Love in the Kitchen - making fast, healthy, homegrown meals you'll enjoy

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tuesday Garden Party - What to do about critters?

We've got some new plants in pots. This is a sunflower (that I rescued from the bird bath... technically I suppose it was "planted" by a bird since the birds knocked the bird seed into the bird bath and the seed started to grow in the water....).

And here is a new tomato plant (beefmaster - I think they'll be big tomatoes).
The problem is, we've seen some of these guys around.


Cute, right? Except that they eat plants. And now we have tasty plants where they can eat them. So my question is... what do we do about it?

Next week - all about flowers. In the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.


What's in YOUR garden this week?





Zentmrs
Pin It

10 comments:

  1. I use to think rabbits were cute too, but this year I am over them!! They have eaten alot of my garden, we are going to have to put the fence back up!! They need to find a new diner!!

    http://www.justtryingtosavemoney.com/2010/06/farmers-markets-garden-link-up.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. *sigh* my "critter" problem is earwigs. we have lots of bunnies, but my small garden is surrounded by chicken wire. something still managed to dig under though... for the most part, there is plenty of clover patches in my yard so they stick to that, but i can't blame them for wanting to try out some of the yummier veggies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My mom names all her roaming bunnies "Peter" from Peter Rabbit. He is a cutie though!

    Visiting from the Garden Party :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. yea for the sunflower. I love (not like) love sunflowers!! Ok, as for the rabbitts. I have them too, and I am going to try bar soap and citronella candles. Apparently they don't like the smell so if you toss some on the ground around your plants they stay away. We'll see how it works, I guess it's worth a try.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I guess that is the benefit of living in a pretty populated suburban area - we don't have a critter problem so my little garden remains pretty protected (other than my huge retrievers that go flying through the yard sometimes and knock over plants).

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have rabbits every where but my back yard. My father (my source for everything garden) says it is because of our dogs, who only go in the backyard. He says rabbits don't like the small of dog poo. If you don't have a dog, "borrow" some "piles" from a friend or neighbor that does and place some around your garden. Gross and weird I know, but I swear it works. I can sit on my back porch and watch an entire family of rabbits plan on the hill out side our back yard fence, but they never come close to my garden. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read that if you bury some glass beer bottles in the ground, so their necks poke up above ground at differing heights, the wind going by them will make whistling noises that scare the bunnies away. Haven't tried it yet myself, but I might give it a shot!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bunnies are MEAN! They chomp on plants they have no intentions of eating. I would put a fence around the planters or put them up high.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've tried putting down some blood meal which seems to deter bunnies, and I've also sprayed my plants with hot pepper spray. That works well and you can either make your own or buy some from the store. (I've never made my own...)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ah, critter problems. Ugh. Although I deal with voles, moles and deer, I don't have to deal with rabbits (hope none are reading this...), but I've read it's sorta like deer and a good fence is about the only thing.

    Looking forward to the flowers- I'm going to show our roses that have finally bloomed next week too! Thanks for sharing at the TGP!

    ReplyDelete