Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Garden Time

Most of you might not know but we have an interest in having a green thumb. Like that distinction? We had a small garden a while back when we lived in Oregon but apartment life in Utah kept us away from growing much. We played with the notion of a community garden plot but with school and life being so busy we busted on that idea. Last year when we moved into our house we were already set with a preexisting garden on the side of the house. Luckily Denise (Lajuana's sister whom we share the house with) has two green thumbs and got us going. She also is leading the way this year and we benefit from all her work but we also have been learning and helping along the way to get our thumbs in the mix. Below is a picture of what it looked like.



You might notice the plastic green fence around it. That was put up in an attempt to keep those darn bunnies out from eating our strawberries. It worked a bit but in places the bunnies eat holes through it. We started imagining these viscous hungry rabbits as brilliant foes who always were one step in front of us. They eat our strawberries so then we put up the green fence. Then they started eating our blackberries so we put up chicken wire around that. So then the rabbits eat a hole in our green fence and eat stuff anyway. By the end of last summer came we had a grip on keeping them out.

This year I have a plan to beat them! I installed a retaining wall with a chicken wire fence that goes over a 18 inches underground. I also expanded the garden from 10'X10' to 10'X22'. It now encompasses the blackberries. We planted last weekend some corn, strawberries, squash, green beans, tomatoes, and the existing blackberries. We also planted in another location pumpkins and zucchini without a fence because we've heard bunnies won't eat them but I'm afraid ours might just to spite me! Below are the pictures of the new garden.







With any hope we'll have some good veggies this summer! If the bunnies do manage to hop the fence and eat the food maybe they'll get to fat to hop out and in the end we'll have a bunny pin rather than a garden! Either way I'm going to out smart those persistent bunnies!

--- John

6 comments:

The Kooky Queen--Rachel said...

WOW, you guys are so inventive! I used to think bunnies were cute and innocent until I saw Watership Down, that 1970's cartoon and then I realized how EEEEvil bunnies can be.

Kristin said...

That is not your average garden fence-- that is amazing! If those bunnies get into your garden then we are all in trouble! I totally recommend Nassau. I don't know where else you were thinking about going, but we had a great time. The currency is the same there (a dollar) and the language is English (if you didn't already know that). Good luck with your travels- and Happy Anniversary!

I have a good life said...

What an amazing garden! I can't wait to see it full of fruits and veggies. Our blackberries have just ripened (yum) and we ate zucchini, tomatoes, and yellow squash from our garden for dinner tonight. :)

Mary Elizabeth said...

Bunnies are tough adversaries! Spencer’s Mom, in PA, was told if she bought plastic inflatable snakes and placed them in the garden it would scare the bunnies away. Being innocent and believing the nice garden man she did just that. The next morning she found two bunnies playing on her inflatable snake like it was a see-saw! Inflatable snakes don’t work but your fence just might. Good luck with the war.

Science Teacher Mommy said...

The hardest part about large pests--birds, bunnies, moles, etc. is the guilt over thinking of them as pests. For example, I'm more than willing to let Plantboy put organic Sluggo out there to rid us of the snails, but you can't kill the big stuff. Because you don't, however, they spend the whole growing season outsmarting you at every turn. Good luck. :)

Jessica Engh said...

Great garden! What an awesome idea to keep the Thumper outta there. Good luck with that.