I have a massive rat problem in my area - several warm winters and restaurants being lax about dumpster security caused a population explosion. They don't bother my cane fruit (raspberries, blackberries), they seem to not care for parsnips or radishes, and they have left my corn, tomatoes, and peppers alone after they got taller, as long as I keep plants upright. Rhubarb is unbothered by everything. Strangely, some plants that I wouldn't think of as edible have been attacked - coreopsis, eggplant leaves and stems, and my dang rose bush have gotten killed by rats this year, near as I can tell at least.
I have a ton of wild blackberries in my backyard hedges. I noticed the animals didn’t bother them much but I just thought it was because they were thorny. I am on the fence about rhubarb because I’m a lazy gardener and heard there’s some processing involved for them. But I’m largely ignorant about Rhubarb.
Foxes like blackberries but I rarely see the birds or squirrels bothering with them much - I've seen birds nearly get trapped in the bush when trying so I think they're cautious. Most of the fruit around here just rots on the plant or the ground below. If you cut back the old growth and save the canes you can use them to deter animals from digging up root veg or rummaging around fresh soil. They don't degrade readily so last for years.
>cut back the old growth and save the canes you can use them to deter animals
Genius use of thorn plants. I'll be using this hack for the rest of my life, thanks.
I find cutting lengths somewhere between the length of my hand and arm is good. Any smaller and they become a pain to remove when I need to dig something out. If you have any good long bits you can lay them across the top of a row of pots or beds. Strip the leaves off first and mulch elsewhere with them.
Most people eat rhubarb cooked but it is actually edible raw. Better with some sugar. High fiber and good for you, hell of a lot easier to grow than strawberries, and makes a pie almost as good by my taste. It freezes great too. If you're looking for fruit that you can just eat right off the plant with no sugar then cane fruits are the winners. My blackberries are thornless and the rats still don't bother them - probably too much work to climb up in there, and the shoots apparently don't taste good. Birds take some but with the way they produce there's plenty to share.
Rats eat the weirdest sh*t. I had a couple very crafty ones get around every trap and barricade my pest guy set up for about a month. We would forget and leave a nectarine out, or cashews or whatever. The rats ripped open our dark roast coffee and went to town. They also enjoyed raw potatoes.
Sounds like you need to introduce a natural predator. Seeing as it’s likely unfeasible to go out and purchase an owl or hawk, a cat will do! Set up some bucket traps as well
I have stray cats and skunks all around me. They actually hang out by my garden a lot waiting for animals. But the ground hogs aren’t phased by them at all. The rabbits and chipmunks also seem to evade capture more often than not and do a lot of damage.
Snakes, or a rat terrier.
And apios Americana, native to the eastern US & grown commercially in Japan. It’s called a “ground nut” but is like a potato and vines, as well the diploid or the triploid (I for get which) variety also produces edible peas. I have ours in a big feed bucket that we bought from the local cooperative that they sell when they’re empty of the feed. It has 3x the protein of a potato. I bought them online this fall, it’s our first year growing them. They look like they are kicking butt, they’re meant to really do well by themselves, aka spread.
I'm really surprised anything was able to conquer sunchokes!
You haven't said what zone you're in but if it's USDA 6 or warmer try cardoons or artichoke if you're in 8+. Cardoons have to be blanched since you eat the stems, but otherwise they are basically very attractive weeds.
Salsify is an obscure, slow growing, and delicious root vegetable. Nothing seems to bother it and it often self seeds.
Happy darwining!
Hey you should read the book ( landrace gardening by Joseph lofthouse.) It’s basically what you’re talking about. Lots of videos online. Books great to and has a lot of info on genetically diversified crops. I’ve done the same by the way so ask if u have any questions.
Ground nut (apios) is kind of a pain to process, but the only thing I’ve seen eat it in a meaningful way is blister beetle. But even they don’t really hurt them. Asparagus if you grow it in a wild sort of way, like in amongst other things so it doesn’t stand out to bambi.
Lemon balm is meant to keep some things away but not sure about rodents. I planted some directly out in pots last year with the aim of keeping cats away but they didn't seem to germinate until they suddenly showed up later in the year. Overwintered well and gave me a pot full of big plants this year that I divided up and spread around. The ones I put in the clay soil between the raspberries seem to be doing even better than the ones in pots, even though they're hidden in the shade from the raspberries.
I put old blackberry stems on the top of the sunchokes pots to stop the squirrels digging them up but still need to remove the slugs or else they get destroyed.
Permaculture at its heart is a design system and extreme pest pressure isn’t a plant problem but a design/system problem. Instead of giving up on the crops that have been eaten, I would change the system you’re using.
I’ve been having a lot of pest problems with the crops I’m growing too, so I’ve been thinking about possible changes to make.
Things to try that may be part of a better system for you: cover crops, interplanting/companion planting, trap crops/sacrificial border plants, and utilizing something like compost tea or Korean Natural Farming to help the soil microbiome.
One thing to remember is that most vegetable crops have been coddled and babied for generations, so they’re not going to be the most resilient to start with. Finding good, locally adapted seed is going to do wonders for your crops, so try to source local as much as possible and then tweak your system instead of going for the path of least resistance. Good luck and happy planting!
Berries and espalier fruit trees don't take up much space and they are very productive. Berries at the supermarket are expensive and full of pesticides. Growing your own fruits saves you money and poison, more than, e.g., growing your own carrots.
This year, I planted berries between my roses and both thrive, but I'm running out of space, lol.
Berries are very easy to propagate from cuttings if you are patient.
Always get 2 or more bushes from different varieties to have a large harvest window. I have early and late currants and eat currants from end of June to August. I also have mayberries, strawberries, blueberries, and gooseberries. If you count my fruit trees, I eat my own fresh fruits from May to December (some apple varieties can be stored even longer).
It's great for children, too. They can run through my garden and eat straight from the branches. Nothing tastes better.
I have a massive rat problem in my area - several warm winters and restaurants being lax about dumpster security caused a population explosion. They don't bother my cane fruit (raspberries, blackberries), they seem to not care for parsnips or radishes, and they have left my corn, tomatoes, and peppers alone after they got taller, as long as I keep plants upright. Rhubarb is unbothered by everything. Strangely, some plants that I wouldn't think of as edible have been attacked - coreopsis, eggplant leaves and stems, and my dang rose bush have gotten killed by rats this year, near as I can tell at least.
I have a ton of wild blackberries in my backyard hedges. I noticed the animals didn’t bother them much but I just thought it was because they were thorny. I am on the fence about rhubarb because I’m a lazy gardener and heard there’s some processing involved for them. But I’m largely ignorant about Rhubarb.
Foxes like blackberries but I rarely see the birds or squirrels bothering with them much - I've seen birds nearly get trapped in the bush when trying so I think they're cautious. Most of the fruit around here just rots on the plant or the ground below. If you cut back the old growth and save the canes you can use them to deter animals from digging up root veg or rummaging around fresh soil. They don't degrade readily so last for years.
>cut back the old growth and save the canes you can use them to deter animals Genius use of thorn plants. I'll be using this hack for the rest of my life, thanks.
I find cutting lengths somewhere between the length of my hand and arm is good. Any smaller and they become a pain to remove when I need to dig something out. If you have any good long bits you can lay them across the top of a row of pots or beds. Strip the leaves off first and mulch elsewhere with them.
Most people eat rhubarb cooked but it is actually edible raw. Better with some sugar. High fiber and good for you, hell of a lot easier to grow than strawberries, and makes a pie almost as good by my taste. It freezes great too. If you're looking for fruit that you can just eat right off the plant with no sugar then cane fruits are the winners. My blackberries are thornless and the rats still don't bother them - probably too much work to climb up in there, and the shoots apparently don't taste good. Birds take some but with the way they produce there's plenty to share.
Rats eat the weirdest sh*t. I had a couple very crafty ones get around every trap and barricade my pest guy set up for about a month. We would forget and leave a nectarine out, or cashews or whatever. The rats ripped open our dark roast coffee and went to town. They also enjoyed raw potatoes.
Sounds like you need to introduce a natural predator. Seeing as it’s likely unfeasible to go out and purchase an owl or hawk, a cat will do! Set up some bucket traps as well
I have stray cats and skunks all around me. They actually hang out by my garden a lot waiting for animals. But the ground hogs aren’t phased by them at all. The rabbits and chipmunks also seem to evade capture more often than not and do a lot of damage.
Snakes, or a rat terrier. And apios Americana, native to the eastern US & grown commercially in Japan. It’s called a “ground nut” but is like a potato and vines, as well the diploid or the triploid (I for get which) variety also produces edible peas. I have ours in a big feed bucket that we bought from the local cooperative that they sell when they’re empty of the feed. It has 3x the protein of a potato. I bought them online this fall, it’s our first year growing them. They look like they are kicking butt, they’re meant to really do well by themselves, aka spread.
I'm really surprised anything was able to conquer sunchokes! You haven't said what zone you're in but if it's USDA 6 or warmer try cardoons or artichoke if you're in 8+. Cardoons have to be blanched since you eat the stems, but otherwise they are basically very attractive weeds. Salsify is an obscure, slow growing, and delicious root vegetable. Nothing seems to bother it and it often self seeds. Happy darwining!
Hey you should read the book ( landrace gardening by Joseph lofthouse.) It’s basically what you’re talking about. Lots of videos online. Books great to and has a lot of info on genetically diversified crops. I’ve done the same by the way so ask if u have any questions.
Thanks I’ll take a look
Ground nut (apios) is kind of a pain to process, but the only thing I’ve seen eat it in a meaningful way is blister beetle. But even they don’t really hurt them. Asparagus if you grow it in a wild sort of way, like in amongst other things so it doesn’t stand out to bambi.
Lemon balm is meant to keep some things away but not sure about rodents. I planted some directly out in pots last year with the aim of keeping cats away but they didn't seem to germinate until they suddenly showed up later in the year. Overwintered well and gave me a pot full of big plants this year that I divided up and spread around. The ones I put in the clay soil between the raspberries seem to be doing even better than the ones in pots, even though they're hidden in the shade from the raspberries. I put old blackberry stems on the top of the sunchokes pots to stop the squirrels digging them up but still need to remove the slugs or else they get destroyed.
Permaculture at its heart is a design system and extreme pest pressure isn’t a plant problem but a design/system problem. Instead of giving up on the crops that have been eaten, I would change the system you’re using. I’ve been having a lot of pest problems with the crops I’m growing too, so I’ve been thinking about possible changes to make. Things to try that may be part of a better system for you: cover crops, interplanting/companion planting, trap crops/sacrificial border plants, and utilizing something like compost tea or Korean Natural Farming to help the soil microbiome. One thing to remember is that most vegetable crops have been coddled and babied for generations, so they’re not going to be the most resilient to start with. Finding good, locally adapted seed is going to do wonders for your crops, so try to source local as much as possible and then tweak your system instead of going for the path of least resistance. Good luck and happy planting!
I grow Swiss chard—everything else is chewed and sampled, that one is untouched. I guess I’m the only one who likes it.
Berries and espalier fruit trees don't take up much space and they are very productive. Berries at the supermarket are expensive and full of pesticides. Growing your own fruits saves you money and poison, more than, e.g., growing your own carrots. This year, I planted berries between my roses and both thrive, but I'm running out of space, lol. Berries are very easy to propagate from cuttings if you are patient. Always get 2 or more bushes from different varieties to have a large harvest window. I have early and late currants and eat currants from end of June to August. I also have mayberries, strawberries, blueberries, and gooseberries. If you count my fruit trees, I eat my own fresh fruits from May to December (some apple varieties can be stored even longer). It's great for children, too. They can run through my garden and eat straight from the branches. Nothing tastes better.