container gardening – Page 17

The Armadillo wrecked my onions

Why do I grow in containers and fabric pots? One reason is that it rains a lot enough to flood places and our drainage is not the best. Another reason is armadillos dig up everything especially if it is newly planted and the soil is loose. So here is the evidence in my onion bed. They also like to make holes of various sizes here and there in the lawn. It is a very good thing most of my onions are planted in fabric pots. I sprayed hot pepper in every bed where I don’t want them to dig and it seems to work for about a week or until it rains so it helps short-term but not forever. The Mole Max works to repel cats and squirrels but not armadillos. The hot pepper is more effective for armadillos but it has to be applied weekly. It did console me somewhat to harvest some beautiful tasty tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Growing Strawberries in the South

General gardening

At first, I found strawberries difficult to maintain in my zone 8b garden. They would produce in early spring and then die during the summer. Lately, I have learned to plant them in late fall and monitor them for disease and pests during the heat of summer. The Alpine strawberries are beginning to produce from last year’s planting. I recently planted Camerosa strawberry starts and have been pulling the blooms off so they can grow and become more established before bearing fruit.