What did you do in the garden today?

[BReeder!]

Anybody plant marigolds throughout the garden to deter pests (or other plants for that matter)? My pests are primarily beetles, slugs, rabbits, mice and squirrels. I'm not certain it would work for the slugs, and we already talked about those . However, I'd like to deter beetles and rodents? I could trap the latter, but it would be nice if I didn't have too be so mean to them.

I planned a row of marigolds along the fence of the garden on either side of the gate (note the picture 2 posts above. I'm wondering if this is a good approach, or if I should incorporate the marigolds throughout the garden.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Anybody plant marigolds throughout the garden to deter pests (or other plants for that matter)? My pests are primarily beetles, slugs, rabbits, mice and squirrels. I'm not certain it would work for the slugs, and we already talked about those . However, I'd like to deter beetles and rodents? I could trap the latter, but it would be nice if I didn't have too be so mean to them.

I planned a row of marigolds along the fence of the garden on either side of the gate (note the picture 2 posts above. I'm wondering if this is a good approach, or if I should incorporate the marigolds throughout the garden.

I would plant marigolds randomly throughout the garden. Make sure you get the scented ones. Deterring slugs: broken egg shells scattered around. Saucers of beer work as well. I noticed my local ground hog is not fond of onions so I scattered chopped onions around the garden beds.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Also to deter slugs lay out little dishes of beer they crawl in die drunk but hey it works

 

[WthrLady]

3 inches of snow on top of .52 inches of rain and freezing rain on top of the inch of compressed iced. the 3 inches of snow turned into slop today so I took the opportunity to get that off our road and drive, and then again when the underlying ice went slushy. We'll have rain and then 3 more inches of snow tonight.
5 hours and 12 miles on the plow today. My fingers are STILL cold. Sniff, sniff.......
I'll be in the saddle again tomorrow. Territorial seed and Seed Savers came in the mail today.
Beef and noodles in the INstant Pot.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Ohhhh the seeds from Amazon came to day one thing about the beer had a dog that would follow Ma drink the beer

 

[karenerwin]

I got an email from Stark Brothers Nurseries this morning advertising their trees of course, however it included a video on pruning. I'm seriously considering raising a couple of the conehead cabbages. I like cabbage and it would be fun to watch that grow. Nothing else going on. Have a great day everyone.

I watched that Stark Brothers pruning video too. Now I need to get out there and prune my 3 apple trees. I also need to watch a video on pruning peach trees. I sort of think I remember that you can do them like apple trees, but I'm not positive.

 

[karenerwin]

Anybody plant marigolds throughout the garden to deter pests (or other plants for that matter)? My pests are primarily beetles, slugs, rabbits, mice and squirrels. I'm not certain it would work for the slugs, and we already talked about those . However, I'd like to deter beetles and rodents? I could trap the latter, but it would be nice if I didn't have too be so mean to them.

I planned a row of marigolds along the fence of the garden on either side of the gate (note the picture 2 posts above. I'm wondering if this is a good approach, or if I should incorporate the marigolds throughout the garden.

Last year I planted a bunch of marigolds all throughout my garden. It did not deter the little critters that liked my green beans or the critters that liked my eggplants! I also had a chipmunk or something living in a burrow under one of my tomato plants. I never did figure out what it was. I kept filling in the burrow and anywhere from a few days to a few weeks later it would be there again. The marigold were very fragrant so ....
I did not find any tomato horn worms and usually we have at least a few of them every year.
I also saved a bunch of seed heads from the flowers at the end of the season and I will plant them again this summer. If nothing else, they help attract pollinators.

 

[BReeder!]

Last year I planted a bunch of marigolds all throughout my garden. It did not deter the little critters that liked my green beans or the critters that liked my eggplants! I also had a chipmunk or something living in a burrow under one of my tomato plants. I never did figure out what it was. I kept filling in the burrow and anywhere from a few days to a few weeks later it would be there again. The marigold were very fragrant so ....
I did not find any tomato horn worms and usually we have at least a few of them every year.
I also saved a bunch of seed heads from the flowers at the end of the season and I will plant them again this summer. If nothing else, they help attract pollinators.

I'm going to go overkill with marigolds I think. It cannot hurt. As you said, the are very fragrant. Worst case scenario is my compost pile will smell lovely in the fall.

 

[BReeder!]

Here's an update to the garden plan (I have too much free time today...). I'm trying to squeeze in pumpkins and winter squash in the area I've circled in red and pointed an arrow to. This area measures just 7ftx7ft. I never plan well for long vine plants. Hopefully some of you can help.

I'll add that the sun tends to be from the bottom of the diagram (south). Morning sun comes from the right (east) without much obstruction. Afternoon sun comes from center or right and is filtered through a 40ft maple tree that's located ~20ft south of the garden gates (the brown part sticking out downward in the diagram). Also the garden is generally flat (no major slope). Is it safe to assume the vines will grow south or southeast? Or will they grow wherever they want? I wouldn't care if the grow over the garden fence going south into our lawn. I need to avoid them growing east, west or north.

 

[Acre4Me]

Here's an update to the garden plan (I have too much free time today...). I'm trying to squeeze in pumpkins and winter squash in the area I've circled in red and pointed an arrow to. This area measures just 7ftx7ft. I never plan well for long vine plants. Hopefully some of you can help.

View attachment 2008834

I'll add that the sun tends to be from the bottom of the diagram (south). Morning sun comes from the right (east) without much obstruction. Afternoon sun comes from center or right and is filtered through a 40ft maple tree that's located ~20ft south of the garden gates (the brown part sticking out downward in the diagram). Also the garden is generally flat (no major slope). Is it safe to assume the vines will grow south or southeast? Or will they grow wherever they want? I wouldn't care if the grow over the garden fence going south into our lawn. I need to avoid them growing east, west or north.

squash (like butternut) I train onto a fence-we use a scrap piece of chain link fence attached to some posts, and then get them growing up and around that. I haven’t grown pumpkins, but you may have more ground space with training the other squash up and out if the way. we also grew yellow summer squash, not so vining, but it did grow out and spread to the south.