If you have birds and squirrels problems you may need to consider wire mesh.
We have some pigeons invasion last summer with the house facing us. Daily poop on the deck, but they rarely touched the plants. With the neighbours, we install spikes to discouraged birds staying.
But we have cats ‘fertilizing’, they especially like the smaller plants strawberries, some pots I use some net to protect, others, I just secretly hope they won’t touch that. I try to keep the outdoor litterbox clean to encourage them go there instead.
Oh ants, I would like solutions too. I sometimes use ant bail, but there are too numerous. Recently, they start coming indoors!
March 4th. The bloody butchers are ridiculously early this year - I also planted black krims, volkovs and honey bunch, and those three are just starting to open their flowers.
Ants and bugs are awful! I swear there are times I think my house just sits on one giant ant colony - there are so many ant hills in my yard, like straight out of a nightmare. I recently purchased diatomaceous earth that I will sprinkle over the ant hills, as soon as the latest round of rain passes. It’s supposed to be non-toxic to humans, pets and other wildlife/critters, but it will cause bugs and insects to die. I’m hoping it will help. If you have bugs on your plants, there is also food-grade diatomaceous earth, but I am not planning on using this close to my veggies and other plants.
Please be careful using DE; wear a tight fitting respirator. Though listed as an organic control, Diatom shells are silica, often shaped with microscopic needles “spicules”. These not only puncture and dry out insects, they can kill you if you inhale enough and get silicosis of the lungs. This fibrosis can lead to some terrible complications in breathing, amorphous scarring; you don’t want it! The finer dust which results from handling is particularly prone to becoming airborne.
I’ve never heard of food grade DE, except for use in food/beverage filtration, where it filters solids and gets thrown out. There, it is wet and used to remove sediment in products such as wine. I wouldn’t dare eat it, no matter the labeling.
What did you start with? This year I thought about planting some snow peas, because I love the leaves for salad. Maybe butter lettuce too. Then I got spooked…
meatn3
(equal opportunity eater in the NC Triangle)
98
Four kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of eggplant (they don’t do that well), three kinds of peppers (I expect the Anaheims to thrive, but the others, not so much), cucumbers, spinach, kale, several lettuces (Little Gem, mesclun, arugula, something called “spicy mix”), and herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, chives, dill, oregano and thyme). You know, your run of the the mill balcony garden.
