Kitchen Gardeners

What am I to do my poor little garden has become a haven for every squirrel in the metro Atlanta Area. They are quite selective because the lone suvivor is the cucumber plant that is blossoming nicely but everything else shows signs of the assault. Anyone with some suggestions to ward off the foe I will greatly appreciate it lest I waste much time and energy and cash this year.

Share

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Corinthia. I thought you already added a discussion about this. Anyway, if you click on "forum" above and do a search for "squirrels" you'll find numerous posts that people have made regarding squirrel problems. Maybe that will help while you wait for new responses to this post.

Reply to This

We had a cat once that was a great squirreler. He'd catch them all! Maybe a cat is a good idea.

Reply to This

http://www.beeman.com/
Best case scenario is you have a 10 year old boy with lots of free time this summer.
Tree rats...it's what's for dinner.

Reply to This

.....buy a cheapo bird-feeder. Put it up somewhere,..they WILL go to it. I still say for a 36''x72''....get a cat.

Reply to This

Hot pepper (cayanne) mixed into bird seed deters squirrels at bird feeders. Have you tried mixing up a liquid pepper solution, then spraying the leaves of your plants? You will need to reapply after a rain. The only other thing I could suggest would be chicken-wire cages over the garden plants. A good cat, however, could be a long-term solution; but it will also go after the wild birds.

Reply to This

Two of my cats do the job for me-the others can't be bothered. Otherwise, a BB gun and a brunswick stew recipe would be my choice ;)

Reply to This

I also live in Atlanta and the gray squirrels are a problem. Here's what Iv'e done - for what it's worth.

I noticed that a squirrel was on my bird feeder (on the patio) so I raised it up a bit (higher jump) and then put thick Vasoline on the rail (jumping spot)...I also peppered it with Cayane pepper. I have had no problems since then. Primarily though...I have cut off the food supply. I toss peanuts to the squirrels in the Spring in order to give them extra protien. After about mid-May I quit. I also had my bird feeder in place up until a few weeks ago. I took it down and replaced it with my Hummingbird feeder. So far -so good.

It is key though - to have any bird feeder a ways away from a plant. Birds scatter stuff and squirrels are opportunists.

P.S. a cat is a great squirrel chaser...depending on how you feed the cat. Keep him/her hungry like a "barn cat" and they will do the job....on the other hand....a well fed cat will just sleep.

Reply to This

...post a pic when you get back from the shelter. get the ugliest one.

Reply to This

meow.

Reply to This

I can't vouch for this personally, and I need to issue a warning here for the faint of heart and animal lovers among us. I read once of a guy who was absolutely desperate after two years of squirrel commando raids on his garden and finally shot one of them, tied it to a makeshift cross, and stuck the whole thing in the ground closest to the treeline where the little buggers were coming from. He left it there until the end of the season as a grim threat to the other furry bandits. The crucified rodent served as a warning dire enough to plant fear in the heart of the most conniving of them. Shocking solution, yes, but no more raids on his garden, and he only had to kill one of them to do it.

Reply to This

...no ''wildlife-specialist'' would EVER condone, or advise the drowning in a trash-can. try again.

Reply to This

Carol, I dont know you,so I can't make any character judgements. Nor would I.But the practice of drowning animals goes against my grain. I guess I'm not ''practical''. have a nice day.

Reply to This

RSS

KGI's book of the month

Latest Activity

Donald you lucky to live in an area where you can start a new hive at any time during the year! In New York one could never start a new package in December! =8-o We'd love to see pix of your current hive. :)
10 minutes ago
marion stewart added a blog post
Red osier dogwood is just the best plant for this time of year – cut down some branches – you can find them in fields and ditches and then place them in garden pots or containers. Fill the over-season containers with soil to hold the stems. Attach...
33 minutes ago
Hi Everyone: I am new to kitchen gardeners and I currently have one bee hive and I am planning on buying one four pound package of bees and a queen in December. If my luck is strong I will also capture a swarm and end up with three total hives goi...
38 minutes ago
Donald joined Joy Williams's group
Bees! How they benefit us, how to keep them, how to maintain them! Experts invited, and welcome.
46 minutes ago
I had not heard of this new link of cell phone towers to CCD, but I believe that CCD is caused by a number of different things and is mostly limited to large scale professional beekeepers that put their bees on large semi-trucks and haul them all ...
1 hour ago
Donald updated their profile
1 hour ago
Oi! Penelope! The cooking shows are designed to make people who've grown up eating processed foods and without a Fannie Farmer in the house want to go to a restaurant and be demanding, or buy expensive, exotic ingredients that they'll mostly never...
1 hour ago
1 hour ago
Yes! Sun flowers .I went there yesterday. The site of sun flowers is spactacular.But flowers seem smaller then big variety which I have seen growing their previously.
1 hour ago
laurent barbier, Helen Pereira, Sara Lim and 4 more joined Kitchen Gardeners
4 hours ago
8 hours ago
Hi Maggie I hope you are well. I see most of the people on a Friday afternoon, when i do not have to go to work. Most of the other plot holders are retired so they go on weekdays when i am at work. It can be quite solitary, which i find quite plea...
8 hours ago
18 hours ago
Thank you for the email addy !! I am always looking for variations on the food I preserve !! Let us know how yours turns out !! You can`t have too many recipes you know !! I don`t think that I would add sugar till after the brining process !! It c...
18 hours ago
Congrats on your new venture !!! Hope it does well !! Will be looking for you back in the future when you have things under way !!
18 hours ago
You are forgetting one thing !! The person who will be eating the food you prepare !! Yourself !!! If it pleases you,,,I wouldn`t worry about anything else !! Cooking should be an adventure !! I wouldn`t make a comparison unless you have tasted th...
18 hours ago
hi jeff, as i suppose you live in crete, do know anything more about the phrase "strafela", is this a usual word in greek?? or is it used just in certain parts of crete?? would be great if you could give me any info about it, thanks, georg
20 hours ago
20 hours ago
Wow, they are good sized plots. I wish we had allotment areas here in Adelaide. Do you get to know the other allotment gardeners?. We have almost finished our composting, pruning back, seed saving and planting out of our seedlings. With a small ga...
21 hours ago
Hi Kathryn This image is a screenshot from Google Earth. The only drawback with Google Earth is that you cannot zoom in as close as you would like. I have a greenhouse in the bottom right and a shed and covered compost bin at top right. A lot of t...
23 hours ago

Notes

HOW TO - ADD A LINK

Several people have experienced difficulty putting working links into comments and blogs etc and I know it is clumsy.... so here is how you do it.....

First type the text you want to appear....  ie  IAN'S PAGE

Then go back and highlight the link text.

Then hit the hyperlink button...a pictogram of a chain link.

Your browser may intervene and request permission to allow temporary scripting or some similar message.   Allow it and go back and highlight the text again

Continue

Created by Ian Jun 7, 2009 at 7:28pm. Last updated by Ian Jun 8.

Forum Policy

Hi, I'm starting to put together a few guidlines on using the discussion forum on here.

I would be happy to hear any comments you may have.  This is very much a work in progress so plese feel free to ask me to add anything you think is needed.

I don't want to make our community hide bound by rules and regulations but I think that, as the community has grown, some explanation of what is expected is needed.

Administration

You can refer any que

Continue

Created by Ian May 23, 2009 at 1:55am. Last updated by Ian May 25.

Climate maps

Hi following recent discussion I have put climate maps of the USA, Australia and Europe on here for reference..

 Climate map of the USA

Climate map of Australia

Climate map of Europe

 

Continue

Created by Ian Sep 12, 2008 at 6:20pm. Last updated by Ian Apr 14.

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes

Hi Everyone,  I've started to collect together recipes from various posts on the site and put them all together here.

If you have a recipe you want to add on here, just post it on the site and leave a comment on my page telling me where it is and I'll go and fetch it back here.

They are organised in Contributor Order but I'm open to better suggestions!

BEVA'S RECIPES

Continue

Created by Ian Jun 2, 2008 at 9:54am. Last updated by Ian Apr 13.

US STATES ABBREVIATIONS

 

US STATE ABBREVIATIONS

AK - Alaska               AL - Alabama              AR - Arkansas
AZ - Arizona              CA - California           CO - Colorado
CT - Connecticut          DC - Dist of Columbia *   DE - Delaware
FL - Florida              GA - Georgia              GU

Continue

Created by Ian Jan 27, 2009 at 4:27pm. Last updated by Ian Jan 27.

HOW TO - MAKE COMPOST

Recently there was an excellent discussion about composting. I’ve pulled together all the various comments here. You can also watch KGI's video on composting here.

 

 

KATE’S ADVICE

I used to have a tumbler that we made from a wine-barrel but

1 you have to fill it up all at once

2. it seemed mostly

Continue

Created by Ian May 30, 2008 at 5:29am. Last updated by Roger Jan 15.

Notes Home

Welcome to Notes.

To view notes that are in the system hit the "all notes" button above.

Continue

Created by Ian May 28, 2008 at 12:10pm. Last updated by Ian May. 30, 2008.

A Note about Notes

I have just written this note so that I can see what we can achieve by using this new feature.

If you read this and have any suggestions then please leave a comment on my page or email me.

Ian

Continue

Created by Ian May 28, 2008 at 6:19pm. Last updated by Ian May. 28, 2008.

© 2009   Created by Kitchen Gardeners International

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service

Sign in to chat!