Just beautiful !
Yes , to canning , my wife loved to can !
Have you considered organic ways to keep the deer out? I've heard spreading human hair will do it and also urinating often near the garden. Haven't tried that here but I know you don't want to ever relieve yourself anywhere near where you're deer hunting. Then there's the tried and true method of having dogs to keep them chased off. My uncle knows of wild blackberry vines in the woods and always has to beat the deer to the berries. Damnit, now I want blackberry cobbler!
They might say "don't try this at home" but nothing about not trying it at your friend's house.
I've read about those and other simple non-toxic deer repellents. Many swear by one method (and vice-versa), while others have tried everything to no avail. To minimize frustration I accept that the deer will have their way with whatever they like outside the garden, while the garden fence keeps deer out of the garden.
How tall is that fence to keep the deer from getting over it? I swear the deer down here have rocket boosters on them as high as they can jump.
They might say "don't try this at home" but nothing about not trying it at your friend's house.
Eight feet. In preparation for the garden I read a lot about fencing as well ...and reportedly deer can clear fences nearly that high.
...It's actually a very short fence, but there are 7' t-posts + extensions attached, with several strands of electric fence wire (non-energized, of course) forming the remainder of the 8' fence height. Simple, inexpensive and effective.
Awesome garden! I keep debating setting one up, we have about a 30' x 15' fenced in area that we used to keep chickens in (a Red Tail hawk made short work of them a while back). We thought about getting chickens again, fresh eggs are awesome, but the predators around here make it stressful keeping them. One night had a bear come in, bend the fence over and grab one of the chickens, have seen raccoon prints from them trying to dig into the chicken run etc.
So, I have this fenced in area that I am giving a lot of thought to converting to a vegetable garden. Last year we tried growing pumpkins and sunflowers in there, managed to get a single pumpkin from about 15 vines, the sunflowers grew nicely though. Also planted a grape cane last year, that grew like a weed, but over the winter has died back, hoping it recovers in the Spring and I can start to get some fruit from it.
Thank you! Sorry to hear about your pumpkin plants. Did those plants seem fully grown and healthy otherwise? Do you plan to try again this year?
I feel very fortunate. The garden has done far better than I'd have any right to expect. Hoping this year will be as good or better than last year. Will be ordering seeds very soon. Planning to prepare an area within the garden for adding small items like onions, garlic, carrots, beets, kale, spinach, lettuce; this might be jumping the gun though, as in the end it might be better to let the wood chips continue to do their thing, rather than move an area of wood chips aside to make way for those smaller plants.
Impressive garden and results. Takes a lot of work and dedication. Nothing like fresh veggies.