# Two Views



## Eric Johnson (Jul 14, 2006)

Here's the view of this year's garden from the wood pile..........


----------



## Eric Johnson (Jul 14, 2006)

........and the wood pile from the garden.


----------



## Eric Johnson (Jul 14, 2006)

Couple more gratuitous organic garden shots.


----------



## Eric Johnson (Jul 14, 2006)

Nothing fancy again this year, but after three years I've got it just about the way I want it. Yesterday about half of the garden was under water when we had flash flooding. It was moving through there pretty quickly, but everything pretty much stayed put.


----------



## njtomatoguy (Jul 14, 2006)

Very nice pile, and especially nice garden--


----------



## RoosterBoy (Jul 14, 2006)

looks like a nice place you got there Eric what do you got growing in the garden  also how many cord of wood you got there?

thanks
Jason


----------



## BrotherBart (Jul 14, 2006)

RoosterBoy said:
			
		

> looks like a nice place you got there Eric what do you got growing in the garden  also how many cord of wood you got there?
> 
> thanks
> Jason



That is Eric's kindling pile.


----------



## begreen (Jul 14, 2006)

Eric Johnson said:
			
		

> Couple more gratuitous organic garden shots.



Great shots Eric. That's a lot of lettuce.


----------



## elkimmeg (Jul 14, 2006)

Every year My garden starts out  picture perfect Then I loose interest weeds take over I weed some but mother's nature critters seem to have a way to dimish my returns. 
  I finally solved the ground hog problem  he is pushing up daiseys. Birds ate all my strawberries, so I install a net  but the chipmunks
 finnished them off this year.
 My biggest problem are the deer so far so good this year. At some point they will test my patience again. Deer season might come early it it happens again,  though I am not a hunter  The fence takes care of rabbits but deer just knocked down the 4" wire fence.

 Really I try to coexist with nature


----------



## wg_bent (Jul 14, 2006)

We need an action shot of you wackin a log with the 8lber


----------



## suematteva (Jul 14, 2006)

elkimmeg said:
			
		

> Every year My garden starts out  picture perfect Then I loose interest weeds take over I weed some but mother's nature critters seem to have a way to dimish my returns.
> I finally solved the ground hog problem  he is pushing up daiseys. Birds ate all my strawberries, so I install a net  but the chipmunks
> finnished them off this year.
> My biggest problem are the deer so far so good this year. At some point they will test my patience again. Deer season might come early it it happens again,  though I am not a hunter  The fence takes care of rabbits but deer just knocked down the 4" wire fence.
> ...



Elk have you tried the human hair thing?  A friends wife owns a salon and she says people are always coming in for bags of cut hair for gardens and hedges. 

They also got some new stuff made up of alll natural organic stuff, putriefied egg whites garlic etc.  The guy told me he used it and worked well, asked him how ripe it was? First day or two was strong.  Was looking into for the cedar hedge, I believe they had something for the garden also..We have a big one and the last couple years they have stayed away because of the spray we used for this red spider. This winter a couple neighbors cedars were cleaned out..Looks like a woodmizer went through..we had a spot or two where they ate before the pooch found out about it.  I am going to spray something this fall.


----------



## Eric Johnson (Jul 14, 2006)

Yes, lots of red leaf lettuce. We go through a lot, but I always plant more than we can possibly eat, in part because it's one thing I grow pretty well. Other than that, we've got bush beans, pole beans, carrots, cukes, basil, cherry and regular tomatos and some herbs. I've also got some brocoli and eggplant that got a late start, so they may not amount to much. Not many Japanese beetles in the beans this year, but the cucumber beetles are all over the cukes and zuccini. Yeah, I forgot to mention the zukes. We grow them big, then cut them into blocks, split, stack and burn. Zuclear Energy.

On keeping deer away: Obviously, that fence is not going to stop any deer. What I've been doing is hanging a sweaty woodcutting tee-shirt on the fence. That keeps the deer (and the neighbors) away. I have to be a little sneaky about it and keep ahead of my wife, 'cause she thinks it looks low-class. I like the free, organic food angle myself.

There's about 17 cords in that pile. Another 8 stacked in the barn. I expect to have between 35 and 40 cords total by winter. My goal is to burn no more than 15. My ultimate goal is to have a three-year supply at the beginning of any given heating season. Nuts, I know, but I could break a leg or the truck could break down, or whatever, so better safe than sorry.  The space you see in the pic will hold about 37 cords. I'll see if I can get my photographer daugher to take a series of splitting shots. The year-old blocks that I've been splitting this year split a lot easier than the green ones.


----------



## elkimmeg (Jul 14, 2006)

Got to run soon has anyone got a solution to racoons.  I got the have a hart trap but you can only catch one at a time.  3 or 4 of his buddies still reak havoc. So I bring out my 80 lb lab with me. He imediately get into it with one of the racoons. He might have even won the battle. but IT sure cost me at the VETS. Did I mention he is fearless when it comes to skunks. I know the smell arives way before he returns from the encounter. He is also good at chasing deer but gets confused wich one in the herd to chase


----------



## Eric Johnson (Jul 15, 2006)

I know a logger who gets rid of racoons every summer with a have-a-heart trap. He puts the trap out every night, then hauls it 20 or so miles to his logging job the next day. Repeat the process until the coons quit coming.

A more effective and energy efficient and guaranteed method would be to tie a rope around the trap and toss it in the pond. That wouldn't be my choice, but it is an interesting pest-control hybrid.


----------



## elkimmeg (Jul 15, 2006)

I really do not want to kill them , just discourage them stay in the woods approach.
 They do not show up all the time but when they do, theycan do a lot of damage to the garden and spread trash everywhere
 A real PITA  So far so good with Bambi and her friends, this year.  though the apples are not ripe yet


----------



## begreen (Jul 16, 2006)

elkimmeg said:
			
		

> I really do not want to kill them , just discourage them stay in the woods approach.
> They do not show up all the time but when they do, theycan do a lot of damage to the garden and spread trash everywhere
> A real PITA  So far so good with Bambi and her friends, this year.  though the apples are not ripe yet



Last year we had a horrible problem with raccoons. Nearly killed some of our smaller fruit trees. They stripped a mature apple tree of about 2 bushels of apples overnight! A neighbor counted 7 terrorizing his plum tree before he got out a pellet gun. Next time he swears he'll be using a 22. However, I suspect we'll be ok this year. Raccoons seem to self-reduce their population by disease when they overpopulate an area. Ten years ago it was distemper. It took them a decade to recover numbers. This year it has been leptispirosis and I haven't lost a plum to raccoons. Haven't even seen one for about a month. 

 A stout fence will keep some coons out, especially if it's tall and they can't get under it. But you are better off trapping them and either relocating them or giving them the deep-six.  It may take several tries, but raccoons tend to be territorial and work in family units. If you can catch the parents, the children will often move to a new territory, especially if they're young. (Or you can do like a gardner I know and find someone in your neck of woods that likes to eat them.)

Lots of bambis around as usual. They're taking advantange of easy access to our temporarilly relocated plants. Gardens are doing well. Corn is knee-high. We are just finishing sugar-snap peas, spinach and early brocolli. Beans are 8ft tall and flowering, zukes cranking out, and just finished off an excellent artichoke crop. Carrots, beans, chard, tomatoes and peppers will be coming soon. One crop of potatoes looks ready for harvest, but I probably won't get them out yet. Strawberries, plums and raspberries are now in abundance and we had a bumper crop of pie cherries (my favorite). Peach tree and apples are full of ripening fruit. Boy do I love summer!


----------



## Shane (Jul 16, 2006)

Put a giant chimney cap over your Garden.  I had to evict one of those nasty suckers from a chimney the other day.


----------

