Saga of a Hindered But Hopeful Gardener – Post 6 – Signs of Life
August 5th, 2010
Two weeks after having put the seeds in the ground… we have some things sprouting.
I mean besides just weeds. I’m great at growing weeds. But now it appears I’m actually growing some fruit along with my weeds.
And some vegetables.
Peas.
And… sunflowers.
Happy little peeking sunflowers.
And check out the pumpkin hills.
Wow!
This is so cool.
I’m just as excited as my kids are.
Although… that one little plant in front looks to me like it may have had a visitor.
What do you think?
Does that look nibbled?
A slug maybe?
And speaking of garden critters…
There are a ton of ants and rollie pollies all over the soil in the garden. I mean like a ridiculous amount. Rollie Pollies have always been tough to find at our house, but now all of a sudden in this garden there are hundreds of them. Is that okay? Will rollie pollies or ants eat my plants? Do I need to take defensive measures?
Oh!
And that reminds me…
I did already put up one defense.
Remember my surprise visitor from the morning after I planted our seeds?
Our garden has this new little feature.
It’s called the Exhart Gopher and Mole Mover, and it’s supposed to discourage moles and gophers from coming within a 30 foot diameter of it, due to the chattering sound and buzz it makes every 28 seconds. We saw it at the hardware store and figured it was worth the $18 to give it a try. Has anyone ever used one of these? It seems to be working so far. We plugged up the gopher hole and we haven’t seen any signs that it’s been back in this new garden area since that one morning.
We’ll see what happens.
The saga continues!
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I'm a Southern California Mother of three and Wife to a Software Engineer. I've got my hands full like a typical MOM, but the BLESSINGS are worth the CHAOS! I love to LAUGH, I'm committed to being HONEST, I'm trying to IMPROVE, and I hate doing LAUNDRY!!!!!!!!!!
You too?! Well then... Kick off your shoes and make yourself at home!
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okay we have massive gopher issues in our backyard (without even a garden!), they just destroy our yard. I considered getting a cat and keeping it outside and only feeding it gopher bits, but maybe we’ll try this instead…let me know how it works!
It’s looking really good! I think the garden will be a success. Congrats! The pumpkin does look nibbled but I don’t know what did it. I don’t think ants and rollie pollies are a problem, but maybe you should research to be sure!
Yeah you have seedlings! Yes slugs at my house LOVE pumpkin, squash, and melons (and everything else for that matter) I would keep an eye out for them, they ate a whole row of my beans overnight!
I have never used a mole/gopher thing like that and will be curious to see if it works for you.
Great job guys! Kim
We have gophers in our yard too. I NEED ONE OF THOSE THINGS!
Your garden is coming along…isn’t it exciting!! 
Great job.
woohoo! i agree, the sight of seedlings is very exciting! hope it all continues to go well!
The ants could eat everything if you don’t take care of it. Before your plant gets too big, dig a narrow trench around the seedling and make a newspaper tube to put around your plant stem. It should be about 3 inches in height, and although that’ll be taller than your plant it won’t take too long for it to come through the top. You can also make a diluted solution of non scented dish soap and water and spray down the plants to keep the slugs and other crawlies away. Good luck! Love the updates