I planted a bunch of Crocuses in the garden last year, can't wait until they come up. Anyone know when that might be?
If there is a warm spell coming to the East Coast, less than a month away! I believe the ground hogs out your way saw their shadows... :) This winter has put Vancouver's growing season behind by at least 4 weeks!
about a month or so, bluewing, IF the squirrels didn't eat them (i planted 40 one year and every last one was eaten by the squirrels...and i'm sure it was them because i caught a few in the act).
Hey, joclyn---in re squirrels: got a good hint from a coworker the other day, one I plan to try SOON. He said to put soap shavings in the flowerbeds, strongly-scented bar soap like Irish Spring. He reports that the !@#$% rodents get a snout full of chemical stench and vamoose! This I gotta see. I will do the dance of joy!
Thanks K Baron, togata57, and joclyn. The suns been shining here pretty bright the last few days, but we might get some icy conditions by the end of the week. Ugh! Hate winter!!! Looking forward to seeing something that flowers! joclyn, I didn't know squirrels ate crocus bulbs! Yikes! I sure hope they didn't eat any already! Those grey fluff balls are all around here, courtesy of a couple of of bird feeders. Hopefully the bird seed corn & sunflower seeds will keep them busy, and their little bellies full!
i didn't know they liked them either :( i knew about tulips and i made sure to bury some chicken wire over THEM...didn't give the same treatment to the crocus (which i planted on the same day). i was SSOOOOOOOO p-o'd when i started finding holes where the bulbs had been...they got ALL 40 of the bulbs. i've heard irish spring is good to keep deer away...didn't know it would work with rodents, too. i DO have a sure-fire deterent for the buggers though...found out by accident...the ferret's poo keeps them away!! i've had to replace my trash can numerous times due to the squirrels chewing through the plastic...after i'd had the ferrets for a few months and had replaced the can again, i noticed there wasn't any chewing happening and i also wasn't seeing any squirrel pee on the lid either...only time i noticed anything (and just a few bites and one small hole) is the day or two after collection - when the can is empty. so, now i make sure to always have a bag of used litter ready to go into the can. going on 4 years now with this particular can :) since i use newspaper to line their pans, i could easily bury some above the bulbs - IF i decide to spend a whole day digging another 40 holes, that is! i hope they come up for you bluewing - they're such pretty flowers and a sure sign that the warm weather is on it's way. :( i just remembered that i never planted the daffodils i bought last fall. shoot! i guess they'll be worthless now.
Hey, can anyone give me some hope? I planted a bunch of Crocuses last year, and I think I may have planted some of them point down... 1) Almost always, I've been told point end towards top, if not perfectly at the high point. But, I've been told anything sideways to up. Input? 2) If I did Boo-boo, any chance of being lucky???? Thanks, Wolvie
That's to bad they got into your bulb like that, that's a lot of bulbs! I'll have to try your chicken wire or soap trick if I start seeing ANY tampering. Lol, don't have any ferret poo :) The scent must make the squerrels nervous of being attacked or somthing. Hey, "whatever" seems to work, I'd do it! Bulbs aren't free. I have some Hyacinths, for a few years now, so far no creatures have discovered them, or, maybe they just don't like the taste. Good luck Joclyn at keeping the fur-balls away, and thanks again for the tips!
wolvie, it'll take a bit longer for those that were planted wrong side down to show up...they'll show up though!! yes, it's standard to plant the pointy side up...if there's no pointy tip and no obvious roots, i plant the flatest side downward...and that usually works just fine. blue, if you do the chicken wire bit, just make sure to place the bulbs so that, when they start to send shoots up, they are in the middle of the open squares of the wire.
Interesting about the ferret poo. Wonder if African Pygmy Hedgehog poo would work...maybe I'll give it a try! (For such a little guy, he sure produces a lot.)---Obviously the squirrels aren't reacting to the fact that the ferrets are carnivores: so are cats, and THEIR poo sure doesn't slow the squirrels down one iota!
When I started my first veggie garden, I've read, the smaller the poo, the better it is for plants, and that chicken poo was real good to use. No chickens, but did have some bunnie's, it was (poo heaven) The plants loved them there bunnies!
togata, cats are more likely to go for birds over rodents...ferrets (which are NOT rodents for those who may think so), on the other hand, will go for ANY small animal and in particular anything in the rodent family. if hedgehogs are in the rodent family, then i don't think their poo would be a deterrent. you can try it though. blue, interesting thing about the smaller the poo the better for the garden...i'm going to try putting some of the fert poo out and see how it does. oh, togata, talk about quantity!! these guys go anywhere from 4 to 6 times a day and i have 7 of them...
The crocus are just starting to emerge here and normally are blooming by late March in zone 5b-6a They multiply too :)
It's my understanding that poop from an animal that eats meat shouldn't be used in a compost pile or put on the soil of edibles. It's ok to use the ferret poop in a flower bed, but I wouldn't recommend it for veggies or the compost pile. Newt
SEVEN ferrets??!! Ye gods, joclyn! The mind boggles. Not to mention the NOSE. Whoa! The experience I have that comes anywhere close to yours is back when we bred and showed cavies...at one time there were 45 of the rodents in my house simultaneously. Great in a non-air conditioned house in the humid Ohio summer. By the way, hedgehogs are insectivores. Lots of tiny little teeth. My daughter refers to them as "Dracula fangs". However, they do eat a meat-like diet, so I guess that even though they are neither rodents nor carnivores they might have a c.-like poop. Think I'll just try the Irish Spring. The same coworker with the I.S. hint mentioned that he had used fox urine as a deterrent. This worked for a couple of years until the squirrels figured out that there were no foxes present. ---This brought up the question: How does one collect fox urine...? He bought it in a jug at the local nursery, but how did it get there? (EEEUUUUW!!!) Yes, there ARE worse jobs than mine!
This is tangentially related to your topic but I hope that you all enjoy it...... Surprise by Jean Little I feel like the ground in winter Hard, cold, dark, dead, unyielding Then hope pokes through me Like a crocus.
oh, i like that, growing4!!! blue, i'm really surprised they've come up so early!!! i've not seen ANYTHING starting to break through around here yet and i'm in a higher zone than you!! have they bloomed yet?? togata, ferrets don't smell if their environment is kept clean and they are fed a high quality diet (ie, meat, not grains which they can't digest). yes, they can have a musky odor - and the intensity is different in each individual. with some you can't smell any musk even if you put your nose right into their fur and with others it's detectable a couple inches away. in fact, my newest is an unfixed hob AND he's in rutt at the moment and he doesn't have any more musky-ness to him than any of the others, less, actually. one thing that makes them smell bad is when people, who don't know better, bath them every week or two...THAT will send their oil glands into overdrive and then you end up with an excessive amount of oils on the fur that collect dust/dirt and that's what makes them smell bad. shampoo should only be used once or twice a year...plain water is fine any time, though (doesn't remove the oils from the fur yet does get rid of dust/dirt that ends up on the fur).
Joclyn, None of my crocuses have come up yet, still waiting! I think you meant that for Vera:) I saw some garden tv program talking about chicken manure and on how great it was, the smaller the animal the better.... That chicken manure was the best fertilizer to use, plus, the smaller non meat eating animal the better. Lots of good nutrients in chicken manure. Mixed with organic material, will greatly improve your garden significantly.
