 Garden Raider Wannabes |
Garden Raider Wannabes |
August 8, 2009Arcticulates ®Focusing on Alaska's BeautyAuthor: K. FieldsGarden RaidersMoose Eyeballing the Growing Garden Veggies
It has been a rough summer for Alaska there has been well over 2 million acres that have been burned by wildfires. Most wildfires are usually started by lightening strikes. Some are careless campers, which really are rare in Alaska. July has been unusually dry causing the land to easily catch fire and for it to spread extremely fast. In my humble opinion : It does not help that we have strange insects which I call spruce beetles killing our spruce, the miner leaf insect killing off the aspen, and a blight that is infecting our willows this year. Which has caused a lot of dead trees kindling. Moose Plan of Attack Session
The garden I put in this year, I have worked on slowly, I have been working on the fencing this year, trying to get a fence high enough to discourage the moose from eating my crops. Most of my garden funds went into that this year, I still have another 50 feet or more fence to buy to replace the chicken wire (which stands around 4 foot tall) I have temporarily put up on one side of the garden (not pictured). Moose Testing the Strength of the Fence Post
The newer fence I have is 6 feet high. It is a little hard to tell by the photos but the scarecrow stands around 6 foot also. It does a great job during the beginning of summer, keeping the smaller varmints out and the birds, but has no real effect on the moose as you can see by the photos. Moose Pretending to be Innocently Grazing Outside the Garden Fence
The Moose in our area have what I call... garden smart instincts.. they know to wait till just before harvest to get the good stuff. They leave the garden alone till around August, just when the veggies are finally getting some size to them and will be ready to harvest in a couple of weeks. As of now, I am finally getting some peas, and the potato plants are flowering, And the cabbage heads are about the size of my hand. In a couple of weeks the cabbage should be the size of soccer balls (which would be considered small here in Alaska) Closer View of Garden Without Moose Bystanders
I have heard many cures for keeping moose out of the garden.. One is of course... a good fence. Another rather strange rumor... is sprinkling fox urine around the outside of the fence, which I find strange, because I could see a rabbit being leery of a fox's odor but not a great big moose. Not to mention... Ewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!! And small matters such as a fence or people crazily screaming and running around, banging pots together, (as I just did) rarely deters them from the nice fresh veggie salad that awaits them..
This year I tried something new for me... I bought 3 foot wide rolls of black paper(tho it looks grey to me). It is almost like a type of fabric. You roll it over the already tilled ground then cut holes where you want to put the plants. Then you anchor the fabric down with metal pins, and in my garden I have used pieces of wood because of our high wind area. It has really helped the plants this year, by keeping the ground warmer, and the weeds less. It will naturally disintegrate with the sun and water because it is made from natural fibers. I really had a great experience using it this year and will use it again next year, and maybe have a better idea of what I am doing. Cabbage, Peas, Onions, Potatoes, Lettuce, Collard Greens, Cucumbers, Squash, and Pumpkins (the last three didn't do so well this year)
So... We will be carefully watching over the garden, and hopefully the raiders will not attack in the night hours! Later... K Fields See Also: Moose Marauders!
|
Return
to:
Recent
Posts! |
|
|
Recent Comments From My Readers! Thank-you! |
|---|
|
|
