2016 SFG in Brooks, Ga

sanderson wrote:Yolos,  The digging looks like what I had in the winter squash box.  I don't know for sure if it was an opossum or rat after the worms.  I did snap-trap a rat one night and no more digging.  I did make a chicken wire cage over it so no cat would get hurt.

The squirrels are digging up my beds. In my garden, they are either looking for food or hiding food for future use. I have had to cover my garlic squares with hardware cloth where the whole bed does not have a chicken wire cage. They will dig up our tulip bulbs as well.

trolleydriver wrote:

sanderson wrote:Yolos,  The digging looks like why I had in the winter squash box.  I don't know for sure if it was an opossum or rat after the worms.  I did snap-trap a rat one night and no more digging.  I did make a chicken wire cage over it so no cat would get hurt.

The squirrels are digging up my beds. In my garden, they are either looking for food or hiding food for future use. I have had to cover my garlic squares with hardware cloth where the whole bed does not have a chicken wire cage. They will dig up our tulip bulbs as well.

Thanks for the responses but this is something bigger than a chipmunk.  I do have chipmunks but they dig nice neat tunnels and holes.  These are big areas that are dug up and the same thing is digging around the flower beds and also in the Bermuda grass.  All that digging in the 4 x 8 bed was done in one night.  Also, I don't think chipmunks work at night.  Gotta get my trail camera set up to see what it is.

yolos wrote:

Thanks for the responses but this is something bigger than a chipmunk. ...

Our squirrels are much bigger than chipmunks and they do a lot of damage digging up gardens and lawns. Then there are the skunks. Skunks are worse for digging up lawns for grubs but I've never seen them in the veggie garden. 

I'm looking forward to finding out what you capture on the trail camera.  This should be interesting. Hope you are able to get the situation under control.

trolleydriver wrote:
The squirrels are digging up my beds.

Ditto! They are all over my newly planted garlic bed. I keep forgetting to lay down the chicken wire.
CC

CapeCoddess wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:
The squirrels are digging up my beds.

Ditto!  They are all over my newly planted garlic bed.  I keep forgetting to lay down the chicken wire.
CC

I am pretty sure squirrels dug my garlic up last year.  Do you have to weight down the wire?  Bricks enough?

I didn't weigh them down. Once down the digging stops.

My new 4 x 8 foot bed.  I used pressure treated 4" x 8 foot pine boards stacked two high so the bed was 7 inches deep.  I did not think this was deep enough for our long hot summers so I dug down into the ground about 4 inches so now I have 11 inches growing space. The wood has been sitting out around the garden for 4 to 5 years so I hope most of the pressure treatment has leached out by now.  A couple of the boards are a little warped but I was able to make do.  I plan to plant garlic in the bed this week.

Lovely!

Very nice, Yolos!

Today I planted my 2 x 20 foot bed with Fava Beans (Aquadulce) and my 4 x 8 bed with garlic (Red Toch, Inchelium Red, Chet's Italian) and a few shallots.

I harvested a few tomatoes tonight and set up a thrown together greenhouse.  I put some Christmas lights near the bottom of the tomato plants.  Hopefully that will help them stay warm enough.

According to the weather reports, we will be getting down to freezing for the first time tonight and the next two nights.

I have a bad case of tomato envy!  Snug little greenhouse.

Pretty!

Garden Update:

My Mighty Mustard greens are growing fairly well now that I put a little fence around the beds that do not have high sides.  Whatever was digging in them does not dig in the beds that have 10 inch high sides so I did not have to fence in those beds.  This variety of mustard can withstand temps down to 26*F.  I haven't decided whether I should cover the beds when the temp drops down that low.  I need as much growth as possible so I can then take my hedge trimmer and cut them into little itty bitty pieces and then turn the greens into the soil.  This is supposed to help control the Southern Blight in the soil.



My 2' x 20' bed is fully planted with Fava Beans and some have sprouted but they are not growing real fast.  I planted them in the shade of the old oak tree thinking that by now all the leaves would have fallen off the tree and the bed would get good sun.  But we had a very late 1st freeze and the number of leaves still hanging on are providing too much shade.


My experiment with late planted tomatoes is working fairly well.  I am covering them any night the temps go below 50*F and then uncovering them in the morning when the temp goes above 50*F.  I wanted to let them ripen on the vine but something (chipmunk or bird) took a bite out of one almost ripe tomato so I harvested all that had started to turn color.  



Picked my first carrots of the fall season.  I did succession planting so I should have carrots to harvest for quite some time.


I planted a 4 x 8 of garlic and a few shoots have just come up so something is going on down below ground.

WOW! Yolos, your garden is fabulous. Well done. 

countrynaturals wrote:WOW! Yolos, your garden is fabulous. Well done. 

Yes, that is amazing. 

Wonderful!

Looks fantasics, Yolos! And I didn't realize that your garden was so large!!!

This weeks tomato harvest.

Holy cow!   Well done!  What variety of tomatoes are those?
And what variety of carrots? I had carrot failure this year due to old seed I think. Time for fresh.
CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Holy cow!   Well done!  What variety of tomatoes are those?
And what variety of carrots?  I had carrot failure this year due to old seed I think.  Time for fresh.
CC

The tomatoes were Bonnie Transplants (Heat Wave & Celebrity).  I wanted to plant some late tomatoes but I never got around to starting late tomatoes from seeds so I bought two transplants from HD.  I planted them mid August which was way to late.  I was lucky because the first frost date was about 3 weeks later than normal.  I also am covering them with Agribon 19 and 6 mil plastic.  

I planted 5 varieties of carrots.  Kaleidoxcope, Red Cored Chanteney, Scarlet Nantes, Tendersweet, Danvers 126.  I like to experiment to see what grows the best in my environment.

yolos wrote:This weeks tomato harvest.

Beautiful!

I finally had to take out the bodacious Sun gold plant in the BTE. I picked the largest fruits to bring inside but there were so many clusters of little green tomatoes like in stock photos! Definite winner and will repeat next year.

How do they taste, Sanderson?

I love them