Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Beans was cougar

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "marcy" <marcy AT aculink.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Beans was cougar
  • Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 21:47:48 -0600

I had bean plants half eaten off at the row ends last year and finally
figured off it was the rabbits...
They left everything else alone - well until the melons were ripe.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Liz Pike" <strawbry_wine AT yahoo.com>
To: "MF" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:04 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] update on "cougar"/red fabric mulch


> Hey everyone, finally getting around to an update on
> the electronic cougar. It did it's job, we got a
> smallish harvest of blueberries. Would love to have
> had more but I was just as happy to have the plants
> put more energy into root growth and establishment
> than berry production at this point. Now we're gonna
> put it to work out in the garden where we found deer
> evidence in the bean patch. We'll see if it works
> there.
>
> Now here's a head-scratcher (actually 2) I'd like
> comments on:
>
> In the garden we have tomatoes, beans, potatoes,
> peppers, cabbage, and eggplant growing like
> gangbusters. And a whopping total of 9 bean plants
> half-eaten. Why didn't the deer &/or the woodchucks
> eat more?? Deer & woodchucks are EVERYWHERE here, far
> more numerous than any place I've ever lived; there's
> really no reason for them to have avoided that
> garden...there's no housing close by, the plot is open
> to easily see predators & there's good grazing along
> the outskirts and it's close to water.
>
> Today, after weeding the beans, I wondered if it might
> be the red fabric mulch we used on the beds. I found
> a roll of 5' wide red fabric mulch laying somewhere
> around here and we used it on all the beds--you can't
> miss it its so bright. It was free, there was a lot
> of it and I didn't really care whether it increased
> yields or not due to color, just that it would keep
> down weeds. Has the intense color kept out the deer
> and woodchucks, too?? Head scratcher #1.
>
> Headscratcher #2: It doesn't keep out weeds!!! To my
> surprise (& horror) that mulch has started "pillowing"
> & I yanked it up to look underneath. The prettiest
> crop of foxtail millet I've ever seen. No weeds, just
> grass.(We're gonna yank off the mulch and string up
> the electric poultry netting around it and let the
> chickens and turkeys into it...they'll go crazy over
> the feast.) Obviously this mulch allows in sunlight
> which I didn't think it was supposed to do. The
> ground underneath is nicely moist and cool. Now I'm
> wondering what the fabric is...
>
> comments??
>
> Liz Pike
> Hillsville VA
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Market-farming mailing list
> Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
>
> Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page