Friends (and Enemies) in the Garden

I want my garden to be a healthy ecosystem, and that means that I do not intervene with any kind of pest control measures unless it is an absolute necessity. Thus far, the only pest control measures I have had to institute are the ones that involve my .22 (more on that in a moment). I have never had issues with potato beetles, tomato hornworms, squash vine borers, or worms in my broccoli. That is not to say that I don’t see the occasional pest, just that the pest pressure is very mild. By far, weeds are my biggest issue.

I also think that if I make the garden hospitable to animals, it will attract the very ones I need to help me keep pests under control. I am particularly fond of snakes and it is always a happy day for me when I see the first one of the season. Yesterday, I saw two. The first one—obviously a garter snake by its telltale yellow striping—was underneath a piece of landscape fabric I pulled up in anticipation of moving it to a different part of the garden. I apologized to the snake for disturbing it and put the fabric back.

A few minutes later, I went over to check on the cantaloupes and heard a slithering noise. I looked down and sure enough, this little guy was sunning himself on the black plastic:

He let me take his picture and we had a short conversation before he ducked under the plastic and went in the opposite direction.

I don’t think this one is a garter snake. I think this one is a North American Racer—same family (Colubridae) but different species than the common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis. These, apparently, can get to be as long as 65 inches!

It seems early in the season to be seeing snakes, and they’ve all been larger than normal. I wonder if the mild winter and warmer spring means that they were out and active sooner and have had a chance to bulk up? Regardless, I am delighted that some have chosen to hang out in the garden. Now that I know they are there, I’ll just keep an eye out where I am walking.

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I worked very hard to eliminate cover for the ground squirrels in the hopes that they wouldn’t run rampant through the seedlings. The tunnels are still there, but I haven’t seen—or heard—any yet this season. Also, I think we have more foxes, coyotes, and wolves in the neighborhood than we’ve had in recent years, although our neighbor has picked off half a dozen in his yard. Maybe word got out that the crazy gardening lady shoots trespassers.

At least one squirrel is still hanging around, though. I had to dig up the old lettuce bed because it was taken over by weeds. There were some arugula seedlings scattered here and there, so as I dug up that bed, I carefully removed them and planted them in the new lettuce bed. I love arugula in my salads. Apparently, so does the ground squirrel. All of the lettuce seedlings remain unmolested, but yesterday morning, I discovered that the arugula seedlings had been chewed down to stems.

Arrggghh. I started a tray of arugula in the greenhouse, and I am going to keep a careful eye out for the ground squirrel.

The potatoes are all mulched, either with straw, landscape fabric, or a combination of the two (I had to get creative in a couple of places). I need to plant beans today. They have to get in soon to have enough time to ripen. The corn and rhubarb need a top dressing of compost/chicken manure. Everything else looks phenomenal.

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I did sew a bit yesterday; the brown twill I ordered from Joanns arrived last week, so I finished the other half of the custom apron order. I’m not sure what’s up next in the queue. I still need to make some knit tops and I have to finish a birthday present for later this month. If the weather is nice, though, most of my time will be spent out in the garden.