Best laid plans
Growing our own food has its challenges for sure. Some are no big deal, others matter a little more. I started my first seeds February 28th and they were plugging along nicely. A newly sprouted flat always holds so much promise for things to come. I wasn’t too happy 2 weeks into the seed sprouting honeymoon, to find that a mouse had relished the sprouts even more than I. In one night, the mice had moved into the brooder/greenhouse and dug through all the flats in search of sprouted seeds, leaving behind only tomato plants with nipped leaves. The destroyed flats containing spinach and other greens weren’t really a big deal since I start those frequently anyway. But the peppers and celeriac who are slow to start and grow, made me disgusted. I always have extra seed on hand, but as they say you can’t fence time, if I lose my planting window on some plants, I’m screwed. So I started over, further depleting my extra seed stash.
Peppers and spinach, again…
I won’t get another chance with peppers, at least with any hope of getting any fruit, and it is hard to find any plants for sale that will actually ripen here on the mountain. The closer we are to our food supply the less we are insulated from the effects of nature, good and bad.
The spinach is doing fine.
Melissa.
A few cabbages survived the onslaught. I have two heads of Melissa in the fridge, so there will definitely be a gap in cabbage eating.
Mouse nipped toms.
Time to pot these babies up, secretly I hope the mice had a bad taste in their mouth after nibbling these.
Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
That is a real bummer. Do you have a cat you could leve in there for the night
MM has started lots of seedlings, looking forward to eating right out of the garden again.
Kim, somebody bigger than a mouse ate our last cat – I’m looking for replacements. I set a trap or two and took away the seeds – hopefully, I have made a dent in the population for now.
Tell MM his plants look great!!
Close the circle! Eat the mice!
Spoken like a true meat farmer Bruce!
Bruce, good idea – although their bodies were a little mangled in the traps… .
Oh I’m so sorry. I wish I was closer to share with you. Mine are overflowing and I never anticipated such great germination! When I read of your trials, I’m reminded that we really are God sufficient (not self) and I’m sure He will provide for you. It’s none the less disappointing and I hope that mouse has a really bad tummy ache. You’ve taught me even from this mishap that prepping for more than you need is not a bad idea. I hope you find some plants close by.
Diane, thanks for the nice comment – besides planting extra, I planted a little early, so just in case, I had time to replant. I looked back through my notebook and March 15th is the average date I start peppers anyway. So hopefully I should be OK…
Grrrr, we’ve been having a mouse plague around here with a dry, warm summer and lots of grass seed around. Now it’s autumn and they’re moving in to the warm, and eating my spilled chook food and some into the house. I catch 1-2 every day without fail. But they are obviously well fed, they leave my nearby winter seed trays alone! (We have a comparibly mild winter and can grow brassicas, winter greens and roots right through if they are started now.) Good luck with your second round!
Ms. Lottie, sure is aggravating isn’t it? Our cats have been dwindling all winter, becoming food for someone else. I have trapped 6 so far, and for 5 days I haven’t seen any more action. So fingers crossed, my second round of peppers may get out of the ground before the second round of mice shows up!
That sucks. If I was closer I’d share my extra pepper seedlings with you. My peppers and tomatoes have been slow to sprout this year (probably too cold), but they are finally all up and plugging along. Should be potting them up next weekend.
Put a cat in there – George is more than earning his keep eating everything that moves… And thankfully he’s stopped bringing me his catches for praise.
Laura, my cats have all disappeared…morsels for someone I’m sure. Hopefully the feedstore will start having kittens on the dock since spring is here.
Loving this weather – although we have been getting a pretty good frost every morning, but I am liking the dry anyway.
Dang!! Does alma paprika grow for you up there? I started some extras.
Chris, thanks, I haven’t had good luck with Alma, but thanks anyway. I should be OK this round. Knock on wood!
That stinks. It sure does hurt to have setbacks like this. I lost all of my leeks and lettuce last week due to the snow. I was moving two flats of leeks and lettuce out to my cold frame when the phone rang. I set them on the sidewalk and went back inside to get the phone. Five minutes later, I came out to find them buried under three feet of snow that had fallen from the roof. They were flattened and destroyed. I hope you have better luck this season.
Ken, how awful. All that work destroyed in seconds. I guess I am glad I have a few mice instead of three feet of snow!
I must say I have lost my patience with mice this year, even with four cats on guard duty. Your plants look so beautiful, it’s a shame the mice are the ones who got to enjoy them.
Teresa, as our cats have dwindled this winter, the mice have increased. It’s amazing how quick they take over. They did just nibble a few tomatoes and they seem to have recovered, now if they find my new flats, I’ll be mad!
I had the same thing happen this year, except its been pack-rats burying corn from the chicken feeder in the greenhouse. It’s maddening for sure. Condolences
I’ve been setting old fashioned snap traps baited with peanut butter and after a few days of trapping, haven’t had any problems since.
Good luck!
Spence, I used peanut butter too – works pretty good. Our pack rats tend to stay in the hay barn, and don’t cause too of a problem except the constant peeing on everything! So far 6 mice, and no action on the traps for awhile. They were just after the seeds, so hopefully if I get this batch germinated, I’ll be in business
Someday I will have cows…until then I will ‘have’ them through your blog : ). It does seem to be more work than sheep. I took your idea of feeding the animals root vegetables…and gave the sheep (who lambed) some carrots and apples. They LOVED it. I also read in an old American farm book that farmers used to grow extra patches of turnips for the sheep.
What kind of cabbage do you grow? I would like to try your method of leaving them on the patch in the winter. Any recommendations on variety?
Wf, glad your sheep liked the treats – and that your lambing turned out OK!
I have had the best luck with the savoy cabbage being able to withstand our winters, Melissa and January King have performed the best for me. Another one I grew before these two was Tundra and it did exceptionally well.
Oh, that’s rough. I’m so sorry.
Our best mouser hasn’t been around in a week. I’m hoping she went somewhere to have babies, but I don’t think she was that far along. I’m worried a coyote got her.
What do you use for fertilizer on your starts? My starts are all root, little plants. Starts bought from greenhouses that use non-organic fertilizers are all green, little roots. I’d like to have something in-between.
Sarah, I hope your girl comes home safe – it’s hard to be a farm cat. We had one though that lived to be 14! Hunted her whole life and we repaid her good work with raw eggs. She would not touch cat food!
See my sidebar quotes about rules – I’m pretty unconventional with my seed starting, I use potting soil instead of seed starting mix, so the plants have something to eat as soon as they sprout. When they plants look like they need feeding, I water with very weak compost/kelp tea.
A trick I learned years ago for keeping seedlings safe from mice is to make a lid for the flats out of hardware cloth (wire mesh). I think mine is 1/4 inch, it just has to be small enough to keep the mice from crawling through. Use a wire snipper to cut the cloth to fit over one or more flats and snip and bend to make the mesh into a 4 inch deep lid that sits on top of the flat. That leaves enough head space for the plants to grow without hitting the top of the lid. Once the seedlings are up and growing and no longer attractive to mice move the lid to another newly seeded flat.
Amy, that is a great idea! I have lots of hardware cloth around too from my old propagation beds. I knew it would come in handy someday – that will work perfectly
Thanks again!