I pretty much lost it all to the critters! UGH

Sheripoms · #1 08/09/10, 10:20 PM

I planted a one acre garden full of watermelon cantelope ,tomatoes, cukes, peppers, corn.
And boy did those coons and deer have a feast.. I am so upset..
Next year I am seriously thinking about having a container garden and putting them all up near the house and hanging pots from the porch..
And if they dare to come up on the porch I will just open the door and whack em in the head with a bat!!!!!!!!!!!

Danaus29 · #2 08/09/10, 10:30 PM

I am so sorry. I have problems with groundhogs and squirrels. Trapping and shooting helps but you just never get them all.

big rockpile · #3 08/09/10, 10:31 PM

Yea Deer have been eating on Sweet Potatoes and Cantelope here.

big rockpile

upnorthlady · #4 08/09/10, 10:36 PM

Put a radio in the garden 24 hours a day. It works up here to keep the raccoons out. They don't like to hear the sound of a human voice in the garden because they don't know if it's a person or not! Saves my corn. I have 2 big gardens with a radio in each one. I also have an electric fence all the time. The other night a deer decided to jump the fence and get in, but he hit the wire and boy! He got it! I could hear him snorting and choking for about 5 minutes.

TNHermit · #5 08/09/10, 10:41 PM

I learned something this year, I think,
I have 1/4 acre and had some Blue Dent corn i wanted to dry on the stalk. First time i noticed a coon might be around I put this plastic netting down around the corn. About 18" wide and just laid it down and overlapped it. they ate some corn around it ( i didn't care so much for that as it was my poles for pole beans

) but they never went into the blue dent.
I think they knew they would get all tangled up in the 3/4 x3/4 mesh.
At least that's my story for now

I don't know if deer are that smart to but they come through here and i haven't seen any evidence of them in the corn,

Patt · #6 08/09/10, 10:55 PM

Between big dogs and big fence we haven't had trouble in ours so far. Sorry for your loss though, that is tough after all that hard work!

Paquebot · #7 08/10/10, 02:21 AM

We were not allowed to erect a deer fence around the 1½ acre community garden complex. Thus everyone was given an option to protect their individual plots or not. Some put up 2' rabbit fence. Deer merely stepped over it. Others went with 3'. Kept the deer out as long as there were enough plots where they didn't have to jump. Serious gardeners, myself included, went with 4'. Worked good until last week. My main plot was hit for the scarce yellow cylindra beets and sweet potatoes. After making those plants smell really bad, the deer went over another 4' fence to get at regular beets. Worried tonight since I forgot to freshen up the stink, after a rain, in an extra plot where I've got more sweet potatoes. There is 4x4 wire over them but leaves and vines grew beyond the metal protection. I'm expecting to find it all pruned back to the wire in the morning.

Martin

mickm · #8 08/10/10, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upnorthlady

Put a radio in the garden 24 hours a day. It works up here to keep the raccoons out. They don't like to hear the sound of a human voice in the garden because they don't know if it's a person or not! Saves my corn. I have 2 big gardens with a radio in each one. I also have an electric fence all the time. The other night a deer decided to jump the fence and get in, but he hit the wire and boy! He got it! I could hear him snorting and choking for about 5 minutes.

The radio will work for awhile, but eventually they will get used to it. Either that or it never worked at my house and was just coincidence.

Nothing works better then a dog against coon.

WhiteWillow · #9 08/10/10, 07:11 AM

I am so sorry! I don't handle garden losses well. It really STINKS! Last year my beans and carrots were destroyed by critters. This year I used garden beds and everything was left alone. I am really, really surprised. I'm thinking it may be because the garden beds are higher (about 22" off the ground).

7thswan · #10 08/10/10, 07:34 AM

I'm sorry also. 1 acre, that's big. Our garden feeds us, there would be massive coon death here if we were invaded.

geo in mi · #11 08/10/10, 07:41 AM

Sheripoms,
Sorry about your disappointment. Looks like a part of your garden planning for next season will be critter control. Electric fence for the deer, live traps baited with marshmellows for the coons. I gave up on sweet corn, though. It just seems to be a super attractor for both, and they outwit the electric fence theory at sweet corn time.

geo

fishhead · #12 08/10/10, 08:18 AM

A good wire fence backed up with electric fencing should keep coons and deer out. Top the wire fence with a strand of electric to prevent climbing and educate them by hanging tinfoil smeared with peanut butter on the hot wire.

I did that with my garden and deer damage stopped that day.

**Terri** · #13 08/10/10, 08:26 AM

I probably spend as much on dog food as my garden is worth but DANG he does a number on the critters!

My sincere condolences on the loss of most of your garden: I have lost a few over the years also.

FunnyRiverFarm · #14 08/10/10, 08:41 AM

Electric fencing...1 strand about 6 inches off the ground works well for racoons. To keep out deer we run a non-electric wire and hang all kinds of noise makers on it...bells, cans, windchimes.

motdaugrnds · #15 08/10/10, 08:42 AM

Sorry you lost your garden, Sheripoms. I know how disheartening that can be.

We lost most of our this year to criters too. The birds got our blackberries; coons got our grapes and deer jumped the 4' chicken wire we had up around our vegies, landing on our tomatoe plants and munching down our beans. (I managed to collect only a small amount of okra and peas!) I am glad I didn't plant anything else this year.

Fishhead, we considered doing what you suggested; however, we raise goats and did not want their curious natures to cause them harm.

Our entire garden area is a little over an acre in size and we have always had a 4' regular fencing around it. Inside we had our grape vines (in their own fenced housing which the coons apparently climbed over or went through) and fruit trees (also in their individual fenced housing which nothing but the bugs and air-bourn aggravants attacked). The 4' chicken wire we put "inside" this large garden area to hold just our vegies was useless!

We now have already put up 200' of 2"x4" wire (4' tall) on top of the regular parameter fencing and will continue to do this all around our entire garden area. (The top 1 1/2' of this will lean over toward the garden; and should the deer get in, I doubt they get out, which means we will be packaging venison for the freezer.)

This of course will not keep birds, racoons & rabbits out; however, I intend on throwing netting (that coons cannot tear up) all over our grapevine area to keep out coons and birds. Also will be planting pumpkin under sweet corn next year as I've heard this keeps coons away from corn. (Will see if that holds true.)

We will still use the chicken wire to keep our chickens out of the garden until they cannot do damage to the new seedling sprouts.

I also purchased some utility wire (1/2" holes) and will be burying it 6" in the ground around each fruit tree to deter voles/moles and then soaking the ground around each fruit tree with a mixture of castor oil & water to, also, deter voles/moles.

We are planning on throwing bird netting over our blackberries, though not sure as yet how we will be doing so as it seems to me it would be quite a mess to remove later.

I am sure some may think what I am doing is overkill; and maybe it is. However, I am so disheartened about the critters getting more of our vegies this year than we did that I am willing to go to great lengths in attempts to negate this occurring again.

Oh and our Mulberry Trees (2 not too far from fruit trees) are starting to grow well; so hopefully when our fruit trees start producing, the birds will eat the mulberries instead of our fruit.

ronbre · #16 08/10/10, 09:55 AM

when i went to pick my maters this morning, there was an entire pumpkin, vine and all, just totally missing from the garden.

figured it was either the bear or deer..lots of smashed tomatoes on a few of my plants too

MELOC · #17 08/10/10, 10:08 AM

i lost about 75% + of what i planted this year. i replanted some of the beans i lost and they were topped just two nights ago having only just grown the first set of leaves and beginning the second. i tried hair, smelly clothes and urine and nothing has deterred them. i even lost cukes and zukes to the deer this year...a first for me. i missed one night of urine dosing on the zukes and the deer ate at them. it seemed to be working, at least on the zukes, as long as i dosed daily.

today i will be trying to erect a small, redneck picket fence to try to protect the remainder of the beans and possibly replant a few. i may just barely have time for another go at green beans.

Ardie/WI · #18 08/10/10, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upnorthlady

Put a radio in the garden 24 hours a day. It works up here to keep the raccoons out. They don't like to hear the sound of a human voice in the garden because they don't know if it's a person or not! Saves my corn. I have 2 big gardens with a radio in each one. I also have an electric fence all the time. The other night a deer decided to jump the fence and get in, but he hit the wire and boy! He got it! I could hear him snorting and choking for about 5 minutes.

We put up a motion detector hooked to a light and a radio. It worked very well.

MOgal · #19 08/10/10, 10:35 AM

My sympathy, Sheripoms.

Deer and coons don't come that close to my garden or even into the yard because of the dogs. It was rabbits that have done in my green beans. I tried urine, dog hair, sweaty clothes I'd worn that day hung on the poles--nothing worked. We even have dogs in the yard 24/7 but only one will chase the rabbits and she's too old and arthritic to catch them any more. The darn things were so brazen as to stand and watch me approach the garden. I've looked into all sorts of nets, snares and traps on line and told DH that when we bring in his deer stand (neat tripod deal) next spring, we were going to put it up beside the garden and he was elected to shoot the darn things from the stand. We have neighbors too close--under a mile--to fire from the ground and I figured shooting downward at the rabbits might be safer.

They also ate my purple hull peas for a while. I have to put the sweet potatoes inside an area fenced with 2" x 4" welded wire and I've still seen adult rabbits slip through it.

MELOC · #20 08/10/10, 10:39 AM

not only did the darn things strip every single leaf from several rows of nearly mature green beans, but they returned to eat the beans themselves! i had hoped that i would at least be able to let the few beans mature to make seed, as i have been doing for 5 years, but they took nearly all of them leaving only a few stragglers.