august vegetable garden

It’s been a moment. A long moment in the garden. We had a dry spring followed by a dry summer. Between the deer, the voles, and the lack of rain, I struggled to keep what we had and the new plants I installed this year. Our water bills were high for 2 months. And then, the rain came around July 21, and it’s been raining regularly since.

I started the vegetable garden with crop cages which didn’t do well with the windy spring. I had to take the netting off that came with the cages. However, I needed netting on the cages to protect the plants from the deer. The netting didn’t protect the plants from the voles; I replaced the tomato plants twice with new ones from Home Depot before I figured out a different way.

The voles attacked the plants in the two beds on the left. I moved the remaining tomatoes into plastic pots. Under the squash vines growing in fabric grow bags, I put plastic lids from under-the-bed storage boxes. My hope is the voles won’t be able to chew through the bottom of the bags.

Thanks to the extremely persistent deer, we set up a temporary solar-powered electric fence around the vegetable garden. The wooden post is permanent, holding both the solar battery and the hose bib. The fence posts are plastic with metal spikes. They’re okay for now, but not a permanent solution.

Next year, we’re going to build raised beds with hardware cloth at the base to keep the voles out. I think we can expand into 6 permanent raised beds with a solar-powered electric fence.