2011 Vegetable Garden & Backyard Garden Thread

[Douger]

Hey sparky. What kind of floor will the barn have ? Ever considered making gasz ?

 

[masquerade]

This isn't on the subject of gardens, but I feel the need to mention it now that Two Thumbs has brought up his squirrel issues.

We have issues with a fox ... or two.

Sighting a fox in our yard or the woods behind our yard has been rare, up until now. 5:10 on Saturday morning we were jolted awake by one of the scariest sounds I've ever heard. The screeching of the fox. Mr. masq got downstairs and outside to scare the fox, just as the fox was about to take a bite out of my cat. He ran a bit, the fox that is, and stopped. It took a few more attempts at yelling before said fox disappeared into the next yard. Over the course of the weekend, we saw the fox several more times.

I don't blame the fox ... he's just doing what fox do and I imagine there may be babies to feed. But I sure as hell don't want one of my cats or my bunnies to be his next meal.

My son works for a nursery and I was in to pick up some stuff (he gets a 40% discount!). Over on the shelf where they have all sorts of repellents, they have a powder made from coyote urine. Now, I don't know if that will repel or attract a fox, but there might be some sort of repellent you can mark your territory with that would keep them out. I'm not sure how your kitties or bunnies would react.

A little googling turned up the idea of human urine. I've never known a guy who isn't up for a little backyard pee. It's a great excuse for consuming mass quantities of beer.

Note to self: send the man further out into the back of the yard to pee at the edge of the woods.

We had a cooler by our side while we grilled and enjoyed the pool.

Yesterday we watched one of our two cats spraying and marking his territory on the raspeberry bushes my husband picked raspberries from a short time earlier. So at least someone is helping with repellent.
My husband had just cleaned the bunny hutch and threw the nastiness close to where we first saw Mr. Fox yesterday. So he/she knows that food is close. I'll look into the repellents ... thanks.