The Seen And The Unseen

Some times I have so many garden plans and then found that we had lots of unseen things that we had no idea what was going on in the yard and gardens.  Oh I had lost of plans this year, but so did others and it took some time to figure it all out.  I have not written on this blog in quite some time.  I was so disenchanted with my whole yard, on my acre, in the middle of the big woods, on the side of this mountain, that I just could not bring myself to post anything.

The beginning of Spring, I planted lots of things and they were all doing so well. I had 2 Tomato plants and one of them was a patio tomato and wanted to see how it would do in my raised garden. Planted to green peppers and one hot one to make some salsa.  We had some squash that came up on it's own, cucumbers, and cantaloupes, and my favorite Purple Beans and lettuce and spinach.  They were growing so good and I was so happy. I was going to be able to do some canning and freezing for the summer and the winter of this year.  Dreams of a full pantry were on my mind.

DEER

Then we had a kind of beautiful/disastrous problem in just one night.  No kidding it was beauty and nature and I do love that part, but it was also so devastating that happened in one single night. We are graced with many deer on this mountain and they are such beautiful and graceful creatures and I just love to see them,

but.....and a big BUT.....they ate all the gardens that you see above and left me with nothing. I planted things that they are said to not like and they ate all of them too. I almost wanted to cry.....seriously.

Our grocery bill has been higher because of this and it saddens me greatly that I could not go out and pick some beans and lettuce and garden vegetables for a fresh salad.  Oh, I did try and plant more seeds, but for some reason they did not want to come up at all.  Though it was the middle of July, but still nothing.

VOLES

We also had voles and I thought they were moles.  They eat different things and that is the difference that I was told. They eat bulbs, which I had bought and planted in my front garden last fall.  Only 2 of them came up.  Really, I had no idea what killed something like 50 or more bulbs.   We live in the woods and lots of trees and weeds and all kinds of things and flowers that we planted and they really did clean out the yard and gardens.

We were told to get some Vole no kill repellent and that would fix the problem.  HA!  We used 3 bags of that stuff and I still see some new holes. At first the holes that I saw I thought were made by snakes. Notice in front of this Rose Garden how there is no grass or clover or anything growing there.  We had seeded lots of Clover there for the bees to get to, but all the grubs ate that and of course the favorite food for the Voles is....grubs.

These are the main Bearded Irises's that I divided and put many up front along the road. They had eaten every single one of the bulbs in that garden.

We were on the war path during most of the summer, trying to get control of our yard and gardens.  Very sad to say that will take another year, maybe more.

GRUBS, BUGS, FLEAS AND MORE 

Then I remembered that we didn't put Fast Acting Pulverized/Powedered AgriLime down this year!  We had something stored in one of the Metal Trash cans that I use lots but couldn't remember what it was.  Oh and Next time I will put the bag in there to let me know what it is that is being stored in there.  Just before we put that and a heavy coverage of it down we have a major flea problem.  So we are still dealing with that, but not as bad outside now that we put the AGLime down.  It has been a hell of a year around my house and in my house. I mean one has to be creative to get things to grow and keep growing and not eaten or kill anything.  We spread the AGLime to kill the bugs, grubs and to keep the Voles out.

FENCING

The Deer problem is more of a community effort as the neighbor that we have wasn't aware that feeding the many birds around here also feeds the Deer.  There is one Momma deer and she has twins this year.  Oh they still had their spots and that is unusual this late in the summer too.  I am not sure what is going on this year with all this.  I do know that we had a very warm and wet Winter and Spring this year, so far.  I am not sure what this Fall will bring though.  People do not get it when I tell them that every year around here is a new planting schedule and seasons.  No two are alike that I have found out by living and working in the yard and gardens since 2002.

Here is a new project to keep the Deer out of the Vegetable Gardens. It has taken us a while to get it all together because of all the setbacks that we have, but it is 90% finished. Though Lowes had many of the things that we thought that we needed some of the supplies weren't exactly the right sizes,  So we had to use our thinking caps and came up with something that would work. We also had to hire someone to do the work because I had hurt my hand badly and could not hold anything.

I will be hanging something light on the top of the fence to scare the deer and other animals away and make it pretty. During Christmas I will hang Christmas balls and during Easter I will hang some of those colorful plastic eggs on it.  They will match the colors of the raised garden inside the fence.

I do hope that my plans work out for next year because I am a whole lot more knowledgeable.  

THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN

It was a really quick SEEN and the UNSEEN adventure this past year.  When putting some of that repellent in one of the holes one of the voles ran out. My cat, Frederick, caught it and then let it go. They have huge claws.  I think it got him and he had to let it go.  That thing was the size of a fat hamster.  It dug back down into the ground in less than 20 seconds!  My husband and I looked at the surprise on Frederick's face.  Frederick looked at us too.  We were all very surprised at how fast that creature went underground.  

What else will be SEEN AND UNSEEN in my yard and gardens the rest of the year and how well this fence does?