Cranraspberry’s plot in 2024

[Cranraspberry]

Cabbages (Tiara, Sweet&Tender, Primo Vantage), broccoli (Artwork) and cauliflower (Song) have been planted out, as have the onions (Red Canyon and Creme Brûlée) and herbs (Teddy and Delight dill, flat leaf parsley), so the growing season has officially begun! We’ve been having rat issues in the garden (ugh), and they ate all my overwintering brassicas and chard, so I attempted to protect these with chicken wire, hopefully that helps. Interestingly they weren’t into my peas - a lot of those overwintered, as did my broccoli raab and Amana kale (the lacinato next to it was absolutely decimated).

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[karstopography]

Looks great! Good luck. Battling rodents is tough work.

[AKgardener]

Great work !!

[Cranraspberry]

@karstopography the garden Board fortunately voted to bring in a pest control company and we managed to find a really incredible one that is doing very minimal bait stations and lots of covered snap traps. All the other ones we had considered wanted to just litter the garden with bait boxes because it’s a lot less work for them - the boxes need to be refilled every few weeks while the snap traps need to be emptied every couple of days. It was getting pretty bad - the rats really like tall metal raised beds and were building their burrows right in them, blech.

[Cranraspberry]

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Some beautiful warm days this week, and the cabbages are growing!

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[rdback]

...We’ve been having rat issues in the garden...

I have no first-hand experience with it, but I read somewhere that rats do not like peppermint oil, and will avoid it when encountered. If the exterminator doesn't get them all, perhaps it's something you folks can try. Just a thought. Best of luck in your battle!

[Cranraspberry]

@rdback thank you! Unfortunately these are gritty city rats, there’s not much that seems to deter them… It’s also crazy just how well they know to avoid dangers. We had tried to DIY some snap traps in covered boxes before we brought in a pro, and they would go in and eat all the peanut butter off the unset snap trap. Then once we thought they had gotten comfortable and finally set the traps they never entered the boxes again. Being outsmarted by a rodent isn’t a great feeling! And our garden president who we were attempting this with is an actual nuclear physicist.

Fortunately my plot has had no signs of rat activity since treatment started and I very much hope it stays that way.

[bower]

One thing I learned about rats, they have to have fresh water to drink, unlike mice who can live on the juice in your lettuce. So getting rid of any standing water, rain buckets etc. is step one to make the place less rat friendly.
Doesn't help if there's a river of course! There's a distance they will travel for water, not sure exactly, but they won't nest at a certain distance from fresh water supply.
I always leave buckets around the garden for one purpose or another, and have to periodically empty those to 'defriend' the space to the rat. Had rats one year, never want to repeat! Littler rodents are bad enough.

[GoDawgs]

Lookin' good! A question about those wire hoops in your bed. How long are they?

Edited to add: On looking at the other pics I see that they're not hoops but reinforcing wire. My brother up in Baltimore uses those attached horizontally to make trellises.

[Cranraspberry]

@bower we have 250 plots in the community garden, and I think there’s even a rule that says no standing water, but as you can probably imagine there’s always something getting forgotten somewhere. It’s actually strange to me that they haven’t been a big problem in previous years - our whole garden is one giant all you can eat buffet once late summer comes along. And they get in no matter what you do. The first time I saw one squeeze through the fence I surrounded my plot with a tall perimeter of chicken wire. So they dug a tunnel from the neighbors into my pathway. I filled that up and stuck metal sticks in there to keep them from digging again. Well they just dug another tunnel right into my tomato bed ugh.

[Cranraspberry]

@bower yes, ladder mesh from Home Depot! That stuff is fantastic. $5 for 10’ length - I have them cut down to support row covers and have a few attached and bent into trellises for peas/beans. I think Gardeners.com sells the exact same thing at a huge premium as their “super hoops”.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grip-Rite-8 ... /203590053

You can kind of see both applications in this photo:

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[JRinPA]

I think some "exterminators" probably drum up business by sowing in the winter...lol.

But with snap traps, make sure you tie a string to the pan. Make a few overhand knots and leave the tag ends. Wet out the string with peanut butter. Use gloves or a sandwich bag to do it after the first time.

I need to make some mouse traps set into pipes for voles. I have ideas for so many things, but never get to them. I didn't want to do the pipe traps last year after I realized all the garter snakes we had. I didn't want to risk killing any of them.

[Cranraspberry]

I feel like I could write a PhD on rats at this point… Good news is that knock on wood the professional treatment has been incredibly effective so far. Our garden president was on a call with some other garden folks from neighboring community gardens and everyone is having these issues. Some are removing trees to try and reduce harborage sites. Others are throwing firecrackers into burrows and hitting scrambling rats with shovels (?!?). Many have had to do away with composting. Hopefully we addressed the issue early on and will be able to keep things under control.

[Cranraspberry]

In happier non-rat news our rosemary is flowering! I had never seen that and frankly had no idea rosemary produced such pretty flowers, so it was a lovely surprise.

The garlic I planted this year is a new to me variety called Georgian Crystal. It’s a very different growth habit than what I had grown before - stout and spread out.

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[Cranraspberry]

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I am so impressed with Song cauliflower! 43 days after transplant. It’s a green stem cauliflower which is supposed to be less finicky and more heat tolerant than standard white stem types and that has definitely been the case for us.

[PlainJane]

Yes, it’s very forgiving of erratic weather. Another good one is macerata, with a green head.

[Cranraspberry]

@PlainJane thank you, I hadn’t heard of that one before and will definitely check it out.

[JRinPA]

Looking good. Has it been dry down there? Really dry up here, I put bush beans in before the last rain, and it has been quite a long time since. That is my natural ability, to halt any typical rain by sowing seed directly.
I just re-found some squash seeds and should be getting them started in the next few days...

You were able to transplant cauliflower in early March? It must be a lot warmer shift than I thought, from here to there. I don't have cauliflower started this year but probably would not chance it here until this next few days' cold nights are past.

[Cranraspberry]

@JRinPA I got my brassicas out late February last year too. We did have a few freezes afterwards, but they didn’t seem particularly affected. This year I planted two cauliflowers, four Artwork baby broccoli, four Tiara mini cabbages and two full size cabbages. Next year I will do fewer cabbages and more cauliflower/broccolini - a lot more fun to eat and easier to fit into our small fridge!

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[Cranraspberry]

Life has been a little crazy here, very much behind on all my hot weather veggies, but nightshades are out in both my plot and the donation plot that everyone here helped me get seeds for!

First tomato to set fruit this year is Marzito

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In less happy news the allium leaf miners are horrible for us this year and I think I need to pull 80% of my onions (the leaves are small, curly and deformed) and probably harvest garlic early before they destroy it as well.

Komatsuna and Giant Red mustard, as well as broccoli raab have been amazing for us all through the spring and I finally just took them out last week to make room for squash and beans. Chijimisai bolted very quickly, at least a month before the others, so likely won’t plant that in the spring again.

I’ve also been very impressed with Cherriette (improved Cherry Belle type) radishes and Tokyo Silky Sweet turnips. I left both in far too long, we had some crazy heat, and yet they were still delicious and had great texture. Even the ones that had started to bolt weren’t pithy or too spicy.

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