Research Garden and what happened

dipat2005

This year I decided to have two signs-one for the north side and one for the east side.

On the North side where I planted carrots, the carrots poked about 1 inch through one day and the next morning someone had walked all over them. This adult continues to walk all over the north garden.

I just found cat pee and drawing in the east garden again. Thankfully on the part I haven't removed yet. I will be removing the signs since they didn't do any good. I still have the forks in place in the garden too!!

The north side is the side to plant on after I dig it up and replant it with Kale and swiss chard and then add chicken wire over the top and anchor it down with paper clips.

Any other ideas that might keep the garden safe? This is getting very frustrating!

Monek Marie

Its your neighbors entering your garden area?

Maybe a cute inexpensive fence?

Or sirens and motion lights?

That would be an irritating problem.

As for cats. A sand box someplace in your yard or some cat grass placed across the yard

vickeym

Now I'm thinking a sprinkler system set up on some kind of motion sensor to spray them when the get within a couple feet of your garden. If this is on private property, perhaps a game camera or even a video camera focused on these areas. Let them know you will be pressing charges for vandalism, trespassing and such as well as taking them to small claims courts once you have the pictures or videos.

SuperC

@dipat2005 perhaps the adult is blind or cannot see very well. I like @vickeym ‘s idea to put up a game camera, one that has night vision in case it occurs at night. Could you set snappy mouse traps, that may cause a startling surprise that may cause an attention awareness.

Monek Marie

The sprinkler system is a great idea

dipat2005

@vickeym @Monek Marie @SuperC I live in an apartment complex and I am right on the alley. This has been happening all season. More dog poop in the garden today. I am going to be scooping out all of the soil on the one side of the 14 inch raised bed garden. I will put it in cardboard boxes and save it. I flooded it with water last night and used a baking soda, water and detergent solution spraying it on the wood. I like the mouse traps too. I would love to use some type of camera. I will look into that! Thanks so much for the ideas. I am going back to the cayenne too I think.

SuperC

@dipat2005 ugh! That sounds though it’s a tough predicament and gee, so sorry your garden is unappreciated by the neighbors. Hopefully it will be successful as you seem to be determined to see it through this unsettling situation of dog poops and foot stomping.

VermontCathy

Sadly, I doubt that anything less than a serious, impassable fence is going to solve your problem.

SuperC

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/916480#Comment_916480

I agree, and then put that sign on the fence.

dipat2005

@VermontCathy and @Merin Porter believe it or not I have been thinking along those lines. I was going to raise a winter garden but now it is really late to do one. I was thinking that I was grateful not to have a winter garden when the ash started falling one day in 1/4 inch chunks. There were at least 2 days when ash fell. We had bad air quality in the valley and Oakridge had to be evacuated and had bad air quality for weeks!

One of the agencies determined that the ash had traveled 75 miles in one of the fires we had up the McKenzie River. I thought that was amazing!

Monek Marie

If you have indoor space plant a few things indoors. It will give you time to think about how to protect your garden.

I never used to have a fence around my garden but I mainly do it now for animals. They can be amazingly beautiful and add to the planting in your gardens - vertical gardening, trellises, etc. And with time to think of all the possibilities, they can be cheap if you look around and use what you have or can repurpose.

Good luck with your ash issue and I hope the air quality improves

VermontCathy

@Monek Marie My parents tried for years to keep rabbits and deer out of our garden on the cheap. They tried a number of suggested tricks, ranging from planting a row of marigolds along the edge (supposedly rabbits avoid marigolds), to burying Coke bottles (supposedly the wind blowing across them makes a sound animals don't like), to hanging aluminum pie pans from strings (again, animals are supposed to avoid the noise.

None of them had any effect.

The problem was only solved when Dad put a high, strong deer fence all around the garden.

water2world

@dipat2005 So sad to hear of all of your hard work being ruined.

I really like the motion sensor sprinklers!!---but maybe a tad hard in the apartment complex

Merin Porter

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/916789#Comment_916789

Oh my goodness -- that's terrible! I'm so sorry you've been having to deal with that, @dipat2005 !

marjstratton

That would be very annoying to have such infringements on your garden. Would planting in tall pots help maybe?

dipat2005

@marjstratton what a wonderful idea! That might work! Thanks for the idea. I will research that!

marjstratton

I have a couple of half barrels that I have raised a few things in. Think I'll try raising more things in them. I'm thinking it would keep my plants out of the way of the burrowing critters like the voles as well as hopefully putting things out of reach of the rabbits. I'll have to put some kind of wire cages on the barrels to keep the deer from mowing it flat.

Cornelius

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/916912#Comment_916912

Perhaps putting some pots around the garden to make it very clear that you are growing things there?

Sprinklers would definitely send the message and maybe a no trespassing sign?

Merin Porter

@dipat2005 update, please! :) How are things going? Has anything helped?

dipat2005

@Merin Porter I am getting ready to pull the second crop of carrots and the beets on Saturday before frost. Tomorrow I will be doing another cutting of greens in the East garden. I am also getting ready to put a large wire fence over as much of the box as I can.

The North garden has a large overhang and it will be protected and last year I let my beets overwinter and had greens until April. Do you think it is possible to just grow winter kale, swiss chard and spinach over winter? I usually plant the spinach underneath other stuff. I know that those particular greens could over winter but I am not positive on planting them. I need to do it by Saturday and then put the chicken wire on top of that too.