Northern Virginia No difference Garden Food Plot

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Here in Northern Virginia there is little difference between a Garden Flower/food and a food plot. A bird feeder or Squirrel feeder and a Bear feeder. Here in the town of Warrenton, we get a bear or two in our neighborhood , twice a year. When they kick the cubs out and when food gets short in the winter, about now. They do a little damage and cause a fuss\, that's about it.
Now deer are a different story. They are clearly mindful of who grows what and where.
Leaf Greens are first on their list, then yellow and green squash. They start on my FUYU persimmons as soon as possible. I still have onions in the ground as well as carrots, but they are bothered little. I tie my tomato cages together to make a solid wall/three sides. What they can reach are gone, but I plant lots of extra.
We need a few more cases of Lyme or rocky mountain spotted fever around here and maybe we can slow the train down. I plant three times what I need or to give away.
 
No I cant, I'm here in town, but on the edge. Going to get one of those air rifle crossbows or one of the 50 cal air rifles. I was hoping that the last administration would be suppressor friendly, but did not happen. I grow extra on my half acre. Only one of my adjoining neighbors is not converted, all the rest like the produce and deer meat.
 
Expect a major jump in fertilizer prices.
"Anhydrous Ammonia Prices Climb 60% Since Fall"
Glad to see the Daffodils coming up.
This year I'm going to try Jerusalem artichokes again in a raised bed. last time was 40 years ago. Still have onions, sage, rosemary, some greens.
 
I'm not far from you, in Linden. If I didn't fence my garden in i'd have nothing left. We have two apple trees. Between the bears deer, and squirrels we rarely get any.
 
Progress, 50 tomato plants in so far. I wire the cages together or they get pushed over. I have Japanese Persimmons FUYU. I can even smell them when ripe. Pepper plants are just going in. I use a lot in deer meat. Four raised beds and Patio plants.
 
For those of you that try to save some of your harvest (Garden/Game) Jerusalem artichokes are a neat little tubular type root that looks/tastes like a water chestnut, and is great in salads and fried. Simple to grow and store. Just keep out any type of ground rats (Moles ect). I have no clue where it got its name.
 
Middle of july and already I'm on the food circuit. No plums this year. Not sure if I can save these peppers. I could not have cut them more even. Did it in three nights. They ate down to the bamboo support stakes. Its war.
 

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There's only two, possibly three, sure ways to stop deer from eating your garden up.

1. First is a fence a MINIMUM of 10 feet tall. Anything shorter, and a mature deer, especially one that's afraid, can scale it.

A pair of shorter fences placed 4 feet apart, with the outer fence being at least 5 feet tall, and the inner fence at least 8 feet tall, will USUALLY prevent deer from getting to your garden. Most people don't invest in the outer fence like they do with the inner fence. It usually ends up being much less substantial than the inner fence.

2. Second, is killing them. ALWAYS WORKS. NEVER FAILS.

3. Third, is a livestock guardian dog. If you have livestock to protect near the fenced in garden, then a well trained livestock guardian dog will keep the deer away. But, the dog is going to have to be specifically trained to ward off a species of animal that genetically it is not inclined to chase away. Deer are herbivores, and that's what a livestock guardian dog protects.
 
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The fence allows robins, and sparrows, and bees into the garden. The netting is for to stop hail. The deer cannot enter the garden. The netting, and the fence stop the deer. Rabbits do somehow manage to enter the garden.
 
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I once saved a row of strawberries by putting stakes down and stretching a string above the row for the length of the row. String should be about 2' off the ground. Then take some survey ribbon strips and hang it from the string but not all the way to the ground. Do this every couple of feet. Not sure why this worked but it did. Maybe they didn't like to get their head close to the ribbon or maybe it was the gentle movement of the ribbon??
 
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The fence allows robins, and sparrows, and bees into the garden. The netting is for to stop hail. The deer cannot enter the garden. The netting, and the fence stop the deer. Rabbits do somehow manage to enter the garden.
I always wondered how I could limit the damage from a severe hail storm. I am guessing that the netting gets trashed, and needs replacing. But, that's better than a completely ruined garden.
 
The only thing I know that stops rabbits, and other digging animals, is hardware cloth wired to the fence from at least a foot off the ground, 2 feet is better, extending 6"-12" below the surface of the soil/mulch/sod outside the fence, and extending away from the fence at least 4 feet. A lot of people try to get away with just going out 2 feet away from the fence, but a fair amount of the time the animals just end up burrowing under the hardware cloth, and right back into the garden. Some gardeners have had to lay hardware cloth as far away as 10-12 feet from the fence line in order to stop the burrowing.

1/2", galvanized hardware cloth is expensive. Stainless steel hardware cloth is even more expensive.

If you are intensive gardening, then, in my opinion, the up front cost of establishing a decent in ground raised bed, or above ground raised bed garden, by establishing a proper fence to keep out the deer, elk, bears, rabbits, racoons, skunks, etc., is well worth the money.

For myself, I don't want to share my hard work & money with nature's beasts. I'll plant for them OUTSIDE OF THE GARDEN. WHAT'S INSIDE IS FOR ME & MINE. Or to share with the less fortunate.

I have had an eating disorder since birth, which has resulted in a screwed up gut requiring special foods. With some everyday foods like tomatoes & dairy being restricted.

So, when I get my garden up again, I don't want to share, because I will be depending on the garden for a certain large percentage of my yearly calories & vitamins. After the soil is improved, the humus levels raised, and my freezing, drying, water bath canning, pressure canning, fermenting (new), & if I can afford it, freeze drying (also new) gets perfected.
 
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WOW Tried human hair and it works so so, as does dog poop. Electric fence of the healthy snap works best. I normally don't set that up until the Japanese Persimmons are getting ready. I had no plums this year because of some fungus, and am going to lose the trees. They have given me Japanese Plums for almost 20 years.I will miss them and so will the deer. This is the first time they have ever bothered the pepper plants. I guess the word got out I used the dried peppers in my deer meat, especially the jalapeno. I dry salsa and use it in sausage. Doesn't look great , but it taste good.
I ordered two intrusion detectors that use 209 primers, lets see where that goes.
 
I always wondered how I could limit the damage from a severe hail storm. I am guessing that the netting gets trashed, and needs replacing

The same netting has been used for several years, and is almost perfectly intact. There is a few damaged spots, but they are few. When the large hailstones hit the netting, it is though they are bouncing off a trampoline. Saved the produce a few times, and much appreciated.
 
This is going to be a strange year. My friends at the farmers market told me it looks like a rut going on with all the dead deer on the road, (I agree.) for the last couple weeks. I started to dry cherry, small tomatoes and soon peppers, over two weeks early, way more than I and the neighbors need. The squirrels are nenudding the english walnut tree. Nuts are not even close to ripe. The birds holler when I pick my own blueberries.
 
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