The Garden Beds Today

As you might know from reading this blog, I have 8 garden beds that were started when we moved to this house 10 years ago. A couple if years ago we had the garden beds completely cleaned out. I had brought some blackberry plants from the other house and they had taken over the whole garden area. For a while we had a lot of blackberries but that was short lived. Well I let the blackberries grow back last year to see if they would grow fruit on them. My experiment showed that no fruit would grow on them, plus, it would take a lot of work to get them out if the garden area again.

I am using black and white newspapers for mulch, plus shred up vegetable and fruit scraps. The squares that are between the garden beds need to have more mulch added to them. On the bottom picture, you can see the contrast of the fresh mulch I put in, as compared the the other squares that have mulch that has been in there for years. I have faith that it will all come together as soon as I get the last two garden beds in the back cleared out.

Squirrel and Bird Problems - Solved? Maybe

Squirrels, raccoons, and birds. I love them! But not in my garden! Here is one option I am going to try. The only problem is, when I make popcorn for the squirrels, I have to make some for us! It's a good excuse to use coconut oil anyway!

You can find the popcorn pile in the center of the pic, almost exactly but a little more toward the top.

Yum Popcorn. Now I have to make some for us.

Go Away Squirrels and Raccoons!

I don't know about you, but I have an everlasting battle in my gardens between me and wildlife. Years ago, I wanted to get a BB gun and use it on the squirrels, however after I obtained one, I didn't have the heart to use it.
  Squirrels are prolific. Sometimes, I would give in and get food or toys for them. I was hoping to distract them from the garden, but the raccoons ended my fun when they tore down the spinning toy I had attached to the tree in the back. Now I have two different animals to contend with.
   So, I broke down and bought some alarms for the garden. One is a sound alarm. It makes a high pitched noise when an animal gets in front of it. The other is a light that blinks on and off all night. I am going to add some wind chimes and may perhaps get a few more alarms and see how they work (or don't work!) It will be a good experiment.
   We watched a raccoon come up to the window not too long ago. Then he headed right for the garden and went in! These little animals are real buggers. I used to blame the birds for destroyed the produce in the garden, but now I know who the real culprits are!
   There are two thoughts of feeding animals. One of them is not to feed any outside animals and hope that they will go somewhere else for food. The other is to feed them all they want so they leave the garden alone. That is the option I am opting for this time. I have popcorn to make and give them so they will be so full that the gardens won't even tempt them.
   We'll see how the garden grows this spring, and if the corn ends up staying up until its ready to pick!