Quick Garden Tip and Harvesting

Just a quick garden tip for anyone else who, like me, had trouble with certain impolite mammals nibbling off newly sprouted plants in the garden. I've found a pretty fool-proof method for my home. My squash bed, just a 10x10x10 foot triangle with 6 hills for 1 or two plants each, had all my sprouting plants nibbled off to the stem as soon as they sprouted.

I thought maybe those metal baskets that get lined with paper for eating fries or the like from would work. But metal ones just aren't made much anymore. So I found some plastic ones, very heavy duty ones too, for just a buck each. I placed one upside down over each of the newly planted seed clusters.

Yep, it worked. Once I got the bigger leaves starting to unfurl, making the plant wobble about with menace in the breeze, I take off the bowl. Wonderful! I now have 2 bowls off and 4 to go.

Ingenious upside down plastic basket seed protectors

My first full salad harvest was delicious

And I've graduated from mere bits and bites here and there finally. Full and large butter, green leaf and red leaf lettuce, early carrots, strawberries, radishes, early onions and decent beet greens make a fabulastic salad that still tastes like a sunny spring morning.