pepper update, Tuesday 6/21/16

[edenfalling]

the poor mutilated seedling



closeup of the crime



its neighbors, now with protective stakes



the pepper fleet, shifted north



When I looked out my kitchen window this morning, I discovered that the squirrels had been at it again. And this time, it's not reparable: they'd snapped the poor leftmost pepper seedling in half, below all of its leaves (and even below the cotyledons). I do not have high hopes for the stem recovering, though I have watered it on the off chance of a miracle.

I staked the other two peppers that have suffered the most depredations. I have also moved the entire flotilla of pots a couple feet to the north, away from the mulberry tree. This means they will get less shade, but hopefully there will also be fewer fallen berries to tempt squirrels past the barrier of repellent spray.

Fucking squirrels.

(I have to say, though, that this particular spray is pretty shitty. Last year I used an Ortho brand product, which is probably full of poisons but smelled kind of sweetish before fading out of human detection and also worked reasonably well until autumn when the need to bulk up for winter overrode the squirrels' general revulsion. This year I'm stuck with Bonide Repels-All, and not only is it failing to repel squirrels, it reeks to high heaven of garlic and rotten eggs, and the stench lingers so strongly that it's stinking up my entire gardening cupboard. Yecch. Unfortunately Lowes and Agway didn't have any Ortho products, and getting to Home Depot is not logistically feasible without a car. *sigh*)

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