The Garden Part 10 -- 6/24/09

Sorry for no new update last weekend, but there wasn't much to cover as far as the garden growing. The peas are sprouting, which is great, and the radishes are almost all harvested by now. Peppers, squash and tomatoes keep growing, but they're over a month away from getting any harvest. The potatoes are blossoming, and I'm told I could technically dig now and get some baby/new potatoes, but I'll wait another month or so for the leaves to die off and get some bigger ones.

The biggest issue right now is the weather. We have had so much rain, and more importantly, so little sun in the past month, that I’m worried about the pepper and tomato blossoms. Last year we had this problem as well, but not nearly as bad as this year. (We’ve had so much rain that I haven’t even used the hose in 3 weeks. Every few days I go out to the garden and the rain gauge has ½” to 1 ½” of rain in it. And the Globe ran an article the other day that shows that this June has been the “dimmest” – meaning the least amount of sunlight – in the past 100 years, and the 2nd dimmest on record.) Without sun the peppers and tomatoes will have a hard time blooming, growing to full size, or ripening. Let’s hope this weather turns around soon.

But there is other garden news I need to share, and it’s not pleasant. One day last week I came home, and Sage was nowhere to be found. After a minute or two, I hear her come flying inside from the back yard. “You won’t believe it!”, she exclaimed. “Three rabbits were just in the garden!” This was not good news. First, I have the entire thing surrounded by a rabbit-proof fence. I knew it wouldn’t keep squirrels out, but rabbits I didn’t think would be a problem. Second, I have the Guardener set up and working, which was GUARANTEED to keep out rabbits, squirrels, and deer. (As I mentioned, the sun really hasn’t been out, and it’s run with solar power, but whenever I go out it still makes it’s sonic noises and shoots out water, so I know the lack of sun isn’t the problem.) I went outside to investigate. Sage had scared the rabbits out of the garden, but how were they getting in? Well, that became apparent when I noticed a huge hole was cut in the rabbit-proof plastic fencing! I’ve used this type of plastic rabbit fencing in the past, and it hasn’t had any issue with varmints getting through, but I guess these Natick rabbits are pretty serious. (And obviously they have huge, sharp fangs as well. So I found some old metal fencing the old owners used to plug up a hole in the chain link fence (I think to keep their little dogs from escaping), but apparently that didn’t seem to work either. An hour later I went back out, and sure enough, there was the rabbit, sitting in my garden. So my fence doesn’t work, the Guardener doesn’t work – this was going to require something more serious.

Rabbit, Run

"More serious" meant sending Sage to Russell’s to find something that will repel rabbits. She said she asked them what they had that was natural but still worked. They gave her "Deer Scram", a bunch of pellets that you spread around the garden that should naturally repel deer and rabbits. I looked at the ingredients to make sure it really is natural (I don’t want to be putting chemicals near the vegetables I plan to eat, after all), and #1 listed under Active Ingredients: Dried Blood...39.3%. Not sure whose blood it is, but I guess that’s what keeps the rabbits away. So we sprinkled it around the garden, and hoped for the best. I think it did work; for the next week there was no sign of rabbits anywhere near the back yard. But unfortunately I think all the rain we’ve had has washed away the blood deterrent, and just last night another rabbit was right in the middle of the garden. I’ve also found that a lot of the pea stems have been snapped off, which is not making me happy, and I can only assume the rabbits are enjoying their little salad. The tomatoes so far seem okay, but I think the cages are helping that as well. It doesn’t appear they’ve gone after anything else, so we’ll just have to keep an eye on them. And also buy some more of the blood pellets to spread around. I’ve also read that peppermint sprays, or even hot sauce in water sprayed around the garden works. We’ll be trying all sorts of different things as the summer progresses, I’m sure.

Steve, if you happen to be reading this, you can let your co-workers know that I will NOT be endorsing the Guardener any time soon. And I’d be happy to ship it back if they want it (though I’m not sure I kept the box it came in).

Finally, a non-garden related story. Sage couldn’t believe it when she saw it in our backyard earlier this week, but we have photographic proof. A deer!

Young deer, after he jumped over the fence into our yard.

I was shocked, considering we don’t live that close to a park, although there is a large lake nearby, as well as the driving range. But we’re also only ¼ mile from busy Rt. 9, the Natick Mall, etc. Where the heck did this guy come from? And more importantly, where did he end up?

More garden photos to come soon.