Turkey
It turns out that wild turkeys have an excellent ability to smell seeds, even when buried underground, and dig them out for a tasty treat. I'm starting this was page because of a new idea. Start the plants in an enclosed area using starter blocks then move them once rooted. That way there will be no seeds for the turkeys to eat.Aug 2010 -A hen stopped on the driveway with about a half dozen little chicks and they just stood there for a number of minutes. When the other half dozen chicks joined the mother hen they went directly the the patch of ground where I had planted the starts. It's clean they knew there was something good to eat there.
 |
The Rapid Rooter is from the local hydro-phonic grow store and the seeds from the hardware store. More later when some results are obtained. |
 18 Apr 2010 seeds in the Rapid Rooter. Note this is two trays. The top tray has 50 pockets and the bottom tray is solid. You can put about an inch of water in the bottom tray and the pockets dip down into the water and are fed by capillary action. The Farwell to Spring seeds were placed on the starter block after turning it upside down since they are to be planted very near the surface (not donw the hole like the rest of the seeds). |
|
RapidRooter
24
April
2010
1
week
after
planting
seeds |
|
2 May
2010 2 weeks after planting seeds The local junior college horticulture department had a sale that provided the six 6-packs of poppy plants. |
|
8 May
2010 3 weeks after planting seeds |
|
16 May
2010 4 weeks after planting seeds (17 May raining) |
|
23 May
2010 5 weeks after planting seeds |
|
30 May
2010 6 weeks after planting seeds |
|
| This did not work. Unknown
animals dug up all the starts. |
|
Deer
It turns out that deer have three kinks of plant eating habits:- Plants that they avoid, like oleander and poppies
- Plants that they don't know and so take a nibble to see what it
is (this is a problem when there are a large number of deer)
- Plants that they desire, like roses
A "people" fence that's six feet high will not keep out deer. They can easily take a bouncing step over it. To keep deer out the fence needs to be ten or twelve feet high or it needs to enclose a small area. Deer will not jump into an area if it would be difficult to jump out. Note they need to have a small amount of forward momentum to jump a fence, i.e. they can not jump a fence from a standing start.
Birds
I expect that if you try to grow fruit one or more of the large number of species of birds will eat it. They now eat the wild berries.Some neighbors have built large frames over trees and covered them with netting.
Squirrel
I expect if you try to grow any nuts they will steal them.Rabbit
I expect if you try to grow a plant that has leaf near the ground they will eat them.Gofer
For a number of years didn't see any signs of gofers near the house, but after installing a drain line from the gutters to lower ground they started to appear. The trench acted like a super highway for them.The landscape architect that did the plans for a prior house said a gofer always goes back into the hole he came from so an fence that's underground about two feet and breaks the surface and continues upward will keep them out.
