Hi Group,
My husband and I are relatively new to Charlottesville. We are very interested in connecting with folks interested in sustainable urban agriculture. We recently complete our first raised beds. The existing garden flooded with a really good rain. I have done some gardening in the past but this my first house and now I can experiment. Unfortunately between the groundhog and the squirrels we have already suffered some plant damage. Has anyone had success with electric fence and small critters? Are they a worthwhile investment for urban agriculture? Please see the photo of the raised bed.
I would like to share this info with anyone who lives by an impaired waterway. Albemarle County still has funds availble to help homeowners with the purchase of plants to help with the stream buffer restoration initiative. http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=planning&relpage=9382. I didn't know about it until fairly recently.
Thanks,
Kim Swanson
3 comments:
Hi Kim:
From 1998 to the spring of 2001 I lived in Northern Virginia (Sterling) and had similar problems in my urban setting. Building the raised beds was a good idea. I had to do the same thing because the soil on my property was red clay and highly compacted (hardpan) which did not let water infiltrate. Even the roots from large trees in my yard were visible on the ground surface because they could not penetrate the hardpan. As for the ground hogs and squirrels, I had a bad problem with squirrels eating my plants, bulbs, and many other things we grew for food because there were 1) too many of them since there were no predators there, and 2) there was nothing else for them to eat since most homeowners opted to plant tree species such as Silver Maple, Red Maple, and other fast-growing trees for shade purposes...and here I was planting an edible landscape that served as a buffet for local wildlife. I would research the law on an electric fence in your yard before I put one up. I live on a farm in rural West Virginia and have liability if someones trespasses and is injured by my electric fence. In Sterling, I used chicken wire laid flat in my flower and herb beds to keep the squirrels from digging and eating the roots of my cultivated plants. I also used chicken wire over my raised beds to keep out the squirrels. Finally, as a last line of defense, we fenced in our entire yard with chainlink fence and let the dog run free which also helped keep out the critters. Good luck with your new house and garden!
Kim,
If I try to think of complementary plantings I'm not sure of any that would help, but I think Scorpio has some good thought in the way of complementary animals. I imagine a dog or cat that was an outside animal would be some benefit to keeping the rodent population at bay. I also think our involvement, as people, can be complementary in more ways than weeding. We've been urinating around our garden to keep deer out and have had some success although, like you, this is the first garden in our new home and we havent put it to a long term test.
As far as fences go, I'm not such a big fan, but a translucent covering like Remay (I think the spelling is right), which is also used as filter fabric for foundation drains, can provide a light "gossamer" covering that you can roll on or off the garden depending on your needs. It lets most sun thru and keeps larger nibbling animals out. It could potentially keep smaller animals out if you had large sheets and pined them tot eh ground. Our past experience with this is that it worked great, especially during the early season when the temperature could still drop (it acts like a blanket), but when our tomatoes and other plants got taller and the Remay was simply draped over the tomato cages the animal snuck under.
I suppose you could also provide an animal buffet of sorts by planting a perimeter of stuff you were willing to sacrifice to the wee critters. I know this is heartbreaking to think that you put in so much time to grow beautiful plants and then let them go, but on the other hand I am personally living in their habitat and I could see thinkin of it as a rent of sorts.
To shorten up a long message - Good Luck. I am eager to hear what you come up with as none of my solutions are absolute.
Jehosephat
Thanks Scorpio and Jehosephat for your thoughts. We have invested in Reemay. I have replanted the corn which is now coming along nicely. But I need to get the Reeemay up before the birds get to those tender new shoots. After a lot of vacillating, we opted to invest in an electric fence. We had not thought about posting signs which is a good suggestion. I will let you know we think it works out.
Kim
Post a Comment