The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: egbert on May 18, 2010, 03:03:27 pm
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Hi
A daft question I am sure, but which plants do you protect from animals - obviously the salad needs covering, but I am stood outside today trying to work out how to get the netting to cover it all, and it occurred to me I probably dont need to protect onions, shallots, garlics etc from rabbits?
What about peas and brassicas?
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Animals are a pest but pigeons are worse at this time of year The peck the middle out of the emerging plant and play hell with the peas and the likes.This is why you hear those awful bangs when you are out in the country this time of the year It is caused by Thunder Guns attempting to scare off the pigeons hopefully ??? :o :farmer: :wave:
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keep finding pigeons and doves sat by my pea and bean area ::) hopefully the guns you mention George will work here as the farmer next to us as them (scared the life out of me when we first moved here!!)
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The earlier ones worked with carbide and a water drip and I had to go and fix them if they stopped banging The boy then about 8 had to come and he ran up to one charged ready to fire and he grabbed it of course this let the trip go spark bang He was deaf for a month we were terribly worried in fear of permanant damage.He still came but he treated them with a lot more respect after that Modern ones work with Propane gas and are much more reliable.They still make your ears ring though if you approach it and it goes off unexpectedly ;D ;D ;D :wave: :farmer:
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I'm netting my cabbage family from the cabbage white, hoping to cage in the currants against the air rats (blackbirds) before they turn red. we do have pigeons but they never bother me or my veg! Honestly! Not much you can do if you have bunnies other than getting a dog or a large cat...Netting against slugs is not available yet or I would get it ::)
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N F D As far as I can find out the only real cure for slugs is agricultural quality Slug Pellets.The ones sold in Garden Centers seems to be icing on the cake for the slugs, after they have spoilt all your plants to me ??? :farmer:
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I find that until the onions have got decent roots - some are pulled out by birds but usually left and then I have to replant them! Pigeons are my second worst enemy after rabbits and my third worst which is mice. It's like a war zone out there!
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Hello greenlife Tell me about it You may have read my posts and know I garden in boxes.Slugs are my worst enemy here Mice run out of puff quite easily they love that blue wheat but it disagrees with their indigestion some how ;D My next door pal Roy lives in the end house has some garden do you know the bluddi pigeons pecked every pea shoot off.Then started on the brassicas We daren't use a 22 the other side feeds the sods inticing them. ??? :farmer:
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Heres a simple bird scarer made from a plastic drinks bottle they work quite well and with a bit of artistic licence can be turned into whatever colour you like, I also use CDs on a bit of string on a stick, usually get these from the supermarkets on the free internet things or other free samples ::) gardenspace.newarchaeology.com/bird-scarer.php
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That looks brilliant clumbaboy! I am off to raid my recycling bin as I type...
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wizard, my ducks would not love me anymore if i start poisoning the slugs! I have to keep gathering them before they attack my veg ::) :&>
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cd bird scarers did not work here, I think they do need the sun to reflect in them and last 2 years there wasn't any sun >:( Maybe I should try again as I don't see a cage materializing before the berries ripen and we are to get a lot of sun now, aren't we??
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Wizard if you bought some copper tape from an electricians supplies type place eg Screwfix and put it round the top of the boxes that would keep the slugs away! The stuff you buy from gardening places is horrendously expensive but it is just the same.
I never see pigeons round my way and very few birds make it into or out of our garden alive (3 cats) - my problem is the chickens who have eaten half my peas and all my rocket! My veg is all in raised beds. So I have made a kind of cage arrangement to surround each bed, made of thin lengths of wood scrounged from a local timber merchants stuck into each corner, with 1m height netting attached using a staple gun. (Cheapie netting from Lidl) Cats are disgusted their "litter trays" are no longer available to them! Hopefully the chickens wandering between the beds will eat the slugs.
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Not heard or seen that vair thanks I shall try it round a couple for experiment see what happens and report.No NFD I haven't had much success with cd's either ??? :D :farmer:
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I managed to 'womble' 6 old Herris fencing panels and a bit of green Scaffold netting which were put together with cable ties and wrapped round with the netting. I then used pond netting over the top held up with bottles on 8ft canes - hey presto - 1 fruit cage!!!
More brownie points from the bank of wife. ;D ;D ;D
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I planted some lovely cabbage plants that my neighbours had given me. On the next Sunday morning, just as I was waking up I looked out the window to see a FAT pigeon waddling up my row of baby plants carefully and meticulously stripping each one as it went!!! I opened the window and clapped loudly. The bloody thing was that heavy it could hardly fly!!! :o Luckily for me, they must have been slightly intelligent as they left the bit in the middle of each plant!!! They are all growing nicely now. ;D
Unfortunately/fortunately the bird was not so lucky!!! That very night, either the bird was hit by a car or my cat did its job!!! All that was left was a pile of bloody feathers!!! :'( ;D ???
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Forgot to say that I DID net my baby cabbages after said bird attack. I didn't know how to do this, so I did what I thought was right and then modified it when it went a bit wrong!!! I'm finding trial and error is a good way to go.
The little blighters (birds, mice??) also had all my peas but one!!! I even covered my pea seeds with holly (as suggested by that woman off gardeners world)!! ONE solitary plant sprung up. I found that pecked out a few days later!!! So I replanted it in my greenhouse. It has survived and is slowly growing into a handsome plant.
I LOVE MY GARDEN :love: :love: ;D ;D :wave: :chook: :cat: :dog:
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Hi Jeanette. Shame about the peas - next time try swishing them in paraffin just before you sow. Nothing likes that smell but it doesn't seem to affect the seeds and definitely means that most are still there to germinate. A different trick which I use early in the season is to sow in a compost-filled length of guttering - I hang this from the crop bars in my polytunnel but anywhere the mice can't reach would be fine. Once the peas are about 3" tall you can slide the whole row into a shallow trench and off they go !
I love my garden too, even when the weeds grow faster than the plants :love:
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Good Moaning as Arthur sez.Before we were blessed with the Soil Association and the likes, Carrots on the farm were sprayed with TVO to combat the Carrot Fly. That is another thing that will not go and get a taste of it. They seem to keep well away so I always give mine a little squirt.When the carrot is harvested They do not taste of it. :D :farmer:
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What's TVO, Wizard?
*Touch wood* I have never even SEEN a carrot fly! What do they look like and what damage do they do?
I have only been growing carrots for a couple of years ...
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never had much of a problem with carrot fly, I always plant onions or leeks in the rows both sides of carrots
I think it's the larvae that borrowes holes into the carrots :&>
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Hello vair I answered another of your questions this morning am I a good boy or what.Carrot Fly is a major pest to the carrot grower and you are quite right the fly lays its eggs and the grubs tunnel holes into the carrot rendering it useless for anything.Often a bonfire is made and the carrots put on to burn the grubs in the carrots.TVO Vair is Tractor Vaporising Oil or paraffin to you For some reason TVO doesn't harm the carrot on any way at all but the carrot fly never go near it.The fly is allegedly a beasty that flies about 18 inch's above the ground and alights on the seedlings and lays its eggs amongst them when the eggs hatch they attack the carrot.This is why you often see fleece vertical about 3ft high around carrot beds They don't seem to be able to go up and over only 18 inch's. ???Bloody things >:( :farmer:
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Thanks Wizard I'll maybe put some fleece around the chicken wire cage!