Sunday, March 18, 2012

Squirrels and insects, oh my!

I suppose gardening will always be full of surprises. I sowed kale, spinach and beets directly into containers outside. These have taken some time to sprout and just when they started to pop its head out of the soil, some creature attacked my containers! At first I thought it was birds (we have a whole bunch of birds that hang out on the balcony and poop all over my car) but now I think it is was squirrel(s).  I'm not sure what they were looking for but they pretty much ransacked all the containers.
Holes in the soil - probably squirrels?
Not all the seedlings were destroyed, but they did tear up a good number of them.  I figure out a way to keep the squirrels out using a grid I had from shelving unit I used to use in school.
Anti-squirrel!
This solved the squirrel problem, but then something started attacking the spinach seedlings. I have a good number of healthy looking seedlings that hadn't quite yet formed its true leaves. All of a sudden they just started to wilt and when I tugged it, it just fell out. Something ate through the stem, killing the poor baby spinach seedling. You can see the wilted seedlings next to the healthy looking ones in this picture. I did a little google search, and it seems it could be slugs, june bugs, cutworm...or anything else.
Look closely, these are 2 wilted seedlings near the front.
Couple days after this picture,some the healthy ones also got attacked.
To save as many as possible, I transferred the seedlings inside using a plastic lettuce container. I could only rescue 4 seedlings, such a bummer!! So far, they have not attacked the kale or beets. Fingers crossed.
Spinach seedling (the long leaved ones) transferred inside.
Other seedlings include volunteer lettuce (I think), and kale seedlings
Picture updates of the other seedlings growing at charm city garden presented below.
Swiss chard, pok choi, lettuce seedlings transferred to plastic container
Beets seedlings - I think I have sowed this too late...
Arugula seedlings (outside)
Snap peas

2 comments:

  1. Those blasted squirrels are evil creatures! It's just one battle after another. A little pepper/spicy powder will also keep them away; I learned that this summer when they ate all my tomatoes, looking for water.

    The rest of the seedlings are coming a long nicely, though :)

    Here's to hoping for pleasant Baltimore weather, this year!

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    1. I'm worried that we will be pay for the mild winter and this summer is going to be crazy hot!

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