Backyard Bliss – Our Veggie Patch
Over the past three days, Tom and I planted our first veggie garden and I’m beaming! Admittedly, Tom did most of the grunt work, digging up the patch, shoveling in the dirt, lugging the bags of dirt and peat moss. I did most of the delegating – “This should go there”, “Nope, it should be done this way.” 
– I actually did all the planting so it was teamwork.
It’s not a textbook set up – we gleaned ideas and tips from the internet and print articles, picking and choosing the things that made sense to us. We built a 6X16 box-like structure that came to me in a dream and filled it with a soil mixture. We have rows of tomatoes (two kinds), zucchini, squash, chives, cukes and herbs including oregano, basil, lavender and dill. Our first critter encounter happened even before we had the plants in the dirt! We had placed our plants on a picnic table until we were ready to plant. The next day all the zucchini and broccoli containers were on the ground with no signs of green left. We’re thinking it was squirrels or the ‘wascally’ rabbit that visits our yard every morning. I checked the web for solutions to keep them away and we’re trying tin foil around the perimeter of our patch. Apparently, bunnies are afraid of the sound and reflection when they step on it. Not sure if it’ll work on the squirrels since they can drop from the trees above.
Just prepping for the soil was a lot of work! We were laughing at how tired we were and this is just the beginning. We definitely have a new appreciation for farmers. I’m looking forward to getting my hands in the dirt to pull weeds and water our precious little rows until they bear fruit (or in this case vegetables). We tried to do gardening in pots – but were very neglectful. Who knew you had to water more than once a week!?
Here’s to lots of bruschetta in the months ahead and sharing our bounty with family and friends…
Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments
very cool! Good luck keeping the rabbits and squirrels away!
No doubt about it – you are like parents tending a nursery – with love and great care, in the same way you and Tom do lots of good things together.
If you make a spray of garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil, those critters will take one lick and run for a fire extinguisher… I use this recipe:
6-8 cloves of fresh garlic, minced fine
2 cayenne chili peppers, or powdered cayanne pepper, ground fine
a few drops of vegetable oil. (this makes it stick to the plant leaves)
I mince all that up, mix it together in 4 cups of BOILING water and let it sit overnight to cool and infuse. Then I strain it twice through two different coffee filters to get all the particles out of the liquid. I then use that very concentrated liquid as a base for a pest spray in a dollar store spray bottle – sometimes diluting it 4 to 1 for aphids, whitefly, etc…. and full strength for friggin’ cats that like to S#%@ in my soil, skunks and squirrels that dig, and other animals too.
WARNING – DO NOT get that in your eyes, or breath it – I learned the hard way, even though it smells like a nice salad dressing, it REALLY stings your eyes and makes it hard to breath if you inhale it!!
Hope that helps with the critters.
scotty
Thanks for the advice! We’ll definitely give that a try (I’ll make Tom create the mix). We’re trying tin foil right now (which is surprisingly working!) and we’ll see how long that works.