May your gardens be productive and bountiful this year!
BB
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to BB and all the Georgia Gardening forum gang!
this is going to be a great new year,I got started expanding my garden today. It's growing from 12X15 to 25X50. anybody got any great ideas how to kill coastal bermuda I've been battling it for 3 years now and still cant get rid of it. And then there's this ugly stuff that grows in clumps and the stalks look like rope and it has taken over the fence line.
Happy New Year!
fremar, you are certainly ambitious! That sounds like a big project. I have to think of Bermuda as evil, sorry fI don't have any helpful hints except repeated Round-up.
Based on your location and the size, I'm assuming you are rural? Deer problems? We have finally been able to garden successfully with our new fenced-in 8' high garden of about 34 x 46'. We call it deer resistant. So far (2006) they haven't jumped over (although I know they could). While we were at it, we dug down 12" and buried hardware cloth plus 2' of it over the welded wire fencing to keep out rabbits, voles and other plant-eaters.
Our garden is half vegetables and half ornamental. What about yours?
just veggies for that area, all my flowers beds are spread out over the rest of 2 acres, as for deer I did two things I wired a motion detector to an electrical outlet and a flood light fixture, when the motion sensor is activated it turns on a light and a radio under the eaves of my garden shed.
The other thing is to plant sunflower plants along the perimeter for some strange reason they haven't been in my garden since I tried that. I did have cukes growing on the fence year before last and the deer found it was a salad buffet ( they walked the length of the fence eating everything on the outside and on top)
Something pulled out my sunflower at the mailbox. May be the rabbits! But I have a dog now, may be the scent of the dog will keep them away???
Lili-What a cutie. Doesn't look very fearsome, but hopefully the doggy scent is scary!! :)
fremar: I hope the mot. det. works for you. We have all our outdoor floods on those and in the beginning (1997) the deer would run. But like squirrels at bird feeders, they learned that nothing bad happened after all and kept coming to the "midnight buffet." And interesting too how "our" deer have different appetites even though we are close miles-wise to you. Our deer DO eat the sunflowers, even the natives.
It's a challenge! Good luck.
LOL! cedar, she will probably want to lick the rabbits. The squirrel are just waiting for her to chase them...
When she goes outside, her nose starts twitching like crazy. We get a lot of deer here. You can hear them in the woods stepping on the leaves - at night.
Cedar I think the rap crap that the radio plays is the trick, I know if I trip the detector it scares the bejeebies out of me LOL , I try and change the radio station every few weeks just so they get a variety.
I found out the light alone doesn't work the first month, My father in law bought an electric fence and a battery to run it but gave up on the project before it was installed, I may see if he wants to sell it to me and I could power it with a small solar panel, hopefully that would help too.
Wish I could teach the deer top eat the bermuda grass and mot the veggies then I would be in business
I know what you mean fremar. And it's not just the deer and rabbits out here in the country (of course I know the suburbs have their share of critter woes too); we have groundhogs! I looked out front one day and saw a young one on the sidewalk right by the porch looking around as though thinking "Wow, I've never been to this salad bar before."
And I understand armadillos are making their way to us -- have been spotted in Athens area.
Here is a picture of our garden.
Pam, That is really beautiful. If I win the lottery, I think I'll fence in my veggie garden in the front yard. How deep did you sink those posts and are they 4"x"4s? That gate is neat, too. I'm so jealous. Becky
Hi Becky, Thanks! Yes, they are 4x4 x 10' sunk about 2' down. This fence was a huge project and cost a mint. We had to build a 3' retaining wall on the back side and brought in 9 loads of soil, compost, etc. and the garden is still sloped.
DH is SO talented and he built it all, fence, gates, arbors and the trellises you can see on the side and back walls (I am just the unskilled laborer/assistant). The gate is a nice story. The metal 'sculpture' part is the back of a garden bench (the kind you get at HD etc with wooden slats). It belonged to my best friend and her husband. He was an MG, retired and worked outside a lot and rested on this bench. Unfortunately he died and the bench rotted, leaving just this metal part. My friend hated to get rid of it and I told her we 'd think of something to do with it in the garden.
So DH designed the gate to match its curve and it hangs above the gate, a tribute to our late friend.
cedar, that is so sweet. I love your garden.
Thanks. As you can see, it's in a wild and woolly area! It's on a north facing slope which is not ideal and is turning out to be a problem for spring and fall veggie growing. The sun on the south (upper side) is "behind" a ridge of trees in those seasons, so much of the garden is in shade then until late, late morning.
We have really enjoyed the garden. It is so great to have a protected place to play in! And the soil is pretty good and missing the tree roots and rocks everywhere else! LOL (cause it's true).
Cedar thats exactly what my garden looks like (when I'm dreaming) LOL I can only wish I could grow like that but thanks for giving my something to strive for.
Very beautiful, Pam. I'm a few years behind after the tornadoes. BTW, I did not even realize tornadoes were the cause of our devastation until we saw a recent history of GA weather. I just thought it was another bad side-of-the-mountain storm. lol
Laurel