sb country n news-squirrels 6 togd 2

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-SQUIRRELS 6 TOGD 2

looking at that score
it sure looks like togd thats me
is losing the battle

after i moved here an elementary school teacher
asked if i would help with their garden
which needed to have some make it better attention
so
i agreed

we cleaned off the beds
added soil
added compost

i got the list of what to plant around here this time of year
so
we planted them
the kids did it themselves
they got in the beds and pulled all the weeds out
then turned in the new soil and compost

each week we planted something different
rainbow carrots
sweet rainbow beets
lettuce mix ok so i snuck in some spinach seeds and
some swiss chard seed and some arugula seeds
strawberries
sweet peas and sweet snap peas
cilantro kale swiss chard parsley broccoli
trying to plant things the kids might eat

i knew there was a problem with the gophers around here
but
each cage was covered underground with hardware cloth
to keep them from digging up the garden

so they worked hard planting the stuff
then
i noticed bits and pieces of plants started to go missing
was it
squirrels rats mice birds

then
eventually everything was gone
like someone had come in with a weed eater
i even brought in a squirrel expert
my rainwater brother who gardens with squirrels

so
we replanted
added a cover of bird netting
it worked for awhile
then
suddenly it seemed big ole holes appeared in the netting
the stuff was all gone

so
i toured a couple of school gardens with a gardener educator
they have a big squirrel problem
they think its from the drought
the only thing that really worked
was a cage over each bed made from chicken wire or hardware cloth

so
i did a lengthy you tube and google search
this is what i came up with

a pvc cage with chicken wire
really similar to what i did at the old country n with my
chicken coup
the cage is held down onto the frame of the raised bed
with latches

when you want to work in the garden
just unlatch the latches
lift off the cage

i used 3/4 in pvc schedule 40 and pvc connectors
i didnt glue them in since the wire once it was
ziptied in place seem to hold the cage together
also
it is easy to take apart if needed
just cut the zipties and take the whole thing apart

so in this cage
which had been in place for two weeks
we have growing sweet peas swiss chard two types of kale
broccoli cilantro and parsley with a scattering of
radishes between them

so far
we have kept the squirrels out

we built a teepee with old bamboo in one bed
wrapped it with the bird netting
it lasted less than one day
the squirrels feasted on more than 20 sweet pea plants
that the kids had planted in cups and later transplanted there

we made a large cage to sit over the bed
today we plan to make a small teepee to fit inside
we will replant all the peas again
so hopefully when they come back from christmas
the peas will be growing up the poles

next
we plan to do the same cages on the remaining three raised
beds so that we can get back to the job of growing food
the kids will like to eat

if they plant it they will eat it

i think there is a lesson to learn here for them
its
to be persistent when you run into an obstacle
until you figure out a way to remove that obstacle
then move forward

thats the way life is

projected score by christmas
squirrels 6 togd 6

the organicgreen doctor