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18K views 87 replies 24 participants last post by  nveagle 
#1 ·
I have a garden every year, but it is at a second property and a pain to take care of. This year I am going to try raised bed and container gardening. I had a small piece of our yard that still needed to be landscaped so I thought I would turn it into a small garden area. It still has some cosmetic issues that need to be finished but as you can see in the pics it is ready to plant. The black planters are upside down tomato planters that will hold 4 plants each and I will plant peppers on the top.

I will move the wood pile and a small chicken coop will go there so we have fresh eggs. I also plan on placing a few containers in the garden area for small stuff. Trying to make good use of the area while still having it look nice as we have been working hard on fixing up our yard. The wire fence will go once we are done with the yard and it will be replaced by a small wooden one which will look much better.

The bed sizes are, 3 beds at 8'x3'x8" deep, 1 bed at 8'x3'x12" deep and 1 bed at 4'x3'x8" deep. They are made from pressure treated lumber and aluminum brackets at the corners and centers so they should last as long as I need them.

Still have about 3-4 weeks till I can plant with no worry of frost but will plant next week and will use hotcaps and row covers to get a head start. I will plant bush beans, carrots, radish, tomato, bell and anaheim peppers, lettuce, spiniach, squash and a small mix of herbs.

I do have a problem with deer tho, what would you all suggest? I can't shoot them (2). It is impractical to put up a deer fence so I was wondering what natural deterents could I use? I live at about 6500' elevation and have a short growing season so I don't want any setbacks from the deer.
 
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#25 ·
Gorgeous setup you have there! I don't know what to tell you about the deer...I'm still fighting the varmints myself. Added tomato trellis as fencing around the terraces this year. You'd think the smell of the dogs all over the yard would deter them, but it hasn't yet.
 
#4 ·
Wow! That's beautiful! You've definitely done alot of work there. There's 3 things I've heard that will keep deer away, fishing line (they can't see it but sense there's something there so won't cross it), Irish Spring soap shavings, (don't like the smell) and dog hair. I have a Siberian Husky, so get a lawn and leaf bag full of hair from her every spring. My daughter has deer in her yard all the time so we're going to check out the dog hair theory this year. Good Luck and keep us posted! :thumb:
 
#8 ·
Hoss, I hope you have better luck with the deer than I had. I had 110 fruit trees in WV and the first year the deer ate them back so hard that 10 trees died. I put up a tall fence. They jumped it (A Whitetail doe was filmed clearing an 18 foot high fence, without any runup). Next I added an electric fence around the outside of the wire fence. They used the electric fence to scratch on and jumped the wire. Then I tried the California vineyard trick of laying tanglefoot wire about a 6 foot wide strip outside the wire fence. They walked thru it, scratched and jumped the wire. I tried transplanting wild blackberries outside the tanglefoot to form a bramble...they ate the blackberry vines. I bought an SKS and started shooting them. Shot one, they ran away. The next night, shot two...the rest ran away. The next nite there were just as many as ever. I got tired of dragging deer carcases out of the orchard, dressing them out and hauling them off so I started gut shooting them so they would run away and die somewhere else. Shooting 3 to 5 a nite for a week and there were always just as many as before. I tried ZooDoo, chemical repellents, flashers, water cannon, etc. Nothing worked for more than 1 or 2 nights. In 15 years the harvest from the entire orchard would have fit into a shopping cart. I finally got tired of it all, sold the property and moved to Texas. Haven't seen a deer since I moved here, and won't shed a tear if I never see one of those 4-legged appetites again.
 
#9 ·
I wish you luck with your trees! I didn't lose any but mine were nipped back to only a foot tall last year. This year I purchased deer repellant spray at Menards and I am not opposed to using a 12 gauge out my window if I have to. The problem is that I see them when I am awake in the middle of the night and I'm afraid the children would have a heart attack from the sound of a shot gun blast in the house. :( I love my trees so I am open to anything that will get rid of those rats on hooves.
 
#83 ·
Yeah, those tasty rats on hooves...

Use a .22LR with a suppressor. All you need is a tax stamp and and some threads cut into the end of your barrel. You can also try the subsonic versions. They don't make anywhere near as much sound as a regular .22, but aren't as quiet as a suppressed 22.
 
#10 ·
Well I planted the garden today. Green bell and anaheim peppers, carrots, radish, lettuce, spiniach, bush beans, corn and squash. In the pots I planted mint, oregano, chives, cilantro, italian parsely basil and thyme. The tomatos and the rest of the peppers will be planted later after danger of frost is gone.
 

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#11 ·
A natural solution if not socially acceptable

How private is your yard? Will you get fined for indecent exposure if you urinate along the fence? Nothing chases away deer like that. If you have a dog walk them only along the fence for about a week to establish a pattern and then the dog will continue the pattern when you just let them out on their own. It also helps if you let your dog out at sunrise and sunset when deer are out.
 
#13 ·
It is hard to tell from the pics but my lettuce and radishes have sprouted. My peppers and tomatoes remain inside except for when the weather in nice enough for them to spend a few hours outside. We are expecting snow and high winds for the next 3-4 days so will see how it goes.
 

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#18 ·
Oktx, very satisfying! Just got 2 days of snow and the rest of my plants were due to sprout today so I hope I dont have to replant. Was trying to cheat mother nature out of a couple more weeks of growing season.

RZombie, I have heard that too but not sure I want to scatter other peoples hair in my garden. Might try my own tho, tie it in clumps to some stakes maybe.

I am going to experiment this year with a few of the plants that repell deer and maybe a few of the products you can purchase. I will see what works here and let others know.

Thanks for all the responses.

The snow is supposed to clear up tomarrow and will uncover the beds and see what survived.
 
#19 ·
Just an update. The carrots, beans and corn came up about 2-3 days ago. We are still getting temps down to around 26 at night so my row covers are getting used and working great. No luck on getting the herbs to sprout so will probably replant them.

Now I just need these freezeing temps to stop, weatherman is calling for snow over the weekend.
 
#21 ·
The site is down so I can not read it but...

I did some research before I built my raised beds. Treated lumber has not been made with arsenic for 10 years or more. It is safe for raised beds. The only problem with it is that it is corrosive to metals that it comes in direct contact with, especially aluminum. I used aluminum corners but they are anodized with a protective coating. The newer treated lumbers do not leach chemicals into the soil.

I can not remember the chemical make up of this lumber but it has zero arsenic, I think they use a copper salt in place of it which is why it is bad for metal to wood contact but not sure.
 
#23 ·
I wanted to try the potato/tire growing thing so I stoped by the tire shop and gathered up 6 tires, it was all they had to give away at the time. I am planting 3 sets of these (all russets) and will add the tires as needed, I can always get more later.

I set these up on an unlandscaped section of the yard where they will get sun all day long. Can't wait to see how they turn out as this is the first time I have tried growing them this way.
 
#37 ·
Looks like most survived! Guess I had them buried under enough layers of row covers.

All the snow has melted today. I uncovered everything, dried out the covers and reapplied them. Got another storm moving in.

Will see what happens tonight, the weather calling for more snow tonight but then the weather should improve. Got to love the ever changing weather here. 8" of snow one day, 60 degrees the next, then more snow. Someday spring will arrive...
 
#39 ·
Well it looks like I did not lose a single vegetable plant to the snow and frost. I will replant all the empty spaces Monday. For the most part things seem to be going well. My spices never made it through the frost. I have replanted them inside and will move them out once we stop getting frost. My tomato and pepper plants are still inside as well, but doing good. My squash never did sprout so I will probably by some starts to replace those.

5-16-10 Squash Sprouted!
 

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#40 ·
Well it looks like spring just does not want to arrive here. As you can see it has snowed again. I had everything covered so all should be good.

All my veggies and spices have all sprouted and are doing good. If all goes well my peppers and tomatoes should go outside in about a week and be at the mercy of mother nature.
 

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