gardening pests

I need to know if it is a waste of my time to try to garden with all of the odds I am up against. I have terribly sandy soil (i wouldn't even call it soil; its like the beach), we have deer that come right up to the house, fire ants, sticker burrs, moles that tunnel, and cutter ants. I love to garden and in particular grow vegetables. But I am discouraged because of all of the things I come up against. I can improve my soil and have, if I decide to grow vegetables, I will put up a fence for the deer but the pests and sticker burrs have me stumped. Any ideas or should I just give it up?

Never give up! Fencing the deer out will help a lot. Then you need to start working on your soil. If you have that much sand, best bet is to probably go to raised beds and build your soil in there. You can turn those raised beds into compost bins to get you started. If you are going to use the beds for veggies, do NOT use treated lumber. A lot of the chemicals they use are still fairly toxic and you don't want to add that to your diet. LOL Check out the soil and composting threads, for ideas on that type of thing. There are also things that you can do to eliminate and discourage a lot of those little pests and none toxic to you. I garden organically, so my world view runs that way.

There's another DGer named "kmom246" who's got a whole bunch of the same issues you've got, and she's making it work, slowly but surely. It always helps to know someone else is fighting the same battles! Like doccat5 said (and she definitely knows her stuff!), raised beds are a great option. Another option might be some container gardening, for the interim while you're getting your raised beds up and running. No, they're not a good long-term solution, but at least they'll help tide you over while you're getting yourself back in business.

Good luck, and go for it!

Try the container gardening discussion, there are all kinds of great ideas on there. It would give extra flexibility and many veggies can be grown in containers.

If your budget allows, a few EarthBoxes will get you started while you're getting everything else in place.

Excellent suggestion, Dann_L

Some crops, like carrots, do like sandy soil - which is not of course the same as sterile sand. But you've got to garden with the garden you've got, not the garden you wish you had.

As I write this I am feasting on carrots I just picked from my garden. I know all about sand... I live at Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County. I garden exclusively in containers. I buy the 56 quart orange plastic pots at Home Depot. Each one holds 2 cubic feet of potting mix.... I use Miracle Grow brand or Walmart brand. I grow tomatos, eggplant, cataloupe, cucumbers, peppers, green onions, spinach, mustard greens, green beans, basil, mint, squash. I'm going to try sweet potatoes and watermelon and corn this Spring also. Although we have an extra lot, gardening in containers eliminates the weed problem (burrs included) and keeps the lawn intact. I have 35 containers at this time... I add new ones each year. The only drawback is that you have to water daily and in the hottest part of the summer 2x daily. I don't have a deer problem here... you would have to fence off an area, but I do have a large sunny area, which works great!!! I would give Earth boxes a try, but the cost is prohibitive at this point. I love container gardening....saves my back, and saves time.

beck3465,

Sounds like you got it down to an art.