On March 12th I posted the first of Apartment Preppers talking about planting and growing your own vegetables and herbs and how I started growing my own.  Here is an update, I planted lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes now two months later the only living thing that was able to eat them was the neighbor hood cat.

Now I’m not going to put all the blame on the cat cause I didn’t do very well before that so I will say I have no green thumb but I’m gonna keep trying.

Here are a few tips I’m going to use the next time maybe these tips can help you.

Step 1

Find out what you are going to be protecting your garden from. Will it be deer, will it be rabbits, will it be moles etc. You can do this by watching, talking to your neighbors, or looking up what are the animals and pests that are prone to your specific area on the Internet.

Step 2

After you know what you are going to be working with, you will need choose if you want to put up a fence and other barriers, or if you will limit your garden to plants that will not as likely attract those animals. This later of these two choices is hard, because it can be difficult cutting out what they want, because you want those fruits and vegetables also.

Step 3

If you are looking at deer bothering your garden, then you will want to purchase and put up a deer wire fence that is about 8 feet tall. This will protect from deer jumping over the smaller fences. The thing to remember is that a deer can jump 6 feet easily.

Step 4

If it is rabbits and moles you are looking at, the fencing needs to be a little different. The fence needs to be at least 3 feet high, but also needs to go about 1.5 feet into the ground. This way you can stop those little diggers from getting into the fenced area. They will try to find their way under any standard fencing.

Step 5

Keep in mind that many of the old wives tales of shinny thing hung around your garden, human hair or other unsightly things like this would not necessarily be a full proof plan against these smarter than average veggie eaters. They will eventually figure their way around it all. The main thing to do is use their instinct against them. The fencing is one way to do this. The other options are planting plants that will deter the pests from eating your garden.

Plant plants that is unpleasant to the animals in your area, either because of texture, smell, taste, or thorns. Here is a list of some plants you can try.

• Calendula officinalis (Pot marigolds)
• Campanula medium (Canterbury bells)
• Impatients wallerana (Busy lizzie)
• Lupines (Lupin)
• Myosotis sylvatica (Forget me not)
• Zinnia
• Scabiosa (Pincushion flower)
• Agapanthus (Nile Lilly)
• Aloe
• Agave
• Artichoke
• Bamboo
• Cactus
• Hosta
• Iris
• Penstamon
• Nepeta (Catnip)
• Trillium

There are these and many other plants that if you plant them around the edge of your garden, and in a few rows of your garden, you will be able to prevent the pests from eating your hard worked for food.

These are some simple steps to take to protect your vegetable garden from rabbits and other pests. In the worst-case scenario, there are also harmless traps you can set up and deliver the rabbits or other pests to other safe areas away from your garden.

Good Luck Preppers