Jen Fulkerson

One of my coworkers has a barn cat that's a very good mouser. He thinks she might be pregnant. If she has kittens. I told him if he lets them stay with mom long enough to learn to hunt would take two.
It's a lot of if and might, but a couple of good hunters would help a lot I think.  
We live between a walnut orchard and an almond orchard. We have always had these critters. 2024 is the first time I have had them making nests in my raised beds. I've had times when the squirrels steel my seeds, but a good sprinkling of cayenne pepper always stopped that for a long time. Not last year. All my tricks that usually work , like spraying ammonia around the outside of the garden and beds, cayenne, and flashing, moving stuff. Nothing worked. Something is out of balance. The outside cat that adopted us (just showed up and stayed) died in the winter of 2023.  We think it was hit by a car.  We also had to do a major trim on a huge walnut tree, and cut down a volunteer plum that was choking out our apricot tree. It was a miserable year With lots of projects that had to be done, so the wood piles sat. I suspect this helped increase the rodent population. We are slowly addressing this problem. We gave my nephew a lot of the wood to burn in his wood stove. I have been using some in new raised beds I've built, and my son is making a burn barrel to get rid of the branches. I hope in a way that gets me lots of charcoal to turn into bio char.  Our goal is to have it done by Easter. (It helps to have a goal)
Thanks for your support. I hope those of you dealing with critter problems find a way to eliminate or coexist in a way that allows you to enjoy your garden.

I love almost all aspects of gardening. Seed starting is probably one of my favorite parts.  Usually I can't wait to start my warm weather seeds. Matter of fact I often start them a little early. Not this year. I have been struggling to keep anything alive in the garden because of rodents, and/or squirrels. I don't mean to be a complainer. And to those of you who always have to deal with these pests I apologize.
I'm just so bummed. The critters are taking the joy out of gardening for me. The only things growing now are in cages. If it's a short cage anything that grows beyond the cage get eaten.
I really don't want to cage every garden bed. I like  to just pop in and mess around at any given moment, and an enclosure will make that so much harder. I won't give up, but at this moment I'm just totally frustrated with the entire thing.  
I start seeds in the the house. Once they have a couple of true leaves they go into the greenhouse. The problem I'm having won't affect the process, but for some reason, I just keep putting it off. I need to get in gear.  Maybe it will help bring the joy of gardening back.

Me too. When you have time we would love to hear what the results of your experiment was.

Thanks Pete. Maybe I will just leave it. At this point what have I got to loose? The one In the ground has already been subjected to lower temps, but maybe a black bucket of water next to it will help it survive the winter.
I only soaked the first ginger. Thanks for the low water info. That's important. I don't think I was over watering, because they didn't rot, but who knows.
Thanks for the info and your time
Jen

I'm going to divide and conquer, I hope.  I really don't want to cage all my raised beds. Having to open, or remove a panel every time I want to interact with my garden is very unappealing. That being said I saw a guy on YouTube make a pretty one that added beauty to the garden. I think I will build a couple of them. Maybe as insurance. If everything else gets attacked, maybe the things growing in the enclosure will survive.
Next I need to put more wood chips in my garden paths. I will use the wood chips I have, and buy cedar wood chips for the top layer.
I have lots of mint. I'm going to make a mint spray and spray the soil in the beds.
I'm going to spray the outside of the beds with ammonia.
I'm going to build a bucket trap.
Once in a while I will sprinkle the soil with cayenne pepper.  This has worked in the past, the problem is it can get expensive, because I have to reapply it every time I water, or it rains.
I'm hoping filling the garden with smells that rodents are supposed to hate, that it will make it a place they don't want to live.
Will it work? I don't know, but I hope so. I really don't want to have to enclose all my beds. My only other option if it doesn't work is an electric fence. That doesn't appeal to me, but it's an option.

Early spring 2023 I got super excited to grow ginger. I watched tons of YouTube. Filled a shallow pot with organic compost and potting soil and perlite. Bought organic ginger. Soaked like many suggested and put it in the greenhouse, and waited, and waited... It didn't finally pop up only to die shortly after.  I have lost track of how many times I've tried to start, and  the different techniques I've tried.  Finally I saw a video that talked about ginger being an understory plant. I put it in the soil in the middle of a raised bed that had a large tomato, a pepper and luffa. It was growing very well. Which was surprising because it didn't seem to get any sun at all. I kept moving the pepper aside so it would get a little morning sun, but it really didn't get much. The problem is it was very late in the season by the time I cracked the code.  The foliage had only grow about 12" before cold weather came. It's been a very mild winter so far we have only had a couple of light frost.  The ginger still feels firm. Should I leave it in the soil? Or should I dig it up?  Will it come back when it warms up?
This is one of those plants that everyone says is so easy to grow, that has given me nothing but trouble. I'm determined to make it work this year. I look forward to some advice on making this place finally grow for me.  Thanks

My latest bed I call my reject bed it's made with wood form my reject pile. The boards were crummy for various reasons, and the small end pieces are what used to be the bridge for the chickens. She's not the prettiest bed, but will do just fine for my extra garlic.

Riona I have experienced that as well. Maybe you didn't plant early enough. I'm zone 9b and I have to start when it's still hot. You may have to start your fall garden in August, maybe even July.   It's strange to start cool seasons crops in the hottest time of the year, but next year find a shady spot and experiment with some cool veggies you want to plant.  Or pop them in between established summer crops.  
The cool thing at least for me is everything will just hang out, and do nothing, but when I get temps the plant likes it will take off, and suddenly produce like crazy. I had a lot of critter problems, so I had to plant my fall/winter crop very late, I'm experiencing exactly what you are talking about now. My peas are about 12" tall, the broccoli is just hanging out. Lettuce,  spinach and carrots are growing, but quite slow. It's ok, I don't know about you, but I think fresh peas are worth the wait. I plant a lot, and still hardly any ever make it to the house. We all love to snack on peas right in the garden.  Hands down my favorite veggie to eat that I grow.  Don't give up, it just takes a bit to figure out the timing, and even then things happen, it's what makes gardening such an interesting challenge. Good luck, and have fun.

Red rose was the start of this post, so we are all picking on them, but when I first discovered the "plastic-ish" tea bags I searched for companies that don't use them. There are some, but I couldn't find one of them at that time in the stores I shop in.  I was worried about the price, but I don't think it's costing me more. I ues 1 teaspoon of loose leaf tea per cup. A pound of tea last a long time, even in our house where we drink a lot of tea.
I like the tea strainer that's like a small cup with tiny holes. It has extendable arms on the side, and come with a lid. You hang it on your cup put your tea, or herbs, or both in the strainer, pour hot water over, put the lid on. Once you have let it steep as long as you wanted to steep, take the lid off and use it to put the tea strainer in to keep your counter clean. They are my favorite. I got 2 for 10.00 @ Amazon.
I'm thinking about growing my own tea. I understand it takes a long time, and you don't get much, but it would be fun to play around with.

Thank you Harry. I'm certainly not an expert, but I would say like most garden info it depends.  I think (again not an expert, just many years of hands on experience) what you are planting make a huge difference between higher or lower yields.  From my experience over seedlings one mass crop like you point out have lower yields.  For me I have been amazed how much I can pack into my garden bed and get amazing yields. I'm not planting all one plant in my raised beds. One bed may have several veggies, fruit, flowers and herbs. With this crowded style I can use tall plants that provide afternoon shade for plants that can't handle our brutal afternoon sun. The soil is covered, and that helps with keeping weeds down, and helps with water retention, and soil temperature.
I was surprised how much corn I got out of that bed, but I'm sure if I had spread out the same amount of corn I probably would have gotten more corn, and probably larger ears.  Also using the 3 sisters planting style I got 1 watermelon, and nothing else. I think the corn was so dense it took forever for the pumpkin and melons to climb out of the bed so it could get enough sun. ( I didn't manage to get the beans planted, but that's probably just as well). I waited to long to harvest the corn and it was almost pure starch. That was just my mistake, nothing to do with how I planted.  I'm not sorry I did this little experiment. I love growing, it was fun to watch the corn grow, and I learned a lot. Would I plant exactly this way again? No, but I may take corn off my don't bother with list.