Friday, May 29, 2009

Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!

I have good garden news and bad garden news... :)

The good news first, I have snowpeas! Now I have to decide how long to leave them there before I pick them. How much bigger or thicker should I let these get, anyone know?


The bad news... I must have a wild rabbit. The quote in the title is from Watership Down, by Richard Adams, and if you haven't read the book, you can either go get a copy or google the phrase. Just realize, even if it's a book about fluffy rabbits, it's an adult book. Silflay hraka is not a nice thing to say to a rabbit. :(

I came home from my quilt guild meeting Tuesday night and went out to check on my garden. It was dark, but I have a motion activated floodlight outside my back door, so there was plenty of light to see by. And I saw blooms! Yellow squash flowers. I promised myself that I'd wake up earlier Wed. morning, come out and take a picture to blog by.

Wed. morning, bright and early, I went out with my camera and the two blooms were nothing but a few confetti size shredded yellow bits around a bloomless stalk. I'd been raided.


I didn't plant my squash to be some rabbit's flayrah. My solution was to go inside, scoop up about a gallon of well-used kitty litter, and sprinkle it around the outside of the wading pool. Now, two days later, I have new blooms, and so far, they haven't been nibbled. Fortunately, with two indoor cats, I'll never have a lack of rank-smelling kitty litter, but how long do you think that'll continue to ward them off before they realize it's all stink and no cat? Anyone else have any good solutions?

5 comments:

floribunda said...

how about a little fence of chicken wire around the pool (tucked underneath a bit to keep the bunnies from burrowing under it) -- it would smell better than cat litter!

Paula, the quilter said...

I'll echo what Julie said. I put a small fence around my mini garden to keep those wascally wabbits out. Pick the peas now. Eat them pod and all. Those look great!

YankeeQuilter said...

I'm with Paula on the peas...love them when they are young and tender like these. The thicker they get the tougher....

Something started eating my tomatoes last night....grrrrr

Susan said...

Good luck with your pool planter! I have an old one hanging around but have yet to take that adventure. Maybe next year!

Sylvana said...

I would worry about what's in that kitty litter around my veggies! And I would worry about attracting neighborhood cats to your veggie bed!

As for how long that will keep rabbits away -- rabbits are very instinctual animals. If something triggers a fear response, it is unlikely that this response will diminish unless there is something that is stronger than fear to guide their behavior -- like if they were starving or there was something so extremely tempting that it would override fear. So don't go leaving carrots lying around and you should be fine ;)

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