Flowers

The Spring bulbs are starting full bloom.  Crocuses today.  The early yellow crocuses have started to fade, but the purple and striped lavender ones are showing their best.  

I was very pleased when the heat pump maintenance guy walked out of the basement to inspect the outside unit and said "wow, look at all the flowers"!  Not many people see the whole spread, and pictures of the whole are don't do them justice.

And I plan to plant more this Fall.

I also have to give some credit to the squirrels!  Apparently they sometimes dig up a few and plant them elsewhere.  I only say that because there are some crocuses where I know I never planted them.  And I'm pretty sure they don't spread any seeds.

The only expansion of crocuses I know about are when bulbs multiply where planted.  I tend to plant them in groups of 5 or 7, a few inches apart.  Some when I see several in the same exact spot, I know they have multiplied.  When I see a single one blooming in a spot I didn't plant them in, I have to suspect the squirrels...

I should dig up some of the more numerous clumps and spread the bulbs around.  Free bulbs are good and I could probably double the number of patches.  But part of me says "don't mess with success" and disturb a happy crocus spot.

More Bulb Planting Fun

The Project That Never Ends continues...  WHAT was I thinking when I ordered 350 tulips/hyacinths/daffodils to plant?  Well, I suppose because I had new space and I decided in September to landscape rather than just plant grass.  And its not the bulbs, its the making of and the digging for all the wire cages to protect them from the Evil Squirrels and Nasty Voles.

Just planted in the ground, the squirrels dig them up from above and the voles eat them from below.  I'm hoping the wire cages keep them safe and blooming for years.  But I never expected it would be so much work!

I've bored you with the process before, so I won't do that again.  But even to do a few cages takes time.  It's the weather...

In one sense, I have been very lucky with the weather.  The ground is usually frozen hard by mid November and it has stayed oddly warm this year.  So I have had more time to plant them.  On the other hand, it has rained some  almost every day for 6 weeks.  Not that we are flooded; the rain is a soft drizzle.  But that's enough to make the soil slippery and muddy.  And you don't want to dig in wet soil because it packs down.  And at the end of a day working in wet soil, I would look like The Swamp Thing!

So I have a large 36'x30' sheet of plastic I cover the area with every day.  OK, the bottom 4' are not covered, but that section was the first I planted so I don't have to step in it.

So every day when it is not raining, I take all the stones off some of the edges of the plastic, peel it back for where I want to plant, and get 3 more bulb cages (holding 9 bulbs each) set in.  3 cages take about 90 minutes and after that I'm tired.  Well, each hole has to be 14"x16" and 12" deep.  And the dug up soil has to go somewhere other than on top of the previous plantings (I have styrofoam plates marking the planted spots and I can't cover THEM).

So putting the dug-up soil gets trickier the more cages I plant.  I have all the tulips planted (20 cages) and I am on the hyacinths at the outer edge on one side.  That side (of the 30' edged circle) is the easier to dig in (sandier soil vs clayier soil), so I favor that area for digging.

The other side of the circle will be for daffodils, more about those when I plant them, but they are FAR easier to plant...

So I wanted to start on the hyacinths yesserday.  The forecast looked good.  The Weather Channel website for my town said no rain until 6 pm.  Hurray!  I got started at 2:30.  It took 15 minutes to get the ools and bulbs outside and peel the plastic sheeting off.  So I started to dig the first hole.

And then it started to rain!  Misty at first but then more steadily...  Dammit!  I waited a few minutes as the rain got heavier.  But I gave up and re-covered the planting site with the plastic and put all the tools away. 

Fortunately, I also needed to go grocery-shopping, so off I went with rain falling on the windshield.  For 2 minutes...

Then it stopped completely.  For the rest of daylight.  ARGHHH!

Well, at least I got the grocery-shopping done...

The Garden Enclosure

It progresses.  I discovered some real problems as I went recently.  I want the top of the enclosure to be level.  But the ground slopes front to back and right to left.  That makes digging the holes for the frame real tricky.

I tried to measure the slope of the ground first.  That got me a general idea that is dropped 1.5' in both directions, but it wasn't very exact.  I suppose I could have lived with that, but my Dad was always one to point out minor flaws in anything I ever built (no matter how well built), so I have a reaction to that even though he is gone now.  Old habits die hard.  And there IS a point to seeking perfection in any project, Dad criticisms or not.  A few extra days work means years of admiring work well done.

So I wanted to make sure that, even though the ground was sloped, the top of the frame should be level.  If I had surveyor's equipment, that would have been easy.  But I don't.  So I thought about it a few days.  With some complicated ways that seemed really awkward in reality.

As I was trying to get to sleep the previous night (and I did the construction yesterday, so that was 2 nights ago), I kept turning the problem over in my mind.  It finally struck me...  A water level!  I would build the enclosure from the top down!!!

For those of you not familiar with the idea, water in a bucket with a long tube attached will stay at the same level as the bucket even when you move the tube around.  It's not a new invention, but it was a new thought to me.  I found a nice (free I hope) picture to describe it...

Well, saved me the effort of drawing and scanning it myself.  And I wasn't cutting off the tops of the PVC pipes, I just dug my holes a bit deeper to make them match at the top.  I marked each PVC pipe 8" down from the top and made the water level match it THERE.  So the tops of all my PVC frame uprights are level.

The garden enclosure is 20' by 20'   with the raised framed beds I built, that gives me 2' between each bed and 2' around the outside of them (inside the enclosure).  I hope that makes sense.  When I post this in a few weeks as an instructional post, I'll add diagrams.

But the point is that it finally solved my difficulties with the sloped ground.  Some pictures of the general steps...

The holes dug.  The digging was horrible.  The basic soil in the back yard is gravel, clay, and more gravel.  A post hole digger wasn't sufficient.  I had to use a breaker bar.  That's a 5' solid iron rod about 1.5" in diameter, with a chisel point at the bottom.  It weighes 12-15 pounds.  You lift it, you pound it down, you swivel it about.  Its the "breaker bar 2-step dance".  LOL!  THEN you use the post hole digger to scoop the loosen debris out.  It's great (but unwanted) exercise.  Good for causing hand blisters too.

This is the lowest end of the yard.  The higher end holes got to 2.5' deep

Here are the PVC pipes sitting in the holes at one end.  They may not look all in a row, but they are.

As each one was individually set at the proper depth so that the top was level, I shoveled dirt back in and stomped it down hard.  There is still some "wiggle" room to allow for attaching more pipes at the tops.

 Here is a corner, showing the connections.  It's not easy, being just me to be at both ends of the pipes, but I set up ladders to hold one end of each pipe while I set the other end in tightly.  I'm used to having to construct "helper" supports on projects.  A 6" spring clamp atached to a ladder makes a nice "V" shape to hold the far end of a pipe temporarily...

I initially thought it would be easiest to start at one corner and work my way around the perimeter, but it  wasn't.  Doing all the north/south first was easier for supporting the pipes!  BTW, see the spring clamp attached to the ladder there?  It was a very good "third hand".

And a secret.  The PVC pipe is too flexible for a good solid structure.  Metal is better.  But I couldn't find the kind of connectors I needed that fit the metal conduit pipe (unlike a site I found about building such a structure said I could).  So to get the rigidity of metal conduit pipe AND the connections that fit PVC Pipe, I put metal conduit pipe into each PVC pipe! 

THAT solution took a few days thought last Winter...  And metal conduit pipe is inexpensive, so that was not a concern.

I have most of the uprights and half the crossbeams in place.  Took two days but it will be worth it.

Why am I doing this?  Well, the squirrels and groundhogs developed a taste for my garden seedlings a few years ago and basically ruined my garden 3 years in a row.  When I cover this frame with chicken wire, they won't be able to get in.  And I will place bent chicken wire at the bottom to stick out 2' to prevent any tunneling.   Bwa-Ha-Ha!

I will have a garden yet...

Enclosed Garden

After several years of increased varmint invasion, I have decided decided to take the bull by the horns (or more properly the squirrel by the tail) and exclude the little beastards entirely.  I'm going to totally enclose my garden in 1" chicken wire.

My original (and technically "current") garden has a 32'x2' framed trellis, plus four 8'x3' beds and two 4'x4' beds.  But over the years tree shading and invasive vine growth has reduced that to 12 feet of trellis, two 8x3s and two 4x4s.  And they are over 20 years old, so the wood frames are rotting badly.  With the need to rebuild the beds anyway, the varmint problems invited a serious solution.

First, let me assure you that I realize home gardening does not save money on food.  It is a hobby (of great personal satisfaction) and no hobby saves money.  Hobbyist fishermen don't get fish cheaper than can be gotten at the grocery stores, and the same is true for hunting.  So if my plan seems to cost more money than its worth, don't be surprised.

Second, last year the squirrels (and possibly a groundhog and a rabbit or two) ate or pulled up almost all of my seedlings early and ate most of my ripening tomatoes and melons later.  That was the last straw; I could either give up of double-down.  I'm doubling down!

I started looking for structure ideas last Fall and found one site where a person had constructed an enclosed structure about 8'x10' using EMT pipes (thin metal pipe used to hold electrical wire underground) and chicken wire suspended over picture frame wire.  I sketched out a few designs on that idea and realized it needed to be stronger for the 20'x20' size I wanted.

One thing I discovered was that PVC pipe fitting fit over EMT pipe quite tightly.  So I figured out the kinds of connections I needed to build a 20'x20' grid of 1"x10' EMT pipes.  There aren't metal connectors in complicated shapes like there are for PVC pipes, so that was great.

I ordered the PVC connections last week and they arrived a few days ago.  But I wasn't committed to the structure until I started to take apart the existing framed beds.  I started on that today.  My 2'x32' trellis bed had 6" concrete remesh wire as the vertical support.  That's the heavy wire grid they put into concrete driveways for strength.  I use it for super-strong tomato cages and trellis material. 

The act of commitment was to cut the trellis remesh wire off the posts supporting it.  I have a tool called a "Sawz-All" that is basically an electric kitchen knife on steroids.  It can cut wood or metal.

I unrolled 125' of heavy-duty extension cord out to the garden, plugged in the Sawzall and started cutting the concrete remesh from the trellis posts.  It went easier than I thought.  But there is ALWAYS some suprise to any part of a project.  Well, the first half of the remesh grid came off fine and I propped it against the fence (it will be used later). 

The second half was not so easy.  Years of evil vines (some 3/4" thick) had the wire remesh locked down.  It took a good 30 minutes to cut the vines loose.  No matter how many I cut there were more from unexpected directions, so it took multiple tries to get it all loose.  I finally got that half propped against the fence, but there is probably another hour of pruning to get all those interwoven vines cut out of the remesh.

So part is done.  A small part.  But a start is good and I have to continue now or there won't be any trellis to grow cucumbers, pole beans, etc on this year.  The first part of destruction requires the remainder.

The next step is to pull up all the scrap carpet I've used to suppress weeds in the paths between the framed beds.  I already know that there are many weeds growing through it, so pulling it up won't be easy.  Then I have to take apart the framed beds themselves.  That old lumber is all trash, but it will leave the good garden soil without support. 

With Spring coming late, I don't have as much time as I expected to have to complete this project.  Of course!  Any normal year, I could have started this project in early March.  THIS YEAR, we have more snow forecast for Wdnesday! 

Basically, I have to set nine 10' EMT pipes in the ground 2' deep in a 3x3 grid and then connect them all at the top.  I can dig individual holes but my test dig in the rocky clay soil was not promising to be easy.  I could rent a power auger to drill holes.  Or I can rent a power trencher to make a trench along the entire outside of the structure and then backfill the soil around the EMT pipes.

I may go with the trencher because I have some other uses for one.  There are tree roots coming from neighbors' trees and I need to get them out because they are are making the ground unlevel and the new framed beds need to be on flat soil.  But maybe I can cut them with an ax and pry them out with a steel bar easier.  I'll have to give the latter a try first.

The last part of the project is to use the interior structure space as efficiently as possible.  I have done some sketches and realized that my original layout of framed beds was very inefficient.  Well, that didn't matter when I had the whole backyard.  Now it matters.  The most efficient 20'x20' section of the existing beds had 126 square feet of garden.  The best 20'x20' section I have layed out so far has 224 sq ft with 2' wide paths.

A new post when I do more...

I'll be taking lots of pictures as I go on this.  I can tell from doing internet searches that a lot of people want to do this but don't know how and will find my project.  I don't have anything to show yet, but should soon. 

Busy Day

I got the 6th Evil Squirrel today.  I thought there were 5, but I saw signs from a 6th and I caught it.

I feel sorry for the poor things.  I know they just want to eat and live.  Drowning them seems cruel (but takes only 20 seconds and they are mostly just confused)..  So I considered the options in their lives.  It's not like squirrels often die of old age:

1.  Grabbed by hawk talons for several minutes and then get ripped apart while still alive.
2.  Same with owls...
3.  Hit by cars and die of injuries slowly on the side of the road.
4.  Starve to death slowly.
5.  Freeze to death in very cold winters.
6.  Grabbed by dogs and shaken into oblivion after terrible bites.
7.  Poisoned or snap-trapped by liscenced people getting them out of attics.
8.  Pecked to death by crows.

There are probably others I can't think of but it doesn't really matter.  There is (was) this group of squirrels that destroyed most of my garden and I think I got the last one (the trap will remain set until no squirrels attack my vegetable plants).

After reducing (hopefully eliminating) the East Grove Gang who had, as a group, learned to attack gardens, I have had 12 heirloom tomatoes harvested ripe and there are 12 more getting there.  Last year, with the East Grove Gang undisturbed, I got 2 tomatoes the whole year. 

It is good to be at the top of the food chain.

On the gaming front, I had stayed away from Risk for a week.  But tonight I joined a game of 5 players, 2 outpointing me by WAY LOTS.  I won.  I was shocked because I don't generally do well in multiplayer games and especially I don't do well against VERY more experienced players.  But some games just go well.  I played carefully.  I played well.  I attacked when it was best to attack and I defended my borders well. 

And Oh my goodness, Ayla has been playin fetch with the old worn-out "softy-mouse" she loves so much.  She has brought it back to me a dozen times as I type.  Its SO old.  There is nothing of the nip in it and it is nothing but the original cloth body.  But she loves it so much.

I think I will just spend the next couple hours tossing it to her until she gets tired of it.  Ayla doesn't love many toys, mostly plastic milk rings.  But as long as she wants to grab softy-mouse, I will toss it to her.

It was a Good Day!

Evil Squirrels

I caught the 4th of maybe 5 squirrels who had learned to steal from the garden.  If there is a 5th, I'll get it in a week.  My tomatoes are just ripening.  I hope there is only 4.  I don't ENJOY this.

One Time too Many

Hairy Houdini Squirrel went for the lushious peanut butter bait one too many times this morning.

And this time I did not handle the cage wrong, nor did I place him into the waters in trashcan of water in a way that allowed an escape.

I searched the house yesterdy and found a large plastic container larger than the live cage.  I filled it with water last night.  Hairy Houdini Squirrel went in horizontally that didn't release the doors and he didn't make an escape.

It was quick.  5 seconds of confusion, one blurp, and gone.

I have set the cage-trap up again, because my heirloom tomatoes are ripening, but I am VERY much hoping Hairy Houdini was the last of the squirrels who had learned to raid the garden.

I am designing a total 1" chicken wire garden enclosure for next year that will keep all natural animals around the yard out.   I do not wish to kill anything again.

But I HAVE learned how to set a live cage on the top on a fence that doesn't fail.  I will post tomorrow about that for people that want to know for their own reasons.  You don't have to read it.

Houdini Squirrel

There seem to be 3 squirrels in the Grove Tree Gang who attack my garden.  The small grove of trees on the east side dont have food trees like oaks, so they have learned to raid gardens and fruit trees.

In desperation this year, I set up a live trap.  I caught 2 of them in 3 days.  But the 3rd one must be the mastermind.  I keep finding the trap shut yet the peanut butter all cleaned off the trigger lever.  Its been 13 days of resetting the cage and applying new peanut butter sometimes even twice per day.

Today I walked out to the cage and heard a rattling sound.  I GOT it!  I was excited.  I loosened the rope tied to the cage handle that keeps it from falling over the fence into the neighbor's yard and went to carry it away.

Oops, I forgot the wire that holds the cage to the fence.  It made me lose my grip on the cage and fall 2 feet to the end of the rope.  That caused the wire that holds the doors closed to flip loose and Squirrel Houdini was out in a flash.

I said a LOT of Very Bad Words...

So I did what I have done every day the past 2 weeks and reset the trap.  I'm sure Squirrel Houdini is going to be leery of the cage.  But I also know it LOVES the peanut butter.  So it is a game of squirrel gluttony vs patience.

I'll  get it eventually.  And when the last of the Grove Tree Gang is removed, I hope the replacements don't learn the same garden-raiding tricks.

I don't have anything in particular against squirrels.  We coexisted peacefully for 23 years before this one group started destroying my garden (and I put 2 squirrel baffles on the birdfeeder pole years ago).  I even like them in their natural habitat (living in trees and eating acorns - of which there are plenty here).  But last year they pulled every green aple of my trees and ate all but 2 tomatoes. This year they have pulled up 3 plantings of corn, beans and cucumbers.

Here it is the middle of July and I have eaten just 2 beans (and just tonight).  The cukes are only a foot high.  The last corn seedlings died under the cover I put over them (too hot, I guess) and there is probably no point in replanting them at this point.  There is a new planting of beans under a tent of 1" mesh chicken wire. I MIGHT get some beans from this planting

I don't have a problem with the squirrels on the west side of the yard.  There are 2 huge oak trees there so they seem to have all the acorns they need, and apparently, the birdfeeder is in their territory.  They eat the seeds the birds spill out and they are welcome to them.  No squirrel of the west side has ever run toward the east grove.  I never bother animals that don't attack my food.

My only fight is with the east Grove Tree Gang.  Sheriff Cavebear IS going to get them...

More Critter Trouble

All is NOT quiet on the Garden Front!

OK, It seems I pretty much have the Grove Gang Squirrels at a stalemate.  But to review:  They started by pulling up most my corn, bean, and cucumber seedlings (but not eating them) 2 plantings.  I attached the live cage on the top of my fence (their highway to my garden).  I caught one in the live cage and dispatched it.  A second one pulled up my 3rd planting, so I covered the trellis bed with a tent of 1" chicken wire and covered my block of corn separately.  Some squirrels penetrated the mesh tent and also got at the corn again (I had uncovered it for some afternoon sun and forgot to replace it).  I then caught a 2nd squirrel and dispatched it.

In addition, I had had 2 groundhogs move in under my toolshed earlier.  The first was live trapped and relocated.  The 2nd was driven away after I filled 3 different burrow entrances with used cat litter.  I thought I was done with them for the year (in the past, they have only showed up in the Spring).

So there I was trying to catch the 3rd garden attacking squirrel, but also having fixed the spots it/they got into through the mesh tent.  I thought I only needed to catch the 3rd squirrel and then protect my developing tomatoes in another garden bed.

After catching the first 2 squirrels in just a few days, I expected to get the known 3rd and possible 4th easily.  The peanut butter bait smeared on the trip lever was working well.  However, I have since found the trap tripped daily with nothing inside.

I have figured out that its mostly my fault.  There are 2 wires that need to be set in place after the doors are set open that lock the doors shut when snapped closed.  That may be confusing; what it means is that a frantic squirrel CAN push back out through the spring-shut doors if 2 wires down lock them down.  I HAVE found a couple of times where I forgot to set the lock wires.  I know a squirrel has been in the cage because the peanut butter is licked clean.

But I may have outsmarted myself on a few other attempts.  Trying to be clever, I put a small dot of peanut butter at the front of the cage to lure the squirrel in.  I realized that when the cage was closed and no squirrel was inside, the dot of peanut butter was missing.  What probably happened was that the squirrel grabbed the front of the cage to get at the dot on peanut butter hard enough to trigger the doors.

It must have gotten a wicked strike on the head, but was able to pull itself  out.  But it keeps coming after that peanut butter!

There is also a situation after I stopped putting the dot of peanut butter on the front of the cage and the cage is closed with the trigger lever still having the big smear of peanut butter on it.  I suspect that a squirrel is jumping onto the cage just to get over it, and triggering the doors to spring closed.  I may have to attach a circle of chicken wire around the outside of the cage to encourage them to go through it. 

But I have learned to make sure the door-locking wires are in place each time lately and that the only peanut butter is sure to get them at the door trigger lever.  In fact today, I smeared the peanut butter on a small stone and set it PAST the trigger lever.  If THAT doesn't work, I will try the mesh wire surround to encourage them to go through the cage instead of jumping on it.  I expect to be successful soon.

So what's the "MORE" problem?  Well, as I was quietly walking to check the squirrel cage this evening, I surprised a HUGE FAT GROUNDHOG in the back yard.  As expected, it ran to the toolshed.  I looked around the shed at the previous burrows.  None of the previous burrow entrances had been re-dug.

I wasn't surprised at THAT.  I use scoopable cat litter and the stuff is slimy when wet and cement-like when dry.  Plus it is full of cat pee and poop!  I doubt any herbivore is going to mess around with THAT!  But I looked around carefully (it's a bit overgrown with weeds and vines) and found the new burrow.  They all seem to like the same spot (NW corner for some reason.  It was dug this morning (I check around the toolshed every day at least once).  So I went back into the garage and took out 2 plastic shopping bags of used cat litter and emptied them into the burrow entrance.  I'll be able to tell if it digs its way back out (doubtful - not one has done THAT yet) or digs a new hole elsewhere.  If neither of those happens, it either suffocated or had a panic heart attack, LOL!

One last odd observation.  As I was walking back to the house, I noticed a 3' arc of eaten clover where I saw the groundhog.  I know they like clover.  If I thought that was all they would ever eat, I would leave them be.  But I have, in the past, caught them eating my ripening heirloom tomatoes.  And I love those at least as much as Hobbits love mushrooms!

So the new groundhog has to go too.  I HOPE it leaves from the offense of the used cat litter.  But if not, I will live-cage and dispatch it too. 

I Caught A Squirrel

WARNING:  Squirrel death ahead...  Read or not, your choice.

Yeah, it was one of the Bad Grove Gang, at least from the direction it entered the live trap.  I baited the center release lever with a smear of peanut butter, but I also placed a small dab on both ends  assuming it would lick that off before going for the large smear.  So I know the direction it came from.  It has gone to Happy Squirrel Acorn Acres...

Peanut butter works...

I don't really want to kill any animals.  I stopped hunting 40 years ago because causing unnecessary pain seemed wrong.   If the squirrels had limited their hunger to fallen sunflower seeds and acorns, I would have just admired their antics and left them alone.  I even forgave them stealing all my apples.  I didn't spray the apples so none were ever really worth eating anyway.  When they started taking my heirloom tomatoes last year I got angry about it.  But when they wouldn't even leave bean, corn, and cucumber seedlings to grow this year, I drew the line.  I have a right to a garden.

I have read many websites about the lack of success of relocating squirrels and humane killing methods.  Relocation doesn't work well.  First, most anyplace suitable to a common animal like squirrels is filled to capacity.  Most young resident squirrels are driven out to unsuitable places and starve.

Second, any newly introduced squirrel that does succeed means that just one more resident squirrel won't.  It's a zero-sum game for the squirrels.

Third, relocation of varmints is generally illegal.  The idea is that you can't transport your problem to someone else.  Its like trying to get rid of a color on a Rubik's Cube by moving the pieces around.

I am vaguely disturbed by the idea that I am actively eliminating the MOST successful and adaptive squirrels.  I LIKE evolution.  But I suppose that is entirely the point of this effort.  I want DUMB squirrels here...

The live trap allows me to catch varmints with causing them the pain of a snap trap or the danger of catching a cat.  That doesn't mean I use it to let them live.  I can't shoot them through a small mesh cage, I can't inject them with a forever-sleep drug, and I can't stab them fatally fast

My wheelbarrow holds JUST enough water to cover the live trap.  The squirrel was gone in 15 seconds.  Its the fastest way I can use and they don't seem to know what is happening until a very sudden end.  It didn't even move around.

I don't want to draw this out and I probably won't give details again.  I know I can't kill all the squirrels; I don't want to.  I just need to eliminate the few squirrels who have learned to attack my garden.  I would be perfectly happy just to have new squirrels who live off the acorns from the 2 massive old oaks and the nuts from the beech tree on the property.

I've given this post a lot of thought (1.5 hours).  Best I can do...

UPDATE:  7 am 7-3-13..  Make that 2 evil squirrels.... If I can find the smallest bit of good news, they apparently breathe fast.  The 2nd was dead in less than 10 seconds.  I force myself to watch this so that I know what I am doing.  The faster the end, the better, and they go fast!  But the live-trap is reset with fresh peanut butter...

Squirrel Games Again

Well, the bad news is that I uncovered the block of 9 corn seedlings in the afternoon yesterday (an opaque plastic bin) so that they could get some sunlight (the squirrels seem to stay away in the afternoon), and I forgot to put the cover back on them last night.  7 of the 9 seedlings were pulled up and most uneaten this morning.  I meant to form a cover for them out of leftover chicken wire, but I got distracted by housework and putting the recycle bins out by the street, etc.

So I put the cover back over the surviving 2 plants and set 7 more seeds soaking overnight to replant tomorrow.  I will use the bin I am covering the block with and use it as a form for a chicken wire cover BEFORE I replant them  the 4th time.  I should have done that the 1st time.  But one time is happenstance, and the 2nd time can be coincidence.  3rd time is "enemy action" and I am at 4th.

Other bad news is that the squirrels are not going for the dried corn cob chunk in the live trap near the birdfeeder (I placed it there so I could easily see if, and how fast, it worked).  It didn't get any attention.

So I decided to follow the advice of one website and use peanut butter smeared on the trap release lever.  I put the trap on top of the fence the squirrels use as their highway from the tree grove to my garden.  I attached a wire from the trap to the fence so that if one was caught it wouldn't fall into the neighbor's yard.  Then I put some peanut butter on the release lever and tiny amounts in front of the trap and just inside of it.

The good news is that a squirrel followed the peanut butter, but tripped the trap while outside of it.  But there are 2 wire bars that keep the doors from being pushed open from inside and I might not have secured those.  And when I approached the trap, there was a squirrel right there, and it WANTED that peanut butter.  So that bait might work if I set everything up correctly.  I reset the trap before coming inside for the night.  I hope to see a squirrel in there tomorrow morning.

I have high hopes for the peanut butter.  And I really hope it works, because my tomatoes are starting to produce fruit and I don't want them stolen.

Enclosing each raised bed in chicken wire would be ridiculous, might prevent pollination, and be hard to access each time I needed to weed or harvest.

The alternative is to redesign my raised beds into one single large bed and enclose the entire thing with chicken wire, sides, and top (with a door of course).  That would be a lot of work, it would be a bit ugly, and expensive.  1"  mesh chicken wire isn't as expensive as some other garden fencings, but it isn't free.

So those individual talented garden-thieving squirrels just MUST go...

More Squirrel Games

Determined to grow some flat italian style beans (Romano), I ordered some seeds from Burpee.  The shipping cost more than the seeds, but it was the principle of the thing.   They arrived yesterday and I soaked 12 seeds overnight. 

I planted them today.  The chicken wire covering the trellis soil wasn't too hard to lift.  I had some garden clips (like round clothespins) to hold it up while I planted the new seeds.  I also planted 5 new cuke seeds.  The previous 6 came up but there were still gaps, so I filled them. 

The squirrels don't seem to bother seedlings more than a few inches high (why they don't, I have no idea).  Well, I'll make a guess that the new seedlings still have most of the growing seed and that's what the squirrels are after.  But pure guess.  I can't really know how squirrels think.

But under the 1" chicken wire cover, the beans and cukes should grow.  The beans should begin to ripen in 60 days  (sept 1st), so I could get 2 months of harvest even at this late date. 

Now I have to figure out how to protect the tomatoes.  That's trickier.  I'll try draping  the tomatoes in row cover cloth I think.  If they chew through that (and they can), I will have to get more serious and lethal.  I don't like "more lethal" things but anything that kills rats ought to kill squirrels...

Of all the plants I grow, I want the heirloom tomatoes the most.  Last year, I didn't get a single one; the squirrels took them all before they were ripe.  That will not happen this year if I have to trap and drown every squirrel within several properties.

I am considering a few designs to rebuild the garden beds and enclose them in chicken wire if I can't eliminate those few squirrels who have learned to depend on my garden for food.

If I redesign the garden beds to get them smaller and eliminate the spaces between them to make one large bed, I could build a frame to enclose the entire garden bed with a door for entry.    I want a garden THAT much.

OK Squirrels, Game ON!

I've had it with the squirrels pulling up my romano bean seeds, cucumbers, and corn.  I LOVE those flat Italian beans and they are harder to find fresh than Giraffes at the North Pole.  So after the squirrels pulled up most of the bean seeds again a 3rd time, I decided, as Bugs Bunny used to say "This Means War".

I went to the local hardware store and bought 50' of 3' wide chicken wire (aka "poultry netting").  I cut two pieces of it 20' long.  It loves the way it is rolled up so I manually bent it flat and that took some effort.  Then I made a tent of the two pieces along the trellis to shield my seedlings and the newly-planted new seeds.

"But", I hear you say, "they will find a way in".  I'm EXPECTING that!  Where they find a way in, THAT'S where I will cut a small opening and set the live-trap to just fit.   And then I'll drop the live-trap in a trash can of water and drown the little %$@*#s ...  And then I'll feed them to the cats!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha...

But seriously, for 20 years the squirrels and I mostly lived in peace.  I put 2 baffles on the pole where I put sunflowers seeds for the birds and they can't get at the feeder.  They were welcome to the seeds that the birds spill on the ground. 

A few years ago, some squirrels in one tree grove started taking all the apples.  I didn't mind that much because I never sprayed the apples and insects ruined them.  Besides, it was funny watching them running along the top of the fence with apples in their mouths. 

But then 2 years ago they started taking my tomatoes.  I don't grow heirloom tomatoes for squirrrels...  There are few enough fruits on an heirloom tomato as it is.  Last year, I only got 2 ripe tomatoes from 8 plants.

This year they started pulling up the corn and bean seedlings for the tiny remnant of the planted seeds.  I WILL have a garden.  If I have to completely redesign the garden so that it can be enclosed with 1" mesh chicken wire and I have to pollinate the plants manually, I will do that!  But killing those few squirrels who have learned to take my fruits and seedlings will (I hope) be easier.  And I will not stay up nights unsleeping worrying about a few drowned squirrels...

Da Squirrels, Da Squirrels!

Well, I have pretty well confirmed that it's squirrels that have been pulling up my bean and corn seedlings.  The past 2 mornings, I have slipped out of the house quietly in the morning and rousted several squirrels from my garden at the right spots. 

They all run away in the same direction.  There is a grove of trees in the east neighbors' yards that direction that don't seem to produce much that a squirrel can eat.  They seem to be aspen and birch.  The trees on the west side are oaks, and I never see squirrels from the garden run in that direction.

Squirrel families are territorial, so I gather that the East Side squirrels are outcasts who are starving.  I ALMOST feel sorry for them.  Still, they pulled up 10 of my 12 bean seedlings, 18 of my 18 corn seedlings, and 6 of my 12 cucumber seedlings.  It may also explain why most of my crocuses on the east side of my lawn have been dug up.  Maybe I've been blaming the voles overly much (not that they are innocent either).

But the point is that there seems to be this one group of squirrels that have learned to get their food from my garden.  I have been here 26 years  and only started having a problem with squirrels 3 years ago.  At first they only took the green apples from my 2 dwarf espaliered trees.  I didn't mind that much because I never remembered to spray them and the insects always ruined the apples anyway.  Last year, they started taking the green tomatoes.  This year, its even the various seedlings.  I have to stop this group before they teach others squirrels these damaging habits!  I know that sounds silly, but local groups animals do learn successful feeding strategies not common throughout the species.  So I am after one small group of squirrels.

I tried using a live trap several times, but I haven't caught a squirrel yet.  I tried it on the ground next to the beans, on the ground just before the beans, and finally on the top of the fence where the squirrels run along.  No luck!  Well, I caught a young possum, and it won't be tripping my trap any more...

Well, maybe my bait was bad.  I tried cashews, I tried a slice of peach, I tried a small apple picked from my tree.  A couple of times the bait was simply gone with the enclosure doors closed, but most times the doors were shut with the bait still inside.  I assume the squirrels ran over the top of the live trap and triggered the release lever.

So I went to a site that discussed the right bait for attracted squirrels into live traps.  It said the best was peanut butter with peanuts in the shell stuck down onto it.  I didn't have any of either.  But I did had some dried corn on the cob.  I bought a cheap bag of it to bribe the squirrels away from my garden, but hey if they like it that much, it should get them in the trap, right?

I sure hope so.  One web site I found said that squirrels are gluttons and easy to trap.  Right...  I'll settle for ONE first.

Some Evil Squirrels

Some evil squirrels are about to die.  I do not find pleasure in this.  I admire squirrels in many ways; they are clever, agile, and adaptive and I generally respect that.  I even think they are "cute".  I set up two squirrel baffles on the bird-feeder and I thought we had reached an understanding.  They couldn't reach the birdfeeder, but they were welcome to the seeds that fell.

But one one small group of them in a particular community learn to survive by eating every unripe apple, pull up every pole bean seedling, dig up every corn seedling, and pull off every heirloom tomato fruit , I have to put a stop to it.

I had squirrels around for the first 24 years here and never had a problem.  2 years ago , they suddenly learned to eat my tomatoes.  Last year, they started to eat my bean seedling.  This year, they are tearing up any plant I plant.

I wasn't sure it was really squirrels until yesterday when I caught them in the act.  There were 3 squirrels in the garden at the places where I am losing plants that I am growing for my food!  I know the direction they come from. 

I seriously think it is just one group of squirrels.  I intend to kill them as serious varmints.

I have several Hav-A-Hart live traps and one is sized for squirrels.  But I must mention that I am only using Hav-A-Hart traps so that I won't catch innocent animals like my cats or other cats.  Any squirrel I catch in the direction of the cadre that destroys my garden will die.

They have pulled up all my corn seedlings 3 times, my beans 3 times and half my cucumbers up twice.  I admire squirrels a lot, but when it comes to MY food, they are going to lose.  Its not ALL the squirrels; its only the ones that come from one direction and I'm going to get THOSE!

The most humane way I know to kill varmints is drowning.  I tried stabbing them with arrows through the cage screen, but it didn't work fast.  So I just drown them.  Its not as bad as you think.  They move around confused for a minute, then blurp an exhalation.  Then they are gone.

I expect some complaints, but I've tried different ways and that is the fastest I've found.

But if it is a contest between my growing veggies for my own food and allowing the squirrels to stop me from growing my own food, the squirrels are going to lose gradually and eventually.