Happy new year and all that jazz. As a friend pointed out, January 1 is such an arbitrary deadline to try new things, launch new programs, cease and desist bad habits, make dreaded resolutions. I agree, and also people tend to respond to deadlines. But I think her point is it’s OK to aim for January 1, and if it’s January 5 or 10, or May 12, don’t call out the Navy SEALS on yourself when things take a bit longer than expected.
I’m not terribly fond of resolutions, but I do like to take stock, and January is as good a month as any. Last year my work diverted a lot of my energy that I was previously putting towards my blog, but things are getting better. Or maybe it’s that I am better about not getting my panties in a twist over things I can’t control.
I’ve decided it’s much better to get my panties in a twist over things I can control. One of them is my ongoing battle with the bahstid squirrels. Last winter I attempted to grow garlic because it’s a fun way to extend the New England gardening season to the whole year. You plant it in the fall and it needs the cold to grow. I can get behind that–gardening with no effort. My brother gave me some of his garlic to plant last year, and I was so excited to watch it come up in the spring.
Except it didn’t.
Some shoots bravely appeared in March only to disappear a short time later. I saw a bunny lurking, and the squirrels are forever digging, so they are always a suspect in any garden mishap. As I discussed in my post Gahlic Envy, when everyone else’s garlic was tall and green, I only saw loose skins on the top of the pot. But I was still hopeful. A month later when I finally got the courage to dig in the planter, I found nada, zippo, not even a glob of rotten garlic. Someone or someones had cleaned me out. But gardeners are nothing if not resilient or foolishly delusional, depending on your viewpoint, so the fall rolled around, and I declared I would try again. My dear brother joined the fight and sent me 3 kinds of garlic to try, hoping at least one of them would be less palatable to the urban critters. I put them in 2 planters on my deck, hoping that would discourage the squirrels from digging.
Honestly, I can be so adorably idiotic sometimes.
Of course they were all over my deck, swinging from the railings like they were trying out for the circus. When I remembered to check, there were little holes in the dirt. I found a hack online and put plastic forks, inches apart, tines up in both planters. “Squirrels dislike the pointy ends.” Why do I even believe the internet for heaven’s sake? They just dug holes between the forks.
I knew I had to cover the boxes, but I had been putting it off, because I was trying not to spend extra money. All the “easy” DIY articles and YouTube videos involve already owning wire cutters, chicken wire, lumber, and a circular saw. If I have to sepnd money, I may as well take the easy way out. So off to Amazon I went. I first checked to make sure there was still garlic left. I gently poked in the planters trying not to disturb them further and when I found few heads, I clicked the magic gold button on some snap together cages. When the package arrived, I put the containers in the garden, piled on leaf mulch, and snapped the cage in place and secured it with 18 stakes. That garlic is locked down like the Pentagon.
How do you like the gahlic now ya little bahstids? I am offically ready for spring. Yes, my garlic is has moved from home garden prices to luxury condo garden prices, but the satisfaction of flipping off the critters is pricess. Isn’t nature great and gardening so relaxing?
Happy 2024 everyone!
sandradeden.com 
I usually humbly nod at what gardening expert says. But once you’ve seen an urban squirrel that has climbed into a full park trash bin and is sitting on the rim nibbling a long, dangling piece of spaghetti…I’m like, plastic forks, huh? Maybe in outer Newton. 😁
Are you telling me you have to grow your garlic in a cage? Because the squirrels eat it out of the ground? Is that what you’re telling me? You are buying cages to keep the critters from the garlic you are growing in your yard? Isn’t it easier, cheaper, and over all more attractive to purchase the garlic than to buy cages to grow it in? I was going through something similar with rabbits in our property. Once you put up several cages to keep out the critters you realize your front lawn is looking like to shaving isle at the CVS. Attractive merchandise under lock and key. Not the best look. Unless that’s what you’re going for. If it brings you pleasure by all means………………………………………Personally I found once I put up several barricades that the critters already won because I am now only thinking of them and not the garden. It is called gardening after all. Am I talking too much? Why won’t this program allow me to make a new paragraph? Any how! You could re-think your crop? Unless this is like a vampire thing and you need to repeal the undead from your property. Did I miss that blog? Asking for a friend;)