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Anyone grow their own garden in the city? I have been actively gardening in my own property for the last 4 years and each year I am learning from y mistakes. Ex Too many tomatoes equals.... an all you can eat buffet for city rats and my personal panic and desire to pull out every tomato on my property. Also learning that need to get to the things growing in my backyard before the birds and squirrels (it too me months to grow grapes, 1 peach and all kinds of berries). Just before I went to pick them I saw a brunch of birds sitting on the branches and eating everything ! I am not feeling a scare crow would work to help deal with this situation, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to deter our local garden pest (rats, squirrels, mice, birds, rabbits, slug and whatever else is hanging out in Toronto backyards). I can deal with some rabbits biting a few things hear and there, but I am terrified of rats and mice ... and wont grow tomatoes near the house due what happened last time!! Anyone grow stuff on their balcony or window ledges in planters?
Get a cat? Dunno how well that would work but even if it doesn't catch anything, it could help scare the squirrels and rabbits away, I don't know....
Also I know a lot of the places we go for PYO cherries have reflective tape on the trees which seems to scare the birds.
Didn't think there would be many rats in SE Scarborough, I think it was mostly chipmunks going after the tomatoes where I grew up (western suburbs).
We had blackberries and mulberries which I think were getting eaten but there were so many there was plenty left over for us. Birds were more of a problem with Saskatoon berries.
Get a cat? Dunno how well that would work but even if it doesn't catch anything, it could help scare the squirrels and rabbits away, I don't know....
Also I know a lot of the places we go for PYO cherries have reflective tape on the trees which seems to scare the birds.
Didn't think there would be many rats in SE Scarborough, I think it was mostly chipmunks going after the tomatoes where I grew up (western suburbs).
We had blackberries and mulberries which I think were getting eaten but there were so many there was plenty left over for us. Birds were more of a problem with Saskatoon berries.
No we got all sort of animals in my part of the city. It is still a pretty green part of the city. If you smell a pot like scent in my area ... it is like a skunk. There are rabbits, squirels and racoons everywhere. I seriously assumed maybe slugs were bitting the vegetables in my garden. I figured the birds were eating the berries and grapes. Then I started to wonder why the slugs would be making such larger wholes. Then one day I was out in my garden and a saw the tomato plants shaking and I looked closes and saw a bunch of rats and I freaked . I tired to scare them away, but they were going anywhere. Later on once I though they were gone I started pulling all the tomaotes plants out. We grew way too many tomatoes that year and too close to the house. Since I will only grow a smaller amount and they must be much further from the house. I would just diet if one of those things got in my house.
Regarding the cat idea. I have no desire to have any pets and I would serious have a heart attack if it caught something and broght it anywhere near me. Thanks for the reflective tape idea. I am hoping to try and get stuff in the ground by this weekend because I am using seeds and not buying plants so they could benefit from the extra few weeks to start sprouting up.
Maybe cats would scare away animals just by the presence and marking without actually have to kill anything. Moving on from that though...
We had prickly bushes in our garden that we pruned ever fall, and then used the cut off branches to surround our tomatoes, and it was somewhat effective. I heard pepper can work too? I think there's some sort of pepper wax you can put on your vegetables.
I think vinegar can kill slugs? But apparently they lay eggs all over and the vinegar doesn't work on those so you have to keep applying until all the eggs turn into slugs and those die also (before they lay more eggs...).
Maybe I should just plant flowers or a rock garden lol. I got to admit every May I get all excited about fixing up my backyard and planting stuff. Then come June I am never home to water anything. Come July to September stuff is growing, but I don't actually eat it and it goes mainly to waste. This might not be the best investment of my time? I have a 100% no pet policy in my house. If I can't remember to water my garden ... the cat would have no hope and anything that scratches my furniture, bites my shoes or bags is not going to last 3 seconds in my house as I would totally hit the roof.
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and my personal panic and desire to pull out every tomato on my property. Also learning that need to get to the things growing in my backyard before the birds and squirrels (it too me months to grow grapes, 1 peach and all kinds of berries). Just before I went to pick them I saw a brunch of birds sitting on the branches and eating everything 
! I am not feeling a scare crow would work to help deal with this situation, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to deter our local garden pest (rats, squirrels, mice, birds, rabbits, slug and whatever else is hanging out in Toronto backyards). I can deal with some rabbits biting a few things hear and there, but I am terrified of rats and mice ... and wont grow tomatoes near the house due what happened last time!! Anyone grow stuff on their balcony or window ledges in planters?
