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jal_ut
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- Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
- Location: Northern Utah Zone 5
Re: Raccoon getting into my veggie garden
The corn is the one the raccoons really got after. Between raccoons and skunks they would strip a corn patch completely if you didn't get after them.
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ButterflyLady29
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- Location: central Ohio
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rainbowgardener
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I agree about the corn. One place where I lived with lots of critters around and no fencing, I gave up on growing corn. EVERYONE loves corn - raccoons, groundhogs, birds, deer, all kinds of different rodents ....
It's interesting how people's experiences are different re what the raccoons eat or not. Before we moved, I lived in the city with lots of raccoons and groundhogs and occasional deer. If the deer came and everything wasn't fenced in, they would strip every tomato off, neatly, so you wouldn't know there had been tomatoes on the plants, but not bother the plants much. If the raccoons could get to the tomatoes, they would eat a bunch of tomatoes, but leave pieces behind. They would climb around on the plants and break pieces off and generally trash the place. Squirrels would just take one bite each out of a whole bunch of tomatoes to get the juice. Groundhogs didn't seem particularly fond of tomatoes but would nibble a lot of greens or broccoli down from the top until there was just a little stem nub sticking up.
I wasn't growing corn then and I've never grown cucumbers, so can't speak to that.
I've been putting deer netting and bunny fencing back up, not because we have critters here, but because our newer, younger dog LOVES to dig. Every time I plant something, she digs the bed all up again, because she especially likes to dig the nice soft ground. So I'm back to fencing in beds.
I'll post a couple pictures soon of what that looks like.
It's interesting how people's experiences are different re what the raccoons eat or not. Before we moved, I lived in the city with lots of raccoons and groundhogs and occasional deer. If the deer came and everything wasn't fenced in, they would strip every tomato off, neatly, so you wouldn't know there had been tomatoes on the plants, but not bother the plants much. If the raccoons could get to the tomatoes, they would eat a bunch of tomatoes, but leave pieces behind. They would climb around on the plants and break pieces off and generally trash the place. Squirrels would just take one bite each out of a whole bunch of tomatoes to get the juice. Groundhogs didn't seem particularly fond of tomatoes but would nibble a lot of greens or broccoli down from the top until there was just a little stem nub sticking up.
I wasn't growing corn then and I've never grown cucumbers, so can't speak to that.
I've been putting deer netting and bunny fencing back up, not because we have critters here, but because our newer, younger dog LOVES to dig. Every time I plant something, she digs the bed all up again, because she especially likes to dig the nice soft ground. So I'm back to fencing in beds.
I'll post a couple pictures soon of what that looks like.-
rainbowgardener
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- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
deer netting attached to metal stakes
wire rabbit fencing attached to the same kind of metal stakes
They sell those stakes at all the Home Depot type stores, pretty cheap. They have hooks on them to hang the wire/ netting from and come in various lengths. They have phlanges at the bottom to aid in stepping them into the ground.
I don't love the look. Eventually I would like to fence that whole garden area in with some nice fencing, white picket fence or something, and a real gate. But that would be some hundreds of dollars. I would need ten fence posts, 80' of fencing, and the gate. In the meantime, this keeps the d***ned dog out of the garden beds. And a lot of it I had lying around already. When I lived where there were raccoons and woodchucks and deer, etc. I always fenced in beds like this. The netting works just fine to keep critters out, though sometimes I had to pull some over the top of tomato beds to keep the raccoons out. And it is very cheap and easy.
wire rabbit fencing attached to the same kind of metal stakes
They sell those stakes at all the Home Depot type stores, pretty cheap. They have hooks on them to hang the wire/ netting from and come in various lengths. They have phlanges at the bottom to aid in stepping them into the ground.
I don't love the look. Eventually I would like to fence that whole garden area in with some nice fencing, white picket fence or something, and a real gate. But that would be some hundreds of dollars. I would need ten fence posts, 80' of fencing, and the gate. In the meantime, this keeps the d***ned dog out of the garden beds. And a lot of it I had lying around already. When I lived where there were raccoons and woodchucks and deer, etc. I always fenced in beds like this. The netting works just fine to keep critters out, though sometimes I had to pull some over the top of tomato beds to keep the raccoons out. And it is very cheap and easy.