The 2009 Garden & Squirrel Solution

As you may or may not know, this crazy inflated Monkey enjoys partying, girls, bananas, girls, watching MTV reality shows, girls, and yes, gardening. In the midst of all the other exciting stuff going on, I forgot to mention that I have a bunch of veggies growing once again for the 2009 summer season. Last year saw several of the leafy green vegetable plants such as broccoli and spinach get eaten by rodents or probably deer. This time around I set up a special area up on a hill with a protective fence around it. We bought fence and a bunch of the other necessary gardening stuff at the local Lowes store, and now it actually seems to be a real garden since nothing's able to eat away at the plants. Anyways, this year's crops include: cucumber, squash, green pepper, broccoli, tomato, zucchini, and due to a mixup at the Lowes, Okra. Okra's apparently like grits which are a treat in the south. The Okra (rhymes with Oprah) got planted up on a hill in the hopes the deer would eat that one, because everyone tells me Okra is yucky, although one of the relatives says it tastes great fried (what doesn't?) I'll keep you all updated on how the veggie situation goes, but as of right now the cucumber/squash seem to have flowers, there's two small tomatoes budding and then a green pepper growing nicely by itself.

That brings me to another interesting nature situation, since I mentioned preventing critters from getting into my garden. We've got a bird feeder set up right outside our front kitchen window to provide entertainment and bird-viewing. The birds seem to love it there as we see everything from cardinals to bluebirds and woodpeckers stopping by for food. At times they even like to let us know when the container needs to be refilled. Unfortunately, it's not just the birds who seem to be munching away on the birdseed. It's those rodents with the big bushy tails filling their fat bellies up, and constantly driving the family dog bonkers. That at times can be entertaining, as just the other day I saw 3 squirrels all together going after the bird food in the feeder and down below. So needless to say we are looking to prevent squirrels from invading the feeder. I started reading up on solutions and learned about these devices called squirrel baffles. They're dome shaped-thingies that you attach to the feeder that prevent squirrels from climbing the pole or going onto the feeder. Pretty nifty and less mean of an apprach, because the next solutions are putting hot cayenne pepper into the birdseed or the alpha male says he's going to shoot the squirrels with a BB Gun...Just giving you squirrels fair warning!

A Garden Update: Critter Protection 101

It's a beautiful sunny day over here, so here's a garden update for all you crazy monkey fans. Today I added some blue powder to water which makes a magical formula called "Miracle Grow". I'm expecting some 50 feet tall Broccoli, Squash and Tomato Plants now. I accidentally spilled a bit on one of my feet so I'm hoping it doesn't become a lot bigger.

I'm also researching how to keep those pesky deer, rabbits and other critters away. I have nothing against the other wildlife round here, but I do want my crops to grow rather than being their food. The owners of the property won't let me borrow their trusty family dog to keep outside 24/7, so I looked at Lowes' website on "Deer & Your Landscape".



It lists the following odd things you can use near your garden to scare off deer or others:

This list reads like Halloween night prank gone bad, but various applications of the following have been tried with mixed success. Unpleasant odors or odors associated with danger can keep pests away. As with many of the mechanical deterrents, a persistent deer is likely to become accustomed to these and resume feeding.

* Feces or urine from predators (such as lion or coyote)
* Hot pepper
* Garlic
* Rotten eggs
* Human hair

So it looks like I have to start eating more eggs, clipping hair off family members while they're sleeping, or go on a crazy adventure to catch a lion or coyote and make it urinate in a bucket.... Yeah that'll keep the deer and everyone else away!...Rabbit fencing it is!



Time to get to work and mow the lawn here...Gotta earn my keep before the weekend! Have fun folks...

My Crazy Monkey Garden Begins!

As you all know my favorite food of all-time is the banana. I really wanted to plant a few banana trees outside so I could enjoy my favorite fruit, but the climate just isn't right for it in my location. So instead, I began to study up on the wide world of gardening.


Studying the How to Garden Books

After a lot of in-depth research, I knew what I wanted to plant. I was able to purchase the seeds, plants and soil from good ol' Wal Mart, home of the smiley face guy and rollback specials. So I picked up some potting soil, seeds for Cucumbers, Squash and Tomato plants, and then Broccoli and Spinach plants. After a bit of work outdoors, things are now ready to start growin'!


Workin' hard on some spinach crops

So after a lot of careful consideration I chose to plant Spinach, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Squash and Tomatoes. Once I get some plants, I can start preparing some great salads and other healthy meals (to counteract the bad effects of my wild party animal life!) You can see in my diagram below that certain plants require more spacing than others to grow.



My Garden layout diagram

The above diagram shows you my eliptical entire garden layout. "S" for Spinach, "B" for Broccoli, "Sq" for Squash and "C" is for Cucumber, that's good enough for me :)

Gardening is a fun and rewarding hobby. I recommend that everyone starts their own garden because it's cool to watch the results and have fresh fruit or vegetables to enjoy...One thing I have to beware of is the animals from around here messin' with it. There's a lot of hungry deer and rabbits on the prowl, and an open garden for them is like a free outdoor salad bar! But if I can protect it, I'm expecting some great veggie crops in several weeks!

I'll provide more updates on how my gardening adventure unfolds...stay tuned!

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