My sucky, sucky year.

[steev]

I don't; I've never seen a blue adzuki, only off-color blue "material" (rim-shot).

[richardw]

You need something like these predator fences that are used extensively here, keeps out mice so should keep out chipmunks

[steev]

Damn! That would keep me out for sure. What are they against, T rex?

[blueadzuki]

That actually WOULD be doable (well. not by me, as I have no carpentry skill, but the materials would be available) were it not for the fact that anything I put up has to be able to be taken down at seasons end. Installing something that had to stay there year round would be risking it rotting off at the base in the long term winter wet, snapping in a blizzard gale, and careening down the cliff to smash onto the roof of the cars in the driveway.

[richardw]

They wouldn't snap off if you use the right wood. The posts in the photos have being treated there for they would last 40-50 years

[blueadzuki]

NO WOOD lasts long in the ground around here, the soil eats it away like battery acid (pretty much all the organic matter is either oak leaf or hemlock needle. I use 3-5 BAGS of lime each year just to make the soil neutral enough to grow anything). Heck METAL rusts through in 5 or so years in our ground (or why we don't have the swing set anymore)

A lot of this comes back to the same problem. It's not that there is no theoretical method to solving a lot of the problems (for example I could try filling the whole area with potting soil or other brought in stuff to a depth of 10 or so feet (to cover everything up to the trees) and then sink the poles in that to make them last longer.) It's that in nearly all the cases the cost to do it would ludicrously exceed any profit I get back out, especially when one factors in things like the total shade (which I can't do anything about as I have said, we aren't allowed to cut down or seriously trim trees without village permission) and the existing conditions (which basically meant that, if I DID do something like replace the soil. I have to RE-replace it every couple of years to keep up with the new layers of leaf litter.)

[richardw]

gees, things are rather stacked against ya aren't they. Concrete posts??

[blueadzuki]

Again, what happens if they fall over (in that case, from the weight pulling them out of the soil?) As I said, any sort of setup that I can't take down when the season is over and put up again when they next one begins is a no-go. I appreciate your attempts to try and work out a solution, but most of these are just beyond any skill I could do.

Or indeed, possibly not allowed (with out village's rules, it's entirely possible that they would consider the enclosure an eyesore (even though the vegetable garden is not all that visible from the street) and make me take it right down again. If I make too much of a stink, they might make it not permitted to grow your own garden AT ALL (most people here simply use landscapers to determine what they have in their yards, I don't want to run the risk of the village commission deciding to make it so that is mandatory.) It's just be prudent, and, where possible, use their rules against them (for example, if I PUT a tree in and keep it there until it reaches a certain size, IT would be protected by the rules, so I can at least take comfort that the next people who own the house can't simply cut down everything I have put up.)

BTW, The stump was corn planted yesterday, a mix of assorted stippled flints and some purple Andean corn I had lying around, (not maiz morado, actual big mountain type Andean corn that is purple, leftover from my attempts to try and get purple endosperm into my corn.) in the hopes of some pollen (I'm too short season to really hope for ears from them). Soy companion large black beans with either greenish spines (as in backs, not thorns) or light red speckling (I still have the heavy reds).

I am still deciding on what to do the other one as. One part says do the same thing again, and maximize my supply of stippled corn (with a possible size increase from the Andean material). The other says to try another one, for variety (and to not exhaust my stippled supply, lest this fall not produce much or any replacement at the farmer's markets). I imagine I'll probably do the former, since most of my other corns would be ruined if they crossed with what was there (and the patches are quite close, maybe twenty feet, though with a bit of a dog leg for pollen bearing wind). Miniature flour would probably get big again, and anything sweet would taste awful.) I can fiddle with the soy a bit though (I'll have to, I'm out of big black).

[mskrieger]

<sigh> I'm telling you, cross the border to Connecticut. Everything's just better here. The soil, the lack of lousy village zoning rules...

actually, the chipmunk and squirrel problem is the same. Even with a cat that periodically catches and kills/eats chipmunks. You'd need to fence the cat in and keep her in the enclosure 24-7, and even then the lazy thing will probably only hunt when it suits her. Ahem.

But to talk defensive measures that may actually work for you: we bought plastic-covered stakes (easy to find in 5' lengths at Home Despot or wherever and cut in half) and drove them into the ground around my strawberry patch. We then slipped flexible PVC pipes over them, bending the pipe and slipping the other end over another stake to make the frame for a hoop house. Then we pulled sturdy netting over the whole thing and buried the ends/held them down with big rocks. Cheap and effective and low profile.

Maybe worth a try?

[mskrieger]

also, I cover my newly planted seed beds with sticks and fallen twigs/branches, thickly enough that the squirrels (and the cat) find it unappealing to walk over and dig. The brush lets in enough light for the tiny seedlings to sprout. I remove it before the plants get big. Squirrels less likely to dig up established plants (though no guarantees.) Chicken wire, either loose and held down with rocks or stapled onto a wooden frame designed to fit over your garden bed, also works.

[blueadzuki]

That's actually part of the problem. If they left stuff alone after it got big enough, it would simply be a matter of outlasting them (or delaying planting until the natural food got rich enough my plantings were not so much of a temptation) But half the time they seem to kill the plants out of spite, chopping them off at the bases and just LEAVING them there (I'd think I have cutworms as well, except I have dug over those spaces and patrolled enough that if I DID have cutworms in any appreciable amount, I'd know). Just today I went out to find the one cow pea that had made it through chopped off at ground level (along with some wild violets next to it)

And that isn't factoring in the occasional opossum wandering through, who, while they don't EAT plants, DO tear them to pieces trying to dig up bugs they smell in the turned soil (I've tried turning the soil and then leaving it alone for a few days for the smell to dissipate, but since the same thing happens when I have to turn it to COVER the seeds, my choices often come down to leave the seed exposed for a few days (and in easy access of any animals whatsoever or turn it and have the bug eaters rip it to shreds)

A hoop house might work for the beans (though given that many of them are climbers [and I have no idea which will and will not until they do] I have a nagging suspicion that if I left the house on long term [and I'd have to, I've seen deer bite down bean vines and swallow them like spaghetti] I'd wind up with vines so enmeshed in the netting I could not move the house OR collect the beans for the whole year [and not all of them are non shattering]) But for corn, I'd need one hell of a high house, possibly beyond even the height I'd get from full poles (remember, some of my corn mix is Andean for pollen production, so I have to at least be PREPARED for one that does not get stunted by the climate and grows 15-20 feet tall)

BTW this sounds kinda dumb (really dumb now that I have already planted the other one again with mini-flour) but, in you guys's opinion, which do critters who are going after the seed go for more, floury corn or sweet corn. It occurred to me that my neighbors who DO get corn are usually planting sweet to my not-sweet, and have actually wondered if that is the trick, if the animals around here actually like sweet corn LESS than starchy. It seems counterintuative (especially as I know most animals LOVE sweet corn) but now that I think of it, the last few times I planted corn and it GREW all the way, it was sweet corn. So if I get desperate enough (which would be soon I'm almost out of floury seed I am willing to spare) It may be time to break out the sugar bottle (the bottle where I keep any sweetcorn kernels I find on ornamental ears.)

[blueadzuki]

UPDATE 6/11/17

Thing are FINALLY looking better......MARGINALLY

One of the pots of beans is now in flower, so good odds on me getting pods from at least THAT one (that's part of the pants kick of testing out these Ugandan bean varieties, assuming they flower at all, a lot don't start until OCTOBER (good thing I have them in pots, I can carry them in to finish)

One or so of the chickpeas also looks like it has buds, so maybe there too.

And FINALLY one of the vetches in with the peas decided to poke some flowers out. I was really worried that the tangle they had gotten into meant everything would be screened from light and stay vegetative (I already have some concern for the peas themselves, if they are going to get flowers, they should have them by now, right? I mean, it's getting to the time of year when peas finish up, isn't it?) No clue what type (look like giant hairy vetch flowers in shape, but dirty white instead of purple, and only three or four, not a whole panicle.) but I would have no clue ANYWAY (the only one in there I'd recognize is the sessile one. I know it's flowers are yellow because I saw them the last time I grew it). But that at least tells me it isn't some form of V.sativa (no matter what shape the seeds take, or the vine, the flowers of bird vetch tend to all be the same compact purple single things.)

[blueadzuki]

Bean

Chickpea

Vetch

[blueadzuki]

Today I went out again and things look a heck of a lot better

1. The chickpeas are now COVERED with flowers (several dozen)

2. LOTS of the vetches have flowers or buds now, in a rainbow of colors and sizes. So does at least one of the peas

3. More rice beans made it through than I thought. Nowhere near as many as I planted, but I should get close to my normal 20 or so survivors.)

4. I HAVE CORN SPROUTS. Four at the moment (mini by sprout size, in the circle)

[12540dumont]

My gophers are so fat this year that I'm going to invite Steev over for a gopher feed. I have had to cage so many things, that I spent a month making cages and weeks digging them in. A Kite took up residence in a live oak in my creek. Never had one before. It shrieks at me every morning. I shout back, eat gophers! My neighbor has a redwood tree with a golden shoulder hawk in it. The 2 hawks are spending too much time battling ravens to bother with my gopher problem.

I saw 4 deer yesterday....luckily they were down the street! Yikes! Little spotted fawns, they must be lost. Deer aren't allowed on this side of the hill.

Out of a 50 foot row of cabbage, looks like I'll get 12 (gophers ate the other 30). But my garden looks SO much better this year due to the rain we had this fall. Finally, I'm not walking in 4 inch dust. Last year it was so bad, I was going to throw in the towel. Looks kinda pretty this year. I got this GORGEOUS lettuce from Ferdzy. A butter lettuce to out do all others. It's almost too pretty to eat.

I'm sorry you're having a sucky. I guess they must float around.

Leo was saying that nature abhors a vacuum. Everytime I get money, nature must vacuum it away from me. What a week. Check Engine light is on in truck. Mechanic says valve job AND timing chain, plus oxygen sensor! Farm fridge went out. This morning I cannot get hot water. It's a conspiracy I tell you. Farming, is an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, inside a roiling set of contradictions. In the words of St. Vincent Millay, it's not one damn thing after another, it's the same damn thing over and over.

I know you won't believe this, but I'm out of carrot seed!

Maybe I should just leave my wallet in the field.