My poor SFG!

So I have been having ALL kinds of problems in my SFG (new this year). We had an amazing spring, but then a raccoon decided my garden was his personal buffet. He ate everything down to the ground before we were able to evict him. So I replanted and everything was going well until last month. Everything kept dying very slowly, from the leaves in. I was watering, I actually added organic fertilizer at one point because I figured maybe my compost sucked? Everything kept dying, I'm getting tomatoes but not much else. My cucumbers are mostly dead, the half runner beans are mostly dead, it just sucks.

Today I figured it out. I wasn't watering deeply enough and my garden was totally dry about an inch down. I spent an hour watering this morning, trying to rehydrate the peat moss. I just came in to take a break, I'm going to turn the hose on barely dripping and move it to one square at a time to slowly rehydrate it.

Sigh. Maybe I can have a fall garden, it's not too late to plant spinach and kale here. And my winter squash and peppers in my traditional bed are doing great, of course.

That's a bummer! The peat can be a pain to get wet all the way through but once it is it is pretty easy to keep hydrated . Darn coon, I have had the same problem with a buck this year so I understand the frustration. Good luck on your fall garden! Did you get him evicted?

Thanks!

Yep, we got rid of him in July and thankfully no one has moved in to take his place! We have deer issues as well but the SFG is next to the house and the deer don't like to come that close.

Everything looks nice and moist all the way down now, I really hope my fall planting does better! My goal was to save enough money on veggies to pay for the initial startup costs of the SFG (about $100) and I'm not sure I made it but probably close enough.

Just remember, home grown tomatoes are priceless

cheyannarach wrote:Just remember, home grown tomatoes are priceless

I have to keep telling myself that!

cheyannarach wrote:That's a bummer! The peat can be a pain to get wet all the way through but once it is it is pretty easy to keep hydrated . Darn coon, I have had the same problem with a buck this year so I understand the frustration. Good luck on your fall garden! Did you get him evicted?

You harvest the buck in the fall and count it as a volunteer plant.

No_Such_Reality wrote:

cheyannarach wrote:That's a bummer! The peat can be a pain to get wet all the way through but once it is it is pretty easy to keep hydrated . Darn coon, I have had the same problem with a buck this year so I understand the frustration. Good luck on your fall garden! Did you get him evicted?

You harvest the buck in the fall and count it as a volunteer plant.

rebeccalizzie wrote:Thanks!

Yep, we got rid of him in July and thankfully no one has moved in to take his place! We have deer issues as well but the SFG is next to the house and the deer don't like to come that close.

Everything looks nice and moist all the way down now, I really hope my fall planting does better! My goal was to save enough money on veggies to pay for the initial startup costs of the SFG (about $100) and I'm not sure I made it but probably close enough.

Sorry to hear about your problems this year but if it makes you feel any better I went through a rodent problem last year; but they were deer and they made short work of everything. Last fall I had to erect a fence to keep them out and while it cost me some money I look at it as a long term investment. Here are some pictures

You might plant either summer squash or pumpkins on the outside edge of your garden. The deer and maybe the racoons do not like these, especialy the pumpkins for the vines are prickly, and don't like to walk on them. It worked for me this yr, saving my sw.potatoes from the deer.
Jo

rebeccalizzie wrote:

No_Such_Reality wrote:

cheyannarach wrote:That's a bummer! The peat can be a pain to get wet all the way through but once it is it is pretty easy to keep hydrated . Darn coon, I have had the same problem with a buck this year so I understand the frustration. Good luck on your fall garden! Did you get him evicted?

You harvest the buck in the fall and count it as a volunteer plant.

I think we're on to something now

One good thing is that you will always remember this hard-learned lesson, and with you telling us about it, we will learn the lesson as well, the easy way. Thanks!

For watering dried out beds ..... take the nozzle /spray head off the hose . Stand a bucket in the area you want to water well and weigh the hose down in the bucket with a brick or two. Cover the bucket with an old towel and gently turn the hose on till you get almost max flow .
The bucket will allow a decent volume of water to flow without the presure of it blasting your bed to bits plus you don't have to stand over it all the time .

Oohhh, that's a good idea! Thanks! It's pretty well re-hydrated now, and I replanted all the dead squares with my fall crops. So now I just need to keep on top of it.