ISO: advice from herb/vegetable gardeners

[JackieO]

For the last three summers, I have achieved moderate success with an herb garden right outside my patio door, planted in an old sandbox. It faces west, so it gets brutal sun (well, as brutal as it can be in NE Wisconsin :rolleyes: ) and I generally get a good yield of basil, Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, dill and chives. Middle of last summer, however, it looked like a mower had gone over the parsley one morning, and the basil was chomped down pretty far, too. We have a fenced yard, but the soil has settled some in a couple places, so all sorts of critters can get in. We've seen rabbits and voles/mice in the yard on occasion, so I was thinking it was a rabbit, but I searched some internet threads and discovered in several places that rabbits don't like basil?

Long story short: I just purchased $40 of potted herbs today, along with marigolds. A gardener friend said marigolds keep bunnies away, as do mothballs. But I've also seen the following:

cat urine/fur/litter (no cat in this house)
hot pepper/water concoction sprayed on the herbs
dried blood or bone meal on the soil
cucumbers spread on the soil
plant garlic seeds to build a border "fence" (too late for me to try this year)

Anybody on the BB have a solution?

[testkitchen45]

I just learned that Italian parsley is a preferred food for the caterpillars for swallowtail butterflies, so that may be part of your problem. Snails and any caterpillars will devastate those tender herbs, too. Use a food-safe (organic) powder on them; can't recall the name but DH knows, or another BBer may know already.

[lindrusso]

Well, bunnies supposedly don't like marigolds, but I sat and watched several chomp on marigolds I had put all around my garden to keep them away, so I wouldn't rule out the furry little critter as far as the basil goes. So, sorry, not sure those marigolds you bought will help........... ;)

I think the best thing would be some chicken wire around your garden. Maybe not pretty, maybe not the most practical, but I don't know that any of those remedies really work (but I've never tried them - after the whole marigold thing, I figure a fence was the best way to go).

My veggies and herbs are up in containers this year, but I've also watched bunnies jump up in my whiskey barrels to eat my impatiens, so I know I'm not safe this year either. :rolleyes:

One year they ate stuff in my garden and what they didn't eat, they trampled. I was so mad!!!! Lucky for them they are so cute or I might be tempted to do some damage.

Good luck with the bunnies - they can be a real pain!

[sparrowgrass]

I had bunnies in my peas and my broccoli. The peas were a lost cause, because I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. I liberally powdered the broccoli with ground red pepper for a couple days, until they started to get a little bigger and tougher, and so far, the bunnies have left them alone.

After the pea decimation, I decided bunnies aren't so cute. :mad:

I almost forgot--the dollar store has very cheap ground red pepper or cayenne pepper.

[ginny177]

Groundhogs can mow down a garden in one night, too.

[TKay]

We don't have bunnies or too many other furry creatures in our yards and yet my herbs and flowers also get mowed. Snails, slugs and caterpillars do a lot of damage. This year I've used a powdered product in my beds (can't remember the name) and I'm having better luck. However, something is still eating my basil. I've seen bees and other flying creatures eat the stuff! It's always something.
Good luck! It's so frustrating when you get excited about new, growing plants and then bam! Something takes them down.

[lindrusso]

It's so frustrating when you get excited about new, growing plants and then bam! Something takes them down.

I know - I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that my plants survive whatever invasion comes our way. :eek:

[ljt2r]

I had three gardens last year (am moving this year so things will be way scaled down--just a few plants and pots that I haven't even started yet)--an herb garden out front, tomatoes and parsley in pots on a back porch, and a full veggie garden.

The herb garden has never been bothered--of course thistles love it so maybe that is why? But I have never had an issue there. It also alongside my driveway--maybe they are wary of the car? Last year I believe some chipmunks made off with almost all of my cherry tomatoes on the back porch.

Anyway, the full garden is where my advice comes in (such as it is--I am not expert, but I have had a lot less problems than my dad and neither of us is sure why)--I purposely placed my garden in the yard my dogs are in, and then I surrounded it with 2 tiers of straight wire (i.e., just 2 long wires tied to stakes at regular intervals), and we tied one orange ribbon per wire per section (each section around 3-4 feet), in the hopes it would flutter and scare critters and birds away. I think my dad did everything I did except the orange ribbon, so I know I will try that at my next place.

As far as the dogs go, I watched 2 chipmunks take cherry tomatoes with my dogs staring at the them through the glass back door 5 feet away :rolleyes: so who knows if that was worthwhile. The main garden is quite centralized though (inside a fence surrounding 3/4 acre), unlike my dad's, so maybe the fact that the critter would have a long way to run to get to safety from my dogs also influences the situation (whereas my dad's garden is near the border of their property as were my tomato plants--I have watched moles run out onto my back porch and then practically instantly slither back under the fence, which is pretty close by, if I bang on my back door). It was kinda weird--they decimated my cherry tomato crop in the one spot and completed ignored my roma tomatoes in the other (and everything else--zucchini, basil, broccoli, winter squash, cukes...). The more I think about it, answering your question, I think the orange ribbon worked but I also think having an "island" of a garden surrounded by an area that could have large dogs in it is probably a turnoff to at least some smart critters. I also think what could work in one spot may not somewhere else, so who knows. My dad claims to have deer issues (and he has large hunting dogs with a fence nearly identical to mine and dogs that are outside more than mine) whereas even though I know we have deer I have certainly never seen one try to get into my fenced area. So maybe I have just been lucky. Good luck--I would be pretty upset if I found my herbs mowed down like that!

[JackieO]

Wow! After reading all this, I'm amazed I was able to grow anything at all the first couple years! Never even occurred to me that it could be snails/caterpillars....I just assumed bunnies.

Since the sandbox is snugged up against the house and right by my patio, I really don't want to go the chicken wire route. So, I'm going to plant the marigolds on the perimeter and put the herbs in the middle. I bought a large bottle of cayenne pepper (for $.79!) at the grocery store today -- I'm assuming I sprinkle that on the plant itself? Cross your fingers....I really, really wants lots of fresh basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme and sage. I have so many more creative recipes now than I did when I started growing my own herbs.

Thanks for your comments....if anyone else has something to add, please do!

[JackieO]

Guess I'm talking to myself, but the garden is planted with marigolds on the outside and cayenne pepper sprinkled on everything inside. I bought mostly 6" pots, so I have an "instant" herb garden. Keep your fingers crossed that it's still there in the morning. :(

[lindrusso]

Good luck! :)

What I'm really nervous about this year is a 2-week vacation toward the end of June. I'm going to pay a young girl - who will have supervision from her parents - to take care of the plants, but I keep thinking about all that could go wrong in that two weeks and how I won't be here to make sure everything is okay. :eek:

[JackieO]

My herbs survived their first night in the garden! :)

Alysha, I think the first mowing/chewing episode happened when we were out of town for a couple nights last summer. Not that being home would have prevented it, but I feel your trepidation!

[lindrusso]

Alysha, I think the first mowing/chewing episode happened when we were out of town for a couple nights last summer. Not that being home would have prevented it, but I feel your trepidation!

I fear storms (containers and/or plants tipping over) and Japanese beetles most while I'm gone. And then there's the pruning of basil so that it doesn't flower, but maybe if I show mom how to prune them and then offer her the free herbs for cooking.......... ;)

I'll just have to make it clear to the little girl - she's 9 or 10 - that she is not responsible for the possible demise of my plants. I'd hate for something to happen and then she'd feel guilty........ :o