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| Wild turkeys enjoying a stroll. |
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| The ever intelligent crow. |
It's been incredibly windy this fall. I awoke surprisingly early because the wind was roaring through our valley. As I landed my feet over the side of the bed I glanced out the window in time to watch eight wild turkeys march past the hoop house. A reminder that Thanksgiving is fast approaching. I marveled at the steadiness on their feet, no swaying, just a purposeful gait unaffected by the force of the wind. A crow sat in perfect balance atop my bean tower, not swaying to and fro as the gust of wind assaulted the surrounding landscape. And to the right of the perfectly balanced crow the hoop house plastic puffed in and out. I started to fret and questioned whether I'd make my goal of eating out of the hoop house into the month of December. Last year, around this time, my neighbors had the plastic rip off their hoop houses. Leaving the denuded frames exposed to winter's harsh elements.
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| They seem innocent enough, but they sure can eat! They really like to dig up freshly planted seeds. |
Entering the hoop house to get started on our seeding project, I recognized that I had a little issue on my hands and a moral dilemna at the same time. I had caught a chipmunk in a havahart trap that I'd set earlier in the day. Since I'd been battling chipmunks for a while, I decided I needed to take action against them. They kept digging up my seeds and replanting them elsewhere or blatantly sat around the gardens eating the large squash seeds like popcorn at a movie. And being terrible garden guest they left the trail of seed hulls on the ground. It made me irate. The lost revenue was starting to add up and every crop that I planted and lost was setting me behind in my short growing season. I looked at my nephew and knew that I had to make a decision. My intention was to 'dispose' of the offender. I decided my garden helper needed to know the score, so I quickly brought him up to speed on the chipmunk saga. With the aid of a havahart trap and a little bit of ruthlessness I was able to finish my gardening season unhampered by chipmunk activity.
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| Cabbage worms have quite the appetite! |
Weather grew warmer and crops started to mature. My next battle was with the cabbage worm or Pieris rapae, a green caterpillar that has a voracious appetite for brassicas or anything in the cabbage family. My brussel sprouts and kale were being chomped. Last year I opted for hand picking the tiny green interlopers and that seemed to be futile. As I cooked well-washed broccoli, only to have more tiny green worms float to the surface of the pot. I almost ate as many cabbage worms as broccoli, cabbage and kale! I started cooking casseroles to disguise the extra green protein. This year I was a little more pro-active and I used an organic spray of bacillus thuringenis to control my creepy crawly problem. I've also thought about covering the brassicas with remay when transplanting them into
the gardens. Many gardeners have reported some success with this proactive measure.
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| Isopods that are anthropods that breath through gills. They have many nick-names like sow bug. |
There are no shortage of pest in the gardens. Soon I discovered Isopods. A two time offender, both in my raised bed gardens and hoop house. Although these ammonite looking creatures, with their grayish segmented bodies, look like insects they are anthropods-which means they breath through gills. Some of their common names: sow bug, pill bug and wood lice. They tend to like moist places and have an appetite for decaying matter. However, they will eat live plants too. Which I've been witnessing in my newly seeded, winter-hardy greens. The plants are being decapitated before they even get their first true leaves. AND as if this affront isn't bad enough, while digging my potatoes I found several potatoes devistated by these pigs! It almost looked like a mouse had been chewing, but the offenders were right there at work. Thankfully it was only a small percentage of my potatoes that were munched. I am making trails of diatomaceous earth (DE) to thwart the work of the Isopods within my hoophouse. DE is a natural occuring substance and Wikepedia's definition of diatomaceous earth is: "...consist of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae." Although, this is a natural occuring subtance it's harmful to breath. In its pulverized form it's a very fine powder and when applying I took precautions not to breath it in. With a little hand picking of the Isopods within the hoophouse and the DE, I seem to have saved my greens!
When I first witnessed the tops of my greens missing I assumed it was the work of a mouse so I quickly set traps--but wondered why I wasn't catching anything. Then I saw the sow bugs (Isopods) at work. Only a very small number of plants were affected, mice would have eaten much more. But I was glad I had traps out, just in case. As the weather grows colder mice are going to take refuge any where they can. Within the past week I have caught five mice. My husband, Rob, shakes his head at me because the hoop house is at the base of a large field that must be loaded with an infinite number of mice. I will remain diligent.
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| Deer mice sure look cute but they are wicked pest. |
Anyone that has gardened knows the work is relentless and often times things don't go as planned. Tomato blight, lack of rain, too much rain. The list can go on and on. Yet those that have the calling are right back at it year after year. To me gardening is like fine music in that it can have beauty, upbeat tempos and an eerie yet satisfying quandary to it all. When I think about it, I wonder about those wild turkeys bypassing the hoop house in their foraging, being forced to reroute their journey, past a structure that once wasn't there. And I think of the countless murders that I have on my hands thanks to natural subtances like BT, DE, or mechanical devices like mousetraps and havahart traps. Makes me wonder, who is the pest?
But as long as I need to eat and survive I'm forced to make decisions. I recognize that in retrospect as long as I'm not trying to annihilate all the sow bug or mice population on my land, yet designate small areas where I garden, 'free' of those critters-I think I'm being reasonable. It's when we carelessly set out to destroy an entire population that we can get ourselves into trouble. And that's my take on it as I continue to grow greens into the waning part of November here at Chicken Hill Gardens.
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