Pesky Pests Plant Themselves in the Garden

Naturally, as soon as our window air conditioners were installed, Mother Nature decided if I wanted to be cooler, she'd oblige. My husband, the weather geek, being an early riser, told me it had dropped to 33.5° at 5 a.m. last Sunday. He hoped everything in the garden survived. I haven't yet gone outside to check up close, but from my living room windows the tomatoes still looked fine. I'd removed the protective walls of water just in time for this blast of cold. The pepper plants similarly appear to still be the proper color. For some reason I had put the walls of water around my baby basil plants. I'm happy I did that as basil really dislikes being chilled. If you put basil in the fridge, it turns black and inedible really fast.

Dennis had told me he'd seen deer inside the electric fence I put up around the garden specifically to keep the deer out. The fence is solar-powered, but I may need a battery-operated backup unit. There is enough shade near the garden that it might not be getting enough charge each day. I did do a perimeter sweep and removed weeds and grass that had grown up enough to touch the bottom wire, which will quickly short it out. To reduce the amount of time I need to spend patrolling the perimeter and wielding the weed whacker, I've installed a heavy duty weed block cloth alongside and under the northern edge. This cloth is so heavy I had to cut holes in it to get the landscaping staples through. It's guaranteed to last three years. I've ordered more so I can cover the other two sides where the fence doesn't get taken down each winter.

I'd spent Thursday evening installing red plastic mulch around the tomatoes, which required the removal of the protective walls of water. The cages to help hold the plants upright are also installed now. That red mulch is supposed to get the tomatoes to ripen sooner, and I really think it makes a difference. I'm going to hang a few red-painted rocks from those cages as decoys. I'd read that you could hang red Christmas ornaments to fool the birds. By the time you actually have ripe tomatoes, they'll think the fruit is still the inedible ornament. The ones I tried two years ago lost their color right away, and then were useless. Similarly, this year someone said that would also work for your strawberry patch. Being a rock painter, I'm trying both this year. I'll let you know if either idea actually works to deter the bird thieves.

This past week I've erected hoops over the pea fences. I'll put netting over the top of those. I'm trying to get to enjoy my peas myself instead of having a pea buffet for the birds. Those freeloaders need to stick to the seed I put it in the feeders for them and leave my peas alone. Those greedy things want it all.

We do enjoy watching the wildlife that also claim our yard. The last few evenings we've watched last year's fawns wandering through, sometimes as close as a few feet from the windows. The baby cottontails are chasing each other around on the cement pad outside our front door. They'll dash under the juniper if we step outside. Sometimes they'll just freeze, thinking we can't see them. We have trapped and permanently removed one skunk so far. I haven't yet seen raccoons, but the corn is barely out of the ground. The live trap is here, waiting to be used.

The birds are everywhere. Grackles are nesting in the Virginia creeper that's growing up right outside the kitchen. I can hear the young ones squawking through the exhaust vent while I'm cooking. Tree swallows and wrens are inhabiting the nesting boxes I put up in a vain attempt to attract bluebirds. So there are no bluebirds, but those swallows surely do help keep the mosquito population in check. I'm ignoring the dandelion explosion since the goldfinches enjoy those seeds so much. They walk up (down?) the stem to get to those seeds.

Last week I was thrilled to see an American Redstart flitting about my asparagus row. I had to search through our bird guidebooks to figure out what that small black and orange bird was. I spent some time with the camera trying to get some good photos of it. He moves really fast. So now I'm going to go refill the feeders and then do some more weeding before the other weed block cloth arrives.