I am curious how many of you have wanted to strangle the critters that conveniently get to that perfect veggie/fruit that you dreamed about harvesting. Yesterday I had 4 perfect tomatoes that were ready, but I wanted to give them one more day on the vine. This morning I went out to harvest them and there were attacked by something with teeth and claws. I could see the teeth marks and the puncture holes from the claws. Needless to say, my compost pile was very happy! I wish I knew what it was. Probably an oppossum, based on the marks. I guess I get more upset since I only have a few plants - I am only one person in the house and too many plants would be a waste.
So - what is your input on this? What are your tales of woe?
What you are not eating from your garden!!
Same as you Anita....tomatoes. They seem to like just the Cherry tomatoes right now, could be because the rest are still green.
I don't think they can get to my cherry tomatoes. I grew Gartenperle this year and have them in a hanging planter.
Smart girl! Mine are in the garden, but what ever is eating them is small so I'm guessing they are the right size for this critter.
Whatever ate my tomatoes was either big enough that it could reach the higher fruits - or small enough to climb the cage
I used to have a problem with moles who'd munch on everything I'd plant, but since I planted mole weed (can't remember the scientific name) around the perimeter of the garden, the mole problem has stopped. The only problem with mole weed is that it's a prolific self-seeder.
So far I'm not eating much and probably won't. I had cukes earlier in the season but they have wilt and the production has dropped dramatically. My butternut squash is also suffering from wilt and from 6 plants we might get 4 decent squash (and I'm growing those for my wife and don't even like them that much). I have yet to eat a tomato but the chipmunks have enjoyed a large number. Today they feasted on the the largest and closest to be ripe. There are considerably fewer than last year (different varieties, different growing medium in the earth boxes, and different fertilizer so hard to say why) and much, much later. I am trying peppers for making paprika but they have started to fall off the plant while stilll very green so that looks it will be a bust as well. No eggplants either although I admit to a late start on those. All of those plants are in my earth boxes.
My plants in the ground are even further behind. The tomatillos are growing and have flowered but no fruit. The only consolation is that the raspberries look loaded but even they are at least a week from being enjoyed. Easily the most frustrating year I've had for gardening in a long time.
Thanks for letting me vent.
feels good, doesn't it?
Can I vent ? I planted all kinds of dahlias and have about 3 flowers right now. Why? I honestly don't know. I've fertilized, used Messenger, watered. I don't get it. Last year this time they were gorgeous.
I have 2 kinds of sedums that seem diseased. One is a giant container of Sedum Autumn Joy. It's got black sooty stuff around the leaves but I have never seen an insect. The other 'was' a beautiful Sedum Matrona that has all but died. It wilted and one by one the stalks just limply fell to the ground. Last year a Sedum Autumn Joy in the same location did the same thing. Its got lavender thriving right next to it, an underplanting of Euonymous kewensis and Corsican Mint, and a big run of Sedum Dragonsblood - which doesn't seem to be affected.
But my big furious vent of the day is that the carpenters that are building my kids tree fort cut down a DOGWOOD because it was in their way. I am basically speechless.
Are you kidding me? They cut down a tree without authorization?? I think you can speak to the owner of the company about that one. They should give you restitution for it or replace it?
My DH has gotten back in my good graces by going out and asking the carpenters to reimburse us for the tree. I have been boiling all day.
Andrea - you know I really feel bad for you, you're not cursed are you???:)
Oh verrry funny Big Al
Otto has re-rooted and re-sprouted. I might be partly cursed but not totally?
my garden is doing great except my pea pods are tough and stringy. i think the soil is too acidic where they are. the flowers are dark purple instead of white.
last year though was my worst ever. in the spring , i was breaking up hay bales with a pitch fork and broke into a rabbit burrow. the mother took off, at which point, my cat got her. so there i was with 8 baby rabbits in my garden. what could i do? i went to agway and got bottles and rabbit milk and nursed them. every 4 hours for 2 weeks...exhausting. 7 survived and ate everything in the garden. they weren't afraid of me, the cat or the dog. they were the biggest, fattest rabbits i have ever seen in the wild. i didn't get a single potato, radish, carrot, bean, no lettuce, nothing. they even bit into most of my tomatoes. haven't seen them this year. probably eaten by coyotes.
Oh, how we each suffer for our craft. Ericalynne, you beat me. Maybe that's why group venting feels so good; I can see that maybe I don't have it so bad after all. Maybe shrinks are onto something with group therapy but this way is much less expensive :) Better go out and tend to the non-productive garden with my dwindling hope of getting something edible before the first frost. Which is probably a week away given the crazy weather in my adopted New England home.
where are you from originally?? I know you are kidding about frost!
I am originally from St. Louis but have lived in too many places to list including Southern California, the southwest, the midwest, the southeast, the Middle East, and now the northeast. Oh, and Canada twice. And I'm not sure how much kidding there is in my prediction for the August freeze. I have been in August blizzards in the arctic.
On the good news front I have a few tomatoes that are turning red. I have to hope now that the chipmunks won't find them before I pick them!
My fingers are crossed
escubed - maybe you should net them to keep the critters out. I think I got maybe 11 raspberries this year. What a waste of time. I'm not sure they are worth all that manure and water - we'll have to try again next year.
Alyrics, I have tentative confidence that my raspberries will yield vast quantities of fruit. Or at least a few handfuls. I have about 35 feet worth and they are loaded with maturing berries (Caroline, an everbearing variety but everbearing seems to mean late summer for me). But that does remind me of some more venting. After the blueberries yielded a whopping two edible fruit last year I got netting to protect my potential harvest this year. I guess I didn't fasten the net down properly because all the fruit were gone from within and there was a nice chipmunk burrow next to one of the plants. I did manage to harvest 4 berries this year. At this rate I should have a nice harvest in 2016. Oh boy!
I inherited my raspberries and found a tag buried that ID'd them as Red Latham which is not everbearing. Why. why why would you plant anything but everbearing if you only have a few? very perturbing but I kept trying to figure out how to make them fruit - which only took a few years. I had been cutting them back at the wrong time.
My big issue is Pumpkin worries. My husband planted tomatoes and peppers that are doing very nice. I just wanted some pretty pumpkins to set around the house and yard this fall. I put in some jack-o-lantern type large and x-large and some white ones. It was great fun I started with seeds. I had them all marked there were gourds and squash too. Then they got moved and moved and moved. I lost some seeds and some didn't sprout. By the time I got them in the garden I had no idea what I planted. Watching them grow and waiting to see what acutaly grew. I now have some very large and very nice pumpkins which I don't want yet and some flowers with small starters. Now I get to wait and see if I
have anything good when I want them in the fall. It's all a big surprise. (Can you tell I'm new at this???)
I'm not eating any peppers.
On Monday, a raccoon paid a visit & totally stripped my 2 pepper plants (1 yellow/1 orange) of peppers. He also ate all the Sun Gold tomatoes within reach.
The birdbath was filled with dirt, leaves and pieces of pepper & tomatoes.
I provided him with a nice buffet and a fingerbowl to boot! LOL!
I had to laugh though. I have a Habenero plant with LOTS of nice VERY hot peppers on it. Mr Raccoon apparently picked one & started to eat it. I think he probably wanted to dive head first into the birdbath after that one! YIKES! SUPER HOT!!!
He returnes the next night (I could tell by the debris in the BB) He just ate whatever scraps he found on the ground. He left the Habs alone.
Here's a shot of the mess.
Nancy
Here's another shot.
I was planning to pick that pretty orange one when I go home from work on Tuesday. That's when I discovered the raid.
One of the pepper plants was left intact - just stripped of all the peppers.
The other, the main stem was snapped off.
Here's what's left of that one.
I wonder what they don't like - other than the habs...maybe we could plant them around the items they do like. The hard part is that they are pretty intelligent.
alyrics,
Just read this thread today--it has been an unusual year. I, too, lost 2 sedums--one autumn joy and one madrona, from the same spot as well. Weird! These were in the ground, in my rock garden area, but I now suspect that there is a moist area in that spot. Though like you, I have plenty of dragons blood all over. I wonder if the larger sedums have a deeper root system that is prone to rot if it reaches a damp spot (the bottom of your pot or, in my case, slow leak from pond.)