By Glen Wunderlich

Growing fruit and vegetables in a remote-area garden has been challenging over the years.  Mother Nature plays a big role in success or failure of such an endeavor, but this year has proved to our best effort to date to fend off wild animals from taking part in any bounty.

Learning what deer, rabbits, and myriad other creatures crave is relatively easy to determine.  If plants vanish or are otherwise damaged or destroyed by voracious vermin, any successful gardener must take action to salvage anything for him or herself.  Here are some tips for the do-it-yourselfers.

Choosing a site for its rich, sandy loam soil was priority number one, but because it was off the grid, watering would be a challenge.  The first year, we figured we could catch rain water in barrels and transport it to the site, but it didn’t take long to discover how impractical the concept was.  The challenge was met by installing a pitcher pump at the garden site, and although some extra effort is involved, it has been a good answer – even last June when drought conditions would have wiped out the plants.

The next challenge would be to keep uninvited critters from helping themselves to our supply of fresh food.  And, this would be no easy task, insofar as the garden site was right there with food plots to attract wildlife – especially deer.  A solar-powered electric fence charger and several strands of electrified wire kept the wily whitetails away all summer.  Never once were there any signs of deer browsing a single plant. 

However, the fence had to be taken down to prep the soil for this year’s experiment, and it was decided not to install it this season.  The reason was simple:  Since we’ve learned what deer really like, we simply avoided planting anything that would attract them. 

Garlic was planted last November and much to our delight, 70 plants have already been harvested. 

Garlic Harvested in July

Potatoes were planted during the heat wave of February and have gone unmolested.  Onions got an early start, as well, and should be ready for harvest within the next few weeks.

Red, Yellow and White Onions

Pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes are thriving – also without protection. 

Cantaloupe

We have had some damage to pumpkins over the years, as they begin to mature, but by then its harvest time and little is lost.

For melons we’ve used woven weed blocking fabric around them and it appears to be a type of deterrent, as well.  My hunch is that it may spook the deer under foot, and to this date not one deer hoof print has been found in the expansive space.

Rabbits, on the other hand, always found their way through strands of electrified fence and wiped out dill, cabbage, broccoli and other vegetables.  Instead of fighting them, a small wire cage with a removable top was constructed to house their preferred foods and has done the job.

As far as tomatoes, beans and other favorites not planted, the local farmers’ markets have been good reliable alternatives to fighting and losing.  The end result is that the frustration level has dropped by working smarter – not harder.

By Glen Wunderlich

From time to time, innovative products come to market that are game-changers.  If you are bothered by moles or mice, here are two inventions that have become my go-to tools to control these nuisance animals.

Recently, ground moles have become active in search of their food sources near the surface of the soil and are doing substantial damage to lawns and gardens.  Although poisons can be used to kill their food sources such as grubs, they can also wipe out beneficial earthworms.  Apart from the exorbitant cost of such products and their limited usefulness on larger tracts of land, who wants unnecessary poison to leach into the ground water that many of us rely upon for drinking?

The best American-made mole trap has been improved since last I wrote about it years ago:  the Wire Tek 1001 EasySet Mole Eliminator Trap.  Although the older model of this trap was effective, often times it was temperamental to set. The folks at Wire Tek solved this issue by upgrading the trap’s base to a flat steel design instead of the previously used round rod concept.  In addition, the trigger mechanism has been enhanced.

Once mole activity is discovered, the raised tunnels must be tamped down and marked in some visual manner.  (Those utility flags work great!)  When particular runways reappear, that’s where to set the traps.  However, there’s no need to purchase numerous traps – at least not initially – because one mole can damage up to 18 feet of lawn per hours.  When one varmint is caught, you’ve accomplished a lot.

Product features include safely setting the trap with foot motion only – no digging.  And, since the business end of the trap is underground, it is safe around pets and youngsters.

The cost is under $40 shipped from online sources such as Ebay and Amazon.  If you find them substantially cheaper, watch out!  They are most likely imitations from China with very similar names, or they are the older discontinued models that don’t perform as well.

When it comes to mice, most of us have had experience with antiquated wooden and wire traps that are difficult to set, or even some more modern models made of plastic.  Certainly, there are other methods to control mice, but nothing has impressed me more than a recent discovery:  the Tomcat Press ‘N Set Mouse Trap.  I’ve been using these traps for a number of weeks in my hunting shacks and each time one of these modern marvels is sprung, it contains one very dead mouse.  These traps have a trigger design that’s astonishingly light but at the same time easy to set.  Once set, slide them into a small box fashioned to force mice in from the front direction rather than just leaving them in the open.

A little peanut butter in the small cup and that’s it.  And, mice can be released without touching them and the trap can be reset. 

Sometimes “new and improved” is just that!