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Yesterday afternoon I went outside to take some pictures for today’s Farmer Friday post thinking that I would show you just how well all the seeds in my raised garden bed were doing after almost two weeks. Almost all of them had sprouted and with the rain we had this week they should have been getting on just fine. Just to recap, here’s what the garden bed looked at right after it was all built:
And yesterday when I went outside, my jaw dropped.
Sorry, I took iPhone pictures because I couldn’t compose myself to go get the good camera. Remember how I was all like, “Oh yeah, this bird netting and hooks will prevent those stupid squirrels from getting in and bury their nuts and ruining my life!” Nope. And sure, it could have been something besides squirrels (we don’t have moles or gophers in our area unless they recently moved in) like a skunk…. but I suspect it’s the pesky squirrels.
And why such DEEP holes!?!? I am ready to rage on those suckers. Really, that loose and nutritious soil was so tempting that they had to find a spot in the net to get in and DESTROY my garden? Ughhh. There wasn’t much I could do. I don’t know what seeds they may have simply eaten or just displaced so I have to wait to see what comes up. I pushed around some of the dirt to fill in the worst hole. And then we had some extra pavers lying around that I put all around the box to hold the net down better.
That’s a really cute look. Holy garden bed with ghetto pavers and rocks all around it.
On the upside, the pole beans look like they finally figured out they have the ability to stop looking like they’re about to croak and now look like they’re taking off. So here’s the garden now (that one pole bean in the center still isn’t looking so hot):
This honestly broke my heart. All that hard work and thought about preventing something like this and it still happens.
Your turn to share your gardening-related broken heart stories so I don’t feel like it’s just me. Go.
I saw squirrels shaking my heirloom tomato plants so the ripe ones would drop. They proceeded to eat a few bites of each and leave the rest to rot. Like a rodent tomato taste-off. My neighbor swears he saw them working together to ROLL tomatoes out of my yard. I thought he was kidding, but he’s not the type. They are crafty little buggers. We have 4 foot 1 x 1 chicken wire that slows them down, but honestly would need to enclose the tomato plants if we were dead set against sharing some. I HAVE heard that providing them with a distraction can be the best method – a bird feeder, a bowl of water. I have mixed feelings about providing them with nourishment, but if it means I get to keep some tomatoes, I just may do it. Sorry about your garden. It does look lovely, even with the pavers.
I could totally see them ruining the tomato plants but I haven’t had that problem in the past. Maybe it’s because in my garden last year their distraction was my sunflowers! I saw them jumping from a 6 foot fence about 4 or 5 feet to a sunflower in order to smash it to the ground and then eat the whole flower head off (then like you said, take a couple bites and then leave it). I had some decorative sunflowers they were doing it to and then when the sunflowers that make seeds were getting ready to bloom the squirrels took off their heads before the leaves even unfurled. SUCH a bummer. And I’m with you, no way I’m feeding those buggers.
After this time I’m considering new extremes which sounds really terrible but it’s such a pain to deal with them!
My neighbor says he’s waiting for the shotgun to appear; I remind him his driveway is right behind my garden.
Haha! My husband keeps saying he can “take care of it” with an airsoft or BB gun or something. I don’t think our neighbors (who are pretty close to all sides of our home) would be too thrilled.
Oh, talk about critter challenges…. I want my garden to look pretty and I don’t want to put up netting and fences everywhere to keep animals out, so I’ve somewhat given up on the whole vegetable gardening thing. Having a pig and ducks pretty much guarantees that I will never eat a single blueberry from my bushes or be able to grow a tomato plant to maturity without it getting eaten to the ground or rolled on when the pig gets hot and wants to rub her butt on wet soil. Last year I put a wrought iron gate up around the patio to keep the ducks off (poop problems) and thought what a great opportunity it would be to plant tomatoes and peppers in the flower bed within the gate. The ducks just put their heads between the bars and ate everything anyway. I didn’t even know they could reach that far!
This year I bought hanging baskets and put my strawberries in them to keep them away from my animals. This morning there was a mocking bird out there eating one of the strawberries…
TWO years ago, the 2nd year that I had my peach tree, I had a plethora of peaches that were coming near to ripeness. I was soooooo excited, and the next day they were all gone along with a few of my garden tools. A HUMAN came into my fenced in yard overnight and stole every last peach from that tree! I began padlocking my gate that very day.
So between the wild critters, my own critters, and weird people…. I don’t know how farmers do it!
Oh my goodness!!! I like this part: “when the pig gets hot and wants to rub her butt on wet soil” hahaha that really got me. I’ve got to give it to you, at least you don’t give up! I’ve seen the fruit off our neighbor’s trees disappear when they’re just about ripe (squirrels? racoons?) but I promise it wasn’t me picking it over the fence!
Related to a human picking fruit from your tree, I was reading an article in a magazine and it was talking about a chef who forages in her “local parks and her neighborhood” and I immediately said, “She steals her neighbors’ fruit!?” So maybe someone was just “foraging” and took your peaches. So rude.
Agreed, how do farmers do it!?
My first attempt at gardening was on an apartment fire escape. When I first pit out a bunch of seedlings I came home to find that ha squirrel had ripped my little pepper seedlings right out of the pot and left them to wither in the heat on the fire escape.
Later on in the summer I kept finding unripe cherry tomatoes on the railing of the fire escape with one bite taken out of them. If the squirrel had taken the entire tomato, I might not have noticed, but seeing the partially eaten one sitting there drove me nuts!
I’ve found that netting works as long as it’s well secured. I’ve also noticed that the squirrels tend to dig in fresh soil, but after a while they leave it alone. So probably in after a few weeks you could take the netting off and not have much of a problem with digging.
I have had the same problem with seedlings!!! Why do they rip them out!?!? I’ve noticed that once seedlings are a little more established they pretty much leave them alone but the little ones have no chance. Couldn’t they do that to some of the little weeds sprouting up!?
In a couple weeks/months I’m hoping the netting can come down as the plants establish themselves more. I never had this problem in the other area I garden in but it could be because the soil isn’t as loose as this nice stuff. I keep thinking maybe fully enclosed chicken wire would be a better option?
Maybe it is time to get another ferocious squirrel chaser dog like Boo.
HAH. More like squirrel watcher.
They probably pull up the seedling because they are tender to eat.
But they don’t eat them! They just get pulled out and then sit there untouched. So frustrating.
It seems we are all plagued by critters. I have ground hogs, skunks, squirrels and chipmunks to contend with. Gardening isn’t easy but what mother nature leaves us is delicious.
That’s true, it’s worth getting some of the crop even is critters wipe out some of it!
Oh no! I feel your pain. I lost an entire crop of corn to raccoons last year. Sprinkling cayenne pepper or hot sauce on the plants helped deterred them.
I found some “repellant” at Home Depot that’s mostly black pepper and some other peppers that hopefully will help but who knows! Critters can be brutal!