Okay, go ahead and laugh! And no need to tell me that it isn't nearly big enough and the rabbits will most likely win.
I know this. But I was faced with a dilemma. I needed to get our pumpkin seedlings in the ground, or we wouldn't have any home grown pumpkins this year. John is off travelling, but recommended that I simply plant them out near the spuds and cast our fate to the wind. I wasn't willing to do that, having read that while rabbits won't eat anything in the nightshade family (spuds/potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant), they LOVE pumpkin, squash, zucchini blossoms in particular. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my Musquee de Provence, Marina di Chioggia, and Jarrahdale pumpkins to those rabbits!
And so I got out some unused plastic trellis netting from the garden shed, recycled wooden pegs from our building projects, a few spare standards and my trusty staple gun. (When in doubt, get out the staple gun!) I constructed a little pumpkin patch under the tawas near the spuds, and planted out the seedlings. Sprayed them with a pest proofing spray that's meant to be a bit of a deterrant, and also created a "ring of fire" around the perimeter with chilli powder and garlic powder, things rabbits don't particularly enjoy.
Fingers crossed. The chilli and garlic will need to be refreshed after rain. I've come to the conclusion that this year in the veggie garden is a total experiment, we'll see what works where, what doesn't, and regroup next year as need be. And in the meantime, hoping John and Clifford can deal with the rabbit numbers.
I also planted three surplus pumpkin seedlings near the spuds, circled with the chilli/garlic powder and sprayed with the pest deterrent:
Stay tuned.
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