Critters and gardens

[arbilad]

How do the rest of you deal with critters and gardens? I'm in a different house than I was this time last year, and the new place has lots of rabbits. While the German Shepherd loves to chase them, he never catches them. I think that's on purpose.
Plus, our chickens need their coop repaired, so for now they're just wandering about everywhere. I figure that if I need to keep the rabbits out somehow, maybe I can also keep the chickens out the same way. That way I can put off repairing the coop.

[Julie]

Fencing and hot pepper water sprayed on the plants work great. I'm doing my first garden up to my ranch this year and this is one of the issues I'm going to be dealing with too. Last year we had raccoons in our yard. Haven't seen them this year yet. - Julie

How to keep wild animals out of your garden
by Cindy Fromm

Just when you thought it was safe to garden those deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and every critter around are back in mass to destroy all of your hard work. This article is written to help those of you who live where you have to worry about several types of wild life that you have to control.

Being from California I did not encounter too many problems growing fruits and vegetables with the exception of the lack of water. Since moving to Michigan, however, I have encountered a new world of wild animals who feast on my vegetables while I am sleeping. Discouraged and sad I still attempt to outsmart those critters and I believe that I have finally gotten this situation under control.

As soon as I can work the soil and plant my peas, lettuce, and potatoes, I know that my garden will be visited in the wee hours of the morning. To prevent this from happening I erect a fence around the newly planted areas. Mesh deer fencing is inexpensive and you can pick it up at most hardware stores. My fence is about 7 feet tall. Now the trick is that deer can still jump over this if they really see something they want so I use additional green or orange plastic fences staggered around. If the deer see that, their leap is not a clear shot and something is obstructing them, they will not leap over to your garden. I also use decorative items staggered here and there inside this fenced off section. I use a long piece of wood or a metal pole to reinforce the fence at areas of high eating delights. The deer do not see a way around this as the wood or poles are braced against the fence and extend into the garden.

As my garden grows, the fence grows with it and this continues for the growing season. Next, you want to make sure that the rabbits, groundhogs, woodchucks, skunks and everything else do not dig under your fence or find small openings I bury a 2-inch metal fence barrier outside my deer fencing. Plastic will not work as rabbits can chew right through that in record time. Liquid fence sold at garden centers and hardware stores smells bad to us as humans for a short period but linger for quite some time on the fencing and plants in your garden. This will deter the wild life usually all by itself but for some animals additional sprays such as pepper or hot spicy sprays will also be needed. You can make your own up and spray the leaves that are eaten or purchase already made... I spend time spraying my garden and have discovered that rabbits will continue to eat carrot tops that are not sprayed but leave the sprayed ones alone. The same goes for groundhogs concerning green beans. Make sure you surround the roots of these plants with wire meshing or the bottom of the plant will be eaten. If I forget to spray my pumpkins because most animals do not eat them a really brave groundhog along with his family will taste every single small pumpkin, as it is growing leaving a gaping hole so I spray these as well. Leave nothing exposed for any animal by fencing and using repellent sprays and you should have a garden to enjoy.

I do go to yard sales and pick up miscellaneous items of metal, wire and other fencing materials along with decorative objects so I do not invest a lot of money. Shiny objects also will help and there are several items that you can use in your own home or take a visit to your dollar stores. Be creative and you will get much enjoyment out of you garden instead of being upset with the wild life. I even put a couple of plastic chairs inside the fencing with a table so I can just sit and read a book. The more occupied your garden looks and the harder you make it to enter will solve the major problem of these animals.

[signseeker]

arbi- Do you have critters about that would hurt the chickens or eggs? Like skunks? Cuz maybe you should just bite the pullet and repair the coop. :l0 (41): I wouldn't risk losing a hen, you know? And don't trade them away for gold coins, either. :001_ssuprised:

Otherwise... do you clip your chickens' wings? We don't, and they can clear the 6' chainlink no-problemo. All four of them are wandering the yard right now. We need to fix our coop, too, before we have a garden, cuz they made short work of most of it. I would think fixing the coop might be easier than putting an 8' fence around the whole garden.

[prairiemom]

We've battled all sorts of critters here. We tried the pepper spray, the garlic spray, hair and urine (both the aged and fresh kind. Don't ask. :001_07: ) We tried the motion detector sprinkler, marigolds, blood meal, you name it. The rabbits were horrible--worse than locusts. The gophers and woodchucks were bad, deer only a couple times in early fall.

This is what has finally worked: Got a chain-link fence (used, cheap!) Put the posts in but before putting the chain link up we dug a 12-15" deep trench all around the border and buried 2" tall 1/2" chicken wire. Then put the chain link on and wired the 10-12" of chicken wire that was above ground up to the chain-link. The four corner posts of the fence are 6' tall. We have cord along the perimeter, tied around each post and little strips of rags tied ever 2-3' along the cord. This gives the illusion of a 6' tall fence and deters deer. They are too dumb to know it's only a cord and the strips fluttering in the wind are enough to make them think it's a fence they can't jump.

The next summer we were thrilled to see two burrowing animals (probably woodchucks) halted by the buried fence. They've never tried since. The fence worked great for 5 yrs, then 2 summers ago we had a few voles get through, last year we had a LOT. They did a lot of damage, not as much as the rabbits but way too much. I think the only remedy for the voles is 1/4" mesh and that's getting expensive. So we might get a barn cat and turn her loose in the garden.

We have hardware cloth around all the new trees, going up 3' to keep rabbits, mice and voles out, then 6' tall chicken-wire around each tree in a 3-4' diameter to keep the deer from eating the tree. When the tree is 4-5 yrs old it'll survive the deer.

Our first winter here the rabbits girdled just about every tree we had. We'd just planted a new apple tree. They girdled it 3' above the ground, because that's where the snowline was at the time of their feast. Fortunately there was a branch we'd not pruned away that was below the snowline. We bent that up and it became the new trunk of the tree and it survived and is producing tons of Connel Red apples every year.

[Earthling]

I had just planted a beautiful VanderWoolf pine that it took me several years to find and that winter the dear ate it. I was shocked - I didn't think they would eat a pine tree.

Thanks for the info PrairieMom.

[signseeker]

Maybe deer are pine tree snobs... :l0 (8):

[ghostcat]

I had just planted a beautiful VanderWoolf pine that it took me several years to find and that winter the dear ate it. I was shocked - I didn't think they would eat a pine tree.

Actually not surprising at all. Most people think that the Mule dear eat grass like cows, horses and other ruminants, they generally don't. The largest part of their normal diet are shrubs. In the winter their primary feed is sagebrush and juniper (what is commonly called cedar here in Utah). That is why when you drive through wild areas that all of the cedar trees look like they have been pruned around the lower sections, giving them the umbrella look. That is also why the DWR doesn't want people to feed deer in hard winters, people feed them hay and alfalfa which the deer digest poorly allowing them to starve while feeling full.

Your pine tree in consequence, was probably like a rare treat to your local neighborhood deer:coool:

[signseeker]

Horses are not ruminants, just so you know. :l0:

[Aldon]

sagebrush! YUCK!

I bet mule deer venison is aweful gamey.