Planted out 240 onion bulbs Friday and everyday I have to RE-plant a handfull. I go out to check and there's onions laying on the ground. Squirrels...Birds?What's doing this and how can I stop it?
P
RE-planting onions
I used to have this happen too....not sure but I had both birds and squirrels around so it could have been either or both. I think birds though, they also were in there picking out seeds. I eventually gave up replanting, but then again I had a very small garden. You could try laying some chicken wire or something on top to protect them until they poke through the ground.
Kim
I'm leaning towards birds since I don't see squirrel footy prints. I was thinking of buying a roll of row cover to put over the top of everything since I've seen balsted birds picking out lettuce and spinach seeds too.
Thanks,
P
I had a bunch of flowers I planted last spring pulled up by the roots. Not eaten, just pulled up. I'm certain it was the groundhog that had taken up residence here.
I use the little Dixie bathroom cups to protect seeds and small seedlings. Just cut out the bottoms and push them into the soil a little bit around the seed or seedling. This also keeps the cutworms away from them. Other than cutworms, row covers are easiest, though.
Last year, I planted out 36 walla walla onion sets. All but 3 got torn out and eaten up by black birds. Didn't notice them until the deed was done. Only touched 2 tomatoes that I could see, which were right next to onions.
Ahhh,black birds. We have HERDS of blackbirds. Maybe they're the ones,what done the deed.
I had a poor crop of tomatoes last year due to cold snap week before Mothers Day. I had problems with birds pecking holes in the few I did have.
P
The Dixie cups work really well for birds. One year I planted corn without them and the birds got every seed and seedling. I planted again with the cups and the birds weren't able to peck them up.
Ain't gardening fun?LOL
P
Yeh, it's fun P.
One time I set out onion plants and the neighbor's guineas ate every one of them.
We have had voles in our garden this past year. They fattened up on any of my veggies that were on the ground like cucumbers, melons, strawberries, etc. We didn't get hardly any.
They're still there. I can see their tunnels all over the garden.
Does anyone else have the little rascals.......if so, what gets rid of them? The man at the feed store side there are several castor oil / bean products, but most people who buy them say they haven't had very good luck with them.
There are no cats in our area......... too many dogs. Probably the reason the vole population is so plentiful.
It's so frustrating. They even tunneled up into my raised bed boxes.
Trellising dosen't help because they also eat the roots.
Ah yes...the adventures of gardening.
We have moles but I don't have trouble in veg. garden with them. Maybe I shouldn't say that. I might jinx myself. My dogs like digging them up.
I don't have cats but my neighbors do.
P
Peggie- are you against using poison? I have bought Ramik poison for voles. Don't use it now that I have two cats tho. I had no luck with repellant that the feed store guy told me was great...I wonder if it would work and be worth it to line the bottom of beds with hardware cloth?? some people here protect their hosta roots with cages.
My total sympathies to anybody with voles or groundhogs
Im just wondering what to do with the dbl handful of onion sets I bought recently. DO I know what Im doing? heck no.. but they looked so cool! How much soil do they need I wonder?
Im fixing to build a raised bed for them and my potatoes (I didnt get it done this last week) and I have noticed a mole problem. Usually my dog ferrets them out, and if she doenst the cats do- the pup is going on 98 in dog year sso I can understand why she is slacking off, but why cant anyof teh 4 cats pay thier way?!?!
a question? Do you think I should put wire mesh on teh bottoms of my raised beds? Will moles tunnel Up? ( I can see them now snacking on red onion and purple potatoes!)
I've got 4 dogs,six grandkids and I'm trying to get one corner of my yard started as a wildlife habitat so I do not use posions other than Amdro for the fireants.
I have 3-12" tall raised beds with weed block in the bottom that I have no mole problems in. I've raised onions,potatoes,salad greens,radishes,carrots,pok choi and one year even burgundy okra that got really huge.
Ninnian,
if you only have a few,get one of those tall 5 gal. buckets like pickles or paint come in,wash it up real good,punch drainage holes in the bottom,fill it up with some potting mix or garden soil or mix of half anf half and plant your onions in that.
P
holycow, Bigred!
I would have never thought of that... now Thats container gardening! cool.
How close do you think I could plant them, and do I need to be even more watchful of mildew?
hmmm, I was planning on placing that breathable weedmatting under my raised beds (and about 1 ft on either side for mulch) anyhow! I think Ill lay about 6 inches of oak leaf first and then place my soil. If you've had luck with that mabye I will. Heck, with mating and leaf on teh bottom , and flaoting row cover over the tops surely I can keep either moles or deer out of my garden this year. (I wont say Im holding my breath..&*&@! deer vermin!)
oh! while typing I just thought " ya know, Mom in laws estate has 2 plastic hauling bins (the kind you put a rope thru an dcan haul rock san stuff about with ) and one unused pond liner.
I could sink those and use them for something!
Thank You so much bigred, you lit a fire in my brain! (now theres an excuse for all teh smoke it issues)
Nin
Guess it would depend what size you plan on harvesting . If your going to use them as green onions,I'd say pretty close...2-4" apart.
I punched drainage hole and put wire for hangers on 3lb. coffee cans one year,can't remember exactly what I planted in them but I know it was something cascading. Hung them on the oak fence by the drive. They were real nice and rustic looking once they rusted and the plants filled in.
Of course I have been know to do the hillybilly/redneck thing and plant a toilet or two...LOL
P
AAAAAAAAAAAAhahhhahahah,
My neighbors in teh subdivision would go apoplectic at a planted toilet! Omigosh, it would be worth the effort just to see teh purple faces. I swear, you have lots that can be no LESS than 5 acres a peice, and someone will STILL want to tell you what you should do with your property. Its not like any of the stuffy one seven live by us.
Thansk to bigred, I felt liek I wa sgetting away with something yesterday. I have a black plastic planter I keep next to teh ramp up to teh house. Its about 10 inches deep, 10 wide and 4 feet long. Last year I used it to plant sweet peas... anyhooooo.. I planted sugar snaps, onions and some lettuce seeds(I figured on havesting lettuce early).. all just before todays storms.
May not be much for ya'll.. but I felt liek I was getting away with soemthing planting so much in that container! LOL
I have posts going into my driveway- I wonder how bad it would irritate my neighbors to put up old coffee cans with plants??
Bad Nin, Bad!....
;D
I kinda like the idea of a "redneck" windchime planter - coffee cans you say? Be a bit hard for the voles to jump that high. ;)
I could hardly wait for the HOA letter if I did that in the front yard. Almost worth doing, just to annoy them.
Bill
PeggieK and sallyg -
How big is a vole hole? I have noticed some inexplicable holes in my garden beds. They are about 5/8" in diameter. Probably too small for a vole?
Ninnian,
Guess your neighbors would really freak out over my "pank"(pink)wall.*G* Luckly,I live in an area where there's no HOA or they'd be knocking on my door daily....LOL
P
I think my vole holes are a leetle bit bigger than that. They are no more than an inch and seem to go straight down, no dirt mounded around the top. Tradmark is that they eat the roots off a plant and you'll go one day and find it wilted but otherwise appearing unhurt, but there's nothing underneath it in the ground.
Possibly you have another native rodent down there a bit smaller than our voles.
re HOA- I feel lucky I can have a clothesline!
In protest to his neighbors complaining about how his yard was 'decorated', a fellow a few miles from me actually constructed an outhouse with the door open, placed an old toilet inside and planted flowers that cascaded over the rim!!!lol! He took it down at the end of the season but what a hoot!!
I've toyed with idea of installing a complete bathroom in the yard with tub as water garden,toilet as a fountain(watering spraying up from the bowl)and a sink planted with succulents, enclosed by lattice walls covered with vines.
P
The voles in my garden and yard make little raised and cracked looking furrows just beneath the soil.
Then I see the holes every so often along them. The holes range from just tiny, under an inch to bigger than a silver dollar.
I'd love to poison all of them, but you just can't if you want to eat the vegetables from your garden. I'm sure the poison pellets dissolve if uneaten and leach into the soil. Also, I am afraid my dog would eat it. He eats chicken egg-pellets, and the poison pellets might be made of some kind of corn or whatever, and then laced with posion. If they were anything like the chicken feed, he'd eat it. Dummy dog. Probably wouldn't be any left for the voles. lol Otherwise, I'd put it in a fertilizer spreader and
cover the countryside. I hate voles !
omigosh ya'll.... Im thinking it was lucky on my part I didnt coem down to eat lunch with the usual tea yet-- I'd be spraying it! LOL....
Hmm.. My neighbor smight liek a Pink wall, as long as it wasn't a "fence". Forbid!! Hmm.. there isnt anything in teh covenants about placing a "bathroom" next to the road.*smirk* Im aweful, I'll look for things to torque the snottier folks off with. Ive been here for so many years, the upstarts!
How deep do onions need for a raised bed, and also lettuce? Can I get away with some short one sans some about 10-12 inches for bigger feeders liek tomatoes , ya think?
Anything in particular ya'll want to suggest for soil ? Im not even gunan try amending- out of teh bag it comes- Ill till under it all for drainage and add a 4" layer of leaves placing weed mating on top of that?
Lowes- here I come.
Nin! ;)
Oh no,this is not a "pink" wall...it's a "PANK" wall.
I'm the neighborhood crazy lady..hee-hhe!
P
Oh well, a "Pank" wall would surely upset some of teh city-folk.
Here Im known as either the local eccentric, hermit , or "uppity woman"... dependent on who you are and how you treate dme when I first met ya. LOL
Silly neighbors.
I'm rural. I would have probably been arrested for a "pank"wall in town...LOL
P
BigRed ~ I am sure that Pank wall is a trademark. When you have a business as you do, it makes you stand out in customers memories. I think it is great and if HomeOwners Associations ever come to the country we will have a revolt!
and as Mel Brooks (playing King of France)said in History of the World Part ?,when told the peasants were revolting,he replied"Yes,they stink on ice"...LOL
P