Most of the gardeners at Sweet Willow live within close walking distance of the garden, so they can stop by often to see what's ripe. It's also convenient for keeping an eye on pests. Japanese beetles have been a problem for the last couple of years. They show up en masse in mid summer and start munching the leaves off of the bean plants - they'll take out a whole plant in a day! Since we garden organically, we've discovered that the best way to deal with these beetles is to hand pick them off of the plants in the cool early morning and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. In one day, we've harvested more than 100 beetles. After a few days, they seem to get the message and the stragglers move on. Here's a picture of the pesky critters, that I snapped on a wild rose bush next to the Corkstown Bridge. (I think it says something about my age that I have to correct the spelling of beetles every time I type it... beatles looks better).
Another huge problem is squirrels. The best tactic we've worked out is to cover the whole plot with netting in the spring and then carefully peel it off once the plants have grown sufficiently. They still get at the cherry tomatoes of course, and it's super annoying when they take bites out of the cucumbers. But I suppose we've got it easier than our suburban gardening friends who have to deal with all manners of creatures - raccoons, skunks, deer and rabbits for starters.
I don't have deer, but we have bunny rabbits and racoons in our downtown garden. The canal and river provide a great wildlife corridor for bunnies in particular. They savage my garden, but it's nice seeing them anyway.
ReplyDelete