think it would slow down squirrels for more than a minute.
If you've never seen the squirrel maze videos on Youtube (there are now 3 of them, I think #2 is the best), they're rather funny.
May 25, 2023 at 2:57 pm #39325Some chuckles for today: We are feeding a number of birds, including a very friendly Baltimore Oriole. He sits on the handle of our door to the deck, and pecks on the glass. He does this only when my husband is sitting at the dining room table. That is because my husband is the one who puts out a cut in half orange and refills a small dish of grape jelly early every morning. When the food is gone, that bird is telling him he wants refills, now!
May 25, 2023 at 4:02 pm #39326The squirrels will stare in the door to my wife's sitting room if she hasn't put the food out yet in the morning or if they run out of food or water. I've had one climb up on the window sill in the informal dining area and stare in at us, too.
When she does put it out, there's a wild scramble by the birds for the food, with the squirrels not far behind.
Grackels and other birds have taken to grabbing a peanut and dipping it in the water. Helps it go down better, maybe?
May 26, 2023 at 1:20 pm #39334We're going to be doing some renovation work on our lawn, which has gotten pretty sad over the last few years, as the tall fescue we put in 25 years ago has not held up well in the hot/dry summers. There are a lot of bare spots and too many weeds.
We're going to start by dethatching the entire yard, then scarifying the spots that are thin or bare to prepare it for seeding.
We're going to put microclover in the back yard over the bare spots, but probably overseed clover in other places.
In the front we're going to put buffalo grass and microclover in the bare spots and probably overseed the other parts with both as well. The buffalo grass is a native plant that goes dormant when it gets too hot and dry. Clover is also very drought tolerant.
June 2, 2023 at 6:24 pm #39387My husband and I watched the squirrel video last night, Mike. Thanks for the chuckle.
My husband has made some cages to put around the squash plants, using hardware cloth. He uses these cages for his young trees in the woods to deter mice and rabbits. The chipmunk appears to have abandoned the den after the dog poop was put into the hole. However, now it has taken up residence under the elevated tree pan my husband has in the corner of the garden, The bunny lived there until it outgrew it. It looks like dog poop will have to be put in that location as well.
The tomato plants seem to be doing well. The cherry tomato plant, that my husband had in a pot and overwintered on the porch and has now planted, does not look so great. If I can find a cherry tomato plant tomorrow at the farmers' market, I will buy one.
June 3, 2023 at 10:55 am #39388I think my 2 spaghetti squash plants didn't survive transplant, I'll have to see if I can find some at the farmer's market. I've got one more that finally germinated under the lights, but it only has one true leaf so far so I think I'll give it a little more time before I try transplanting it.
I'm trying to take a picture of the part of the garden that is our test plot for the Nebraska Urban Soil Improvement project, using the same viewpoint and angle and at the same time of day (early evening) then I'll see if I can stitch them together.
June 3, 2023 at 8:53 pm #39394Loved the squirrel video, Mike. I sent it to Will. He bought some cherry tomato plants at the garden center. They are growing well - it will interesting to see if they actually bear fruit.
June 15, 2023 at 6:12 pm #39498I picked a handful of black raspberries today, not enough to do anything with but a nice afternoon tidbit. Should be more available in a day or two, doesn't look like it is going to be a huge crop.
The elderberries bloomed last week and the birds have already started eating the berries, even though they're green and tiny. We'll never get any elderberries from our small patch, but the birds do love them.
June 15, 2023 at 6:36 pm #39500My blueberries were really hurt by the 24* temp we had one night in May. About half the blossoms were open, so we've lost half the crop. We do put netting over the 50 feet of bushes which means we get all the berries! The raspberries and blackberries had not blossomed yet, so were not affected by the freeze. Today I bought more seedlings -- 6 cabbage because only 2 of my 6 starts survived all the rain and cold, and 6 more broccoli because they were BOGO.
June 15, 2023 at 7:22 pm #39501I put in about a half dozen broccoli plants that I had started indoors around the end of March, I think some critter ate one of them down to the ground, the others are growing but showing signs of bugs eating them. There's another broccoli that is in a cage with a 4th of July tomato plant, I must have spilled a broccoli seed when I was putting them in the starter pots. Interestingly enough, both the tomato and the broccoli seem to be doing well, with less bug damage to the broccoli than the others.
I tried starting some melon seeds, they didn't sprout, so I bought two melon plants at the farmer's market, so far they're doing OK but not really taking off yet. The spaghetti squash plants I put out a few weeks ago died, I've got one more indoors and I think I'm going to just plant a couple of hills of the seeds to see if they'll germinate and survive.
The hot weather has hit, it was in the mid 90's today.
June 15, 2023 at 9:57 pm #39506Our black raspberries have started to turn red, so they are on their way. The rain we had helped them. Our service berry plant has some nice berries, which are still red. According to the source I checked, they are ripe when they turn dark purple. If we can keep the birds away from them, I might be able to make muffins or scones. One of our small blueberry bushes has 1 berry on it. The other one has a respectable handful. We will need to protect it from the birds.
The cherry tomato plant that overwintered in the house has some blossoms and is now looking respectable. No flowers have appeared yet on the other tomato plants or pepper plants. The spinach my husband planted resulted in just a single plant, but there is a nice little patch of kale and some dill.
June 20, 2023 at 12:37 pm #39544I picked about a 12 ounce cup of black raspberries today, about enough for a good snack or two.
Probably would have gotten more if I'd picked over the weekend, the ones on the east side up close to the house are well past prime, but they are always the first to ripen because they get the most sun and reflected heat off the bricks.
June 20, 2023 at 2:20 pm #39545We are picking black raspberries also. With the hot weather back, I do not know if we will get the 3 1/2-4 cups that I need for jam. Picking twice a day, once they begin ripening, is a good tactic for us, as the bushes are on the terraces that lead down to the lake. Reddish berries often deepen in color by the evening.
As for the service berries, the birds started picking them off. My husband went ahead and picked some, since they came off so easily. They are in a dish on the counter. They are still red, not purple.
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