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Thursday, April 29, 2010

How to Eliminate Critters from My Garden

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Deer Off. All opinions are 100% mine.

The weather has finally warmed enough to prepare our garden for this year's planting. Last year I had more success than the previous year so I'm hoping for even better garden success this year. My strategy includes:
    seedlings after 3 weeks indoors
  1. started seedlings indoors for better plant stability and earlier harvest ~ Plants were started in early March and many have been transplanted to larger containers for container gardening.
  2. adding compost to my garden soil prior to planting ~ compost is still doing it's thing, I hope to complete this next week when I get the tiller into the ground.
  3. eliminate ornamental plants only using plants, herbs, and vegetables that can be eaten ~ plants already purchased with the garden planting already planned!
  4. maximize the use of container planting around the lawn ~ completed Wednesday, I have the sunburn to prove it!
  5. eliminate as many pests as possible ~ Still a work in progress
As you can see, my garden plan is coming together quite nicely except for one area. Pests! The biggest pest I have are the four legged kind. Deer, squirrels and rabbits wreak havock on my garden. Last year they got the best of my pepper plants and turnips. I think they got into my squash but if they didn't something else did! The broccolli and cauliflower were left untouched...thankfully! Even though the garden did better last year, it could have been even better has those pesky critters could have snacked on someone else's garden!
My local greenhouse has a product called Deer Off. I see it every time I stop by to window shop for new plants! They recommended it last year but I hesitated preferring an organic method for controlling the free loading garden munchers! I neglected to learn this brand of deer repellent is certified safe for organic use by the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). They only had the 16 ounce spray bottle which looked like quite a bit of work for a sizeable garden which gave me another reason to pass on the product.
I just discovered they have a NEW PRODUCT that is designed for larger areas AND fully automated. It's a battery powered 64 ounce sprayer that automatically treats up to 1000 square feet of garden. It's priced at $30.99 online so I'm really excited to give this a try. Mr Wilson, our local greenhouse owner and garden guru, says Deer Off repels not only deer but squirrels and rabbits so with any luck this will help solve my garden critter problem. I'm also hoping it will keep my neighbor's cat out of my garden too!

Now, if I can just figure out how mushrooms got into my carrot sprouts!
Somehow mushrooms started growing instead of carrots!?!

You can learn about deer control or the products mentioned by clicking on any of the links in this post.

How do you handle garden critters???

Visit my sponsor: Not in my garden!

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3 Smart Sayings:

willowbird35 said...

Jennifer, I noticed you mentioned not putting any ornamental plants in the garden this year. Did you know that planting Marigolds in the garden will deter several pests to keep you from having to use pesticides? My mom always planted Marigolds in the garden for that very reason and it worked like a charm! To chase off deer, she'd string empty bleach and milk cartons from string on simple metal stakes and when the wind blew, it rattled them and scared away birds, snakes, deer, and rabbits. Just a few Indiana idears there for ya! LOL

willowbird35 said...

P.S. Love how you used the quick oats container on its side to start seedlings! Clever!!

Anonymous said...

I love how you reused plastic contains for starting the seedlings. They're perfect!

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