Winter Surprises
Baby Carrots left over from the harvest and seed gathering. I didn’t have the heart to pull them all out in fall. Look how much those tiny babies grew!
Sometimes a little faith goes a long way.
Fall came and went, and this winter has been rainy, frosty, and somewhat snowy. Our family in Alaska has had a lot of snow, but it was later in the season than usual. California and Arizona have stayed temperate, but primarily cold, overcast, and rainy. And Cheyenne is, well **cold** generally. Since the new year, we’ve had more snow, but the ski resorts near Jackson Hole received mountains of it.
We generally don’t grow very many vegetables in winter, but a few things do survive the cold. Our favorites are beets, chard, arugula, cilantro, broccoli greens, and kale. These hardy heirlooms do very well with just a plastic covering over a raised bed.
I can’t tell you how much fun we have as a family to go out in the garden in winter, lift up the plastic on any random bed, and look to see what is ready for harvesting.
But surprise! This winter we had an unwanted guest. In one covered bed in particular, we kept finding acorns, most of which had been broken open and partially consumed. Some seedlings appeared to be trampled, while another area in this bed had the soil disturbed. And we were determined to find out what critter was getting cozy in our little covered bed.
We checked the “security” around the bed, and reinforced areas where this critter may have entered, but honestly, everything looked pretty secure. Doubtless, we missed something, because whatever it was, it came in again and again - thankfully, not really disturbing the seedlings.
As you can imagine, when you live in a rural area like ours, you can have all sorts of wildlife cross your path. We love our fruits and vegetables, and so do they, unfortunately. Deer, racoon, gophers, mice, squirrels, bobcats, moose, mountain lions, and bears. You name it, and there is a high probability that one or more of our family locations runs the risk of being commandeered by a wild animal. So we agreed to set rat traps to start. If it were a rodent, such as a mouse, rat, or squirrel, a tunnel trap should work to eliminate this unwelcome guest.
We purchased these online, Kat Sense® Tunnel Rat Traps
We have many raised beds, but not all are well protected against rodent intrusion. The one is this photo is is one of the better protected in our garden. You probably don’t see it in this photo, but It has metal mesh hardware cloth underneath the plastic laying flat across the bed. We took the same “L” shaped brackets that we used on the corners of the box, to fasten the mesh wire to the boards.
We strongly encourage others to be sure to cover their crops at all times. Ventilation is key during warmer weather of course, but let’s just say that it is not a “theory” but a fact that there are certain unscrupulous actors polluting our skies with very harmful materials. But that conversation is for another day. In the meantime, please enjoy your rest this winter, spring will be here shortly!
We know spring is on the way because our Paperwhite Narcissus are blooming!
