Organic Rodent Control

Checked the plants and trap this morning. No vole, and the adjacent pepper plant was gone. An official declaration of war was declared, and I decided to wait for the rodent with brick in hand.

After 5 minutes, I noticed some of the landscape fabric rustling, so I pounced and hurled the brick. The vole scurried our from under the fabric and evacuated the garden under the fence to a nearby dying hydrangea bush. I gave chase with a shovel and digging fork.

The hydrangea has been removed, and the vole is no longer with us.

Our thermometer read 38F this morning, and it certainly didn't feel like it was anywhere near freezing. There was a patch of frost out back. The tomatos seem fine.

Sunday

Liz woke up this morning telling me about a dream she had where a groundhog ate all of our plants. After church I checked the plants, and found most of the peppers and 4 tomato plants chewed to the ground! Ugh. It also looked like some of the onion plants were bent over toward the road, so I suspected a ground hog from across the street was visiting. Liz left for Lowes to get 36" x 150' poultry netting. I replaced the peppers with the boys. Liz came back and we put the fence up.

While Liz was getting the boys dinner, I noticed 2 of the peppers I had just planted chewed up! Okay, so not a ground hog. We next suspected a vole, and lifted up some of the landscape fabric to find evidence of tunnelling. I set a mouse trap near one of the remaining pepper plants.

We also covered the tomato plants with plastic. Using the stakes we were able to tent the plastic over the plants. They seemed cozy. Accuweather.com said a low of 25F; weather.com forecasted 29F.

Busy Day

From Oesterlings:

2 grape tomato plants, 3" pots, $1.69 each
6 cherry tomato plants, 6 pack $1.69 each
6 roma plum tomato plants, 6 pack $1.69 each
6 red delicious tomato plants, 6 pack $1.69 each
6 red bell pepper plants, 6 pack $1.69 each
6 jalapeno pepper plants, 6 pack $1.69 each
6 chili pepper plants, 6 pack $1.69 each

The 6 packs were pretty leggy, but looked healthy. Liz planted almost all of the tomatos, most of the bell peppers, and half of the other peppers.

Also planted about 32 lima bean seeds (Fordhook, large). We all love limas.

Finished off half a row of peas, and the other half string beans (saved from last year).

Also prepared the flower bed next to the garden. Put in rows of Cosmos, Zinnias, Black-eyed Susans, Snapdragons, and Marigolds (seeds). Will be hard to get to for cutting, but should look pretty.

They are calling for a really cold night Sunday, so we may have jumped the gun.

Lettuce, Carrots, and Scallions

This evening we put in a patch of salad lettuce (Mesclun). Rowan helped as we turned over a small patch of soil, raked it smooth, and sowed the seed into 3 drills about 8" apart. In the past we've always just spread it on top of the bed to create a lettuce "patch." This year I'd like plant a new row every couple weeks to always have fresh salad greens. I'll also construct a shade-cloth tent structure to keep the plants cool in July. In a few weeks I'll plant the head lettuce we started from seed last weekend.

We also put in some carrots (Nantes). Carrots seem to take forever before harvesting, so I was never willing to waste the garden space on them. But this year Burpee's had these seeded strips that you bury. I was curious so we bought a packet that had two 8' strips, and it won't take up too much space in the garden.

I've been wanting to try spring onions (scallions) for a long time. I remember it being a staple in my folk's garden. So we planted a small section which hopefully we can harvest sometime in June. In preparing the soil bed, I noticed a lot of ants. Last year a colony of ants made off with nearly every lettuce seed I sowed in a single day. I read that spreading cornmeal with the seed will help -- not sure if it kills the ants or just distracts them. I was generous with the cornmeal.

More Seed-starting

Tonight I started another set of seeds:

24 Zinnias (California Giant)
24 Statice
12 Cosmos
12 Head Lettuce (Buttercrunch)

We grow a lot of leaf lettuce, but I've been sowing it directly. I think I can transplant the started seedlings next month and have a head start on our salads.

Liz loves the zinnias -- she likes cutting the flowers for dinner decor. We'll direct sow them in a month or so, but I wanted to get an early start on some. Same with Cosmos.

The statice will go in our front bed. I read it's also a great flower for drying, which will be great for sprucing up our fall and winter dinner tables.

Taters, Peas, and Rhubarb

This afternoon we put in a half row of potatoes (red and white). I think we had about 20 seed potatoes. We bought whole disease-free potatoes and cut them into pieces, each with at least 1 sprouting eye, no smaller than a golf ball. We buried them about 5" deep and 12" apart, then covered with 6" of hay.

We also put in about 10' of peas (Wando). We spaced them about 3" apart on alternating sides. After 2 weeks we'll sow the rest of the row, so our harvesting is more manageable. And once we have some plants started we'll put a trellis up for the peas to climb.

We also planted 4 rhubarb roots in our raspberry patch. We couldn't decide where to put something as "permanent" as rhubarb. They were pretty dried out, so we'll see how they manage.

Other projects

A couple of other places in the "yard" (I use the term loosely -- there's grass and we mow it, but I don't really consider it a yard in the typical suburban sense) will get some attention this year. Two beds near our firepit end up full of pokeweed; a bed beside the garage gets beautiful Jack in the Pulpits and other perennials, but also ends up full of weeds; and the front of the house needs a good bit of help. If nothing else I want to shake some wildflower seeds into the firepit beds, and spruce up the others with some mulch.