Birds,rabbits and chipmunks vs. gardens

[sceptical1]

Is there an easy way, other than a cage, to keep vermin away from the plants?

 

[Gary_G]

Lead

 

[Gary_G]

When they say deer resistant, that just means they eat it last.

 

[OldHvyMec]

Peppermint oil, goffer plants and for deer good luck other than heavy fishing line and a lot of noise making crap hanging from them. It's impossible to find it now but big cat scat worked well around all types of grows in the tri-County area of CA, northern CA, and the Delta. Feral pigs, get a gun and be patient.

Peppermint, though, is one of the best, BUT you have to keep it up.

A detection sprinkler works, and if it has an inline supply of peppermint oil. Skunks, cats, dogs, raccoons, squirrels, and neighbors, it's a pretty good and at least a deterrent until you get to fruit.

My personal peeve is tomato worms (hook caterpillars). They always come from the prior years and are IN the ground. Cutters sand in the top 1-5" of soil or DE (diatomaceous earth), both stop the buried but emerging bastards from making it to the surface. I hate those things. Most turn into Hawk-Moths or hummingbird moths.

Good luck.

 

[levimax]

After years of feeding the local wildlife I have had decent luck with an electric fence.

 

[stringer]

Is there an easy way, other than a cage, to keep vermin away from the plants?

A long time ago a botanist farmer friend convinced my wife and I we needed a garden because we had a great plot of land for it and she would help us. The farmer warned us everything would try to eat our veggies so I dug 12 inches down and installed a four foot rabbit fence. It kept out the rabbits and chipmunks great. All my wife really wanted to grow was popcorn but we convinced her to try pretty much everything. We harvested bushels of green beans and cherry tomatoes and marigolds. And a few other things also survived the accidental planting of the carnivorous decorative squash plant we called Jack the Pepper Ripper. Including a single row of the must beautiful popcorn plants you have ever seen in your life. They were immaculate. We had done one test ear on a plant that we cut down due to some bug and fungus issues on the stalk and had test popped after drying a few days in the sun. It was fantastic. But the rest we just let dry age on the stalk.

The day before we are going to cut them down I go out in the back yard and there was a pile of chewed up corn cobs at the base of a large tree. I looked up and there was a whole cabal of squirrels munching on our popcorn. They would finish one. Drop it. Run down the tree up the rabbit fence. Standing on top of the rabbit fence they would lean over and pluck an ear of corn and then take it up the tree and eat it talking to each other about how good it tasted and then they would discard the gnashed cob unceremoniously before scampering down to grab another. She was devastated. An airsoft rifle can be pretty effective if there are firearm restrictions in your area. Just saying.

 

[Philbo King]

Marigolds are good for keeping rabbits away.

 

[sam_adams]

My uncle had a farm in upstate New York; right at the edge of the Catskills in Albany county. One year he decided that he would plant a garden in the back of the house. Having spent may years living on the farm, he was familiar with the wildlife in the area and their preferences for farm fresh produce. The local deer loved the wild apples in the old orchard on the back forty and the crows and woodchucks had plenty to feast on with the feed corn for the dairy farm down the way.

Deciding that the only way to protect his garden from the local fauna, he erected an eight foot high wire fence around the garden plot. Early one summer morning while I was getting ready to head out to decimate the local varmint population, I watched out the back window of the kitchen as a doe cautiously approached the garden fence, stopping, looking, and listening for any threat that might have been lingering nearby in the early morning light.

She stopped about six feet from the fence and sniffed around and looked at the tasty bounty on the other side. When she decided that it was safe to do so, in one bound, from a standstill, she leapt over the fence and into the garden. Just as she was going to town on the sweet corn planted there, I tapped on the window. She turned and without a single step, leapt over the fence and took off.

That was the last year uncle had a garden at the farm.

 

[sceptical1]

The marigolds are planted. Peppermint is next then maybe the lead.

 

[Devnull]

The marigolds are planted. Peppermint is next then maybe the lead.

Might try 12 gauge CS rounds instead of lead. No hunting license required and can also be used if the offending animal is protected.

 

[amirm]

Sew indoors and then plant out.