Mornin' earthly gardeners!
I was annoyed and generally peeved yesterday morning when I walked through the garden and noticed one of my tomato plants was missing. After scouting around a bit, I found it, deader than a doornail, a few feet away from the root ball. We’ve had one pesky rock squirrel in and out lately, and I suspect him in the dastardly deed. The other plant was OK; it’s in another bed, and was surrounded by plastic milk jugs filled with water since I kept expecting a late freeze. The milk jugs help keep the plant warm.
We have an over seven foot high fence around the garden area to keep the deer out, but squirrels are like raccoons and rabbits; they can squeeze into tight spaces.
Husband got busy and filled in one teeny corner with hardware cloth. I hope this keeps the little Tree Rat out, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m trying to come up with some other sort of protection for the individual plants. I haven’t set out my Brandywines yet. I have LOTS of those.
If anybody has any ideas about how to keep squirrels away from individual plants, I’d love to know about it. My friend Wanda suggested using large cans, or PVC pipe around the plants. I think that would work for smaller plants, for a while. Ya know, we had tons of brown squirrels back in town when we lived there, and they NEVER bothered my garden. Pooh.
Here’s a photo of some blooming Mexican Sage and some caladiums in a pot I grew last spring. I LOVE caladiums! They remind me of batiks.
dig it!
bobbi c.
All text and photos are copyright ©2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights reserved.
