See those two tomatoes? You’re looking at our entire tomato harvest. I planted five tomato plants in the spring. Most of them died after squirrels climbed up the stalks and the branches broke under their weight. Vine borers demolished my squash, my basil is dry, and I have no idea what happened to my jalapeno peppers.
This has been — by far — our worst gardening year. I blame it on the dry summer, general inattention because of all the traveling we’ve been doing, my two kids who insist on being fed three times a day, and because, if you take away the well-rested, freshly-showered princess, my backyard looks like this:
We’ve said this before, but next year will be better. Next year we’re thinking of putting up netting over our garden. It might not protect against insects, and I’ve heard that chipmunks will dig under nets, but it’ll at least give our plants a fighting chance.
If that doesn’t work, Tom’s working on some sort of firewall with holograms that requires a retinal scan and an encrypted password that he only has access to. Which I suppose also means he’ll be the one doing all the weeding.
Oh my goodness! You poor thing! I would be so discouraged over that harvest! The great thing about gardening, is there is always a fresh start just a season away!! 🙂
This is a VERY redneck gardening tip, but try putting tin cans around the base of your squash plants. For whatever reason it works against those bugs.
My parents plant marigolds all around the perimeter or their garden. It’s supposed to keep deer away (which it does). Not sure if it works on squirrels, but they had a huge, successful garden this year and no animals ate their stuff. (not to rub it in or anything…)