Grow Your Own – All Quiet On The Squirrel Front – Sort Of…
by John Weckerle
We have finally begun harvesting zucchini and yellow squash, and it looks as if it will be a bountiful summer at least as far as that goes. There are more that are within a day or two and, depending on how fast they grow, we may be looking at calabacitas, zucchini parmigiana, or both – or something else entirely. Several small eggplants are in the early stages of development, and small tomatoes are everywhere. The empty sections of Bed 1 have been replanted with lettuce, spinach, string beans, and green onions (all from seed) and chard seeds have been added to the existing sections to bring us a continuing yield. While it may seem a little late to be planting seed, remember that we experimented pretty successfully with covering Bed 1 last year (see article).
Since our last gardening post, we have taken steps to minimize tighten up some, if not all, of the security on Beds 1 and 2. For Bed 1, this simply involved trimming some of the vegetation that was pushing the wire away from the bed, tightening up the corners, and leaning rocks against the mesh to hold it against the bed. The mesh was also tightened up on Bed 2, but more needs to be done. The original remedy we envisioned was compromised by the fact that, unexpectedly, the tomatoes have reached about 5 feet 6 inches high, and have grown above the top of their five-foot trellis. This will likely be another bird netting solution, but it’s not clear exactly how we’ll make it tough for the squirrels to get in while making it easy for us to pick tomatoes.
Bed 1
Bed 2
Bed 3