Well, the past few years the gardening at Grieb Ranch has been plagued with squirrels, rats, gophers and more varmints that seem to increase all the time. So, to thwart the said varmints Connie decided try to beat the odds by planting a garden using tubs placing them in the dog pen.
Connie Gathered the Grandchildren to Create a Garden
Inspired by her friend’s beautiful garden, Connie gathered the grandchildren plus some gardening supplies and got started.
To prepare the creation of the garden, Connie and kids assembled a variety of repurposed ranch items. Supplies came from things they had on hand plus a trip to the feed store. Items gathered were: supplement tubs (from feeding cows), gravel (left from putting in a new leach line), soil, compost, drip line, small tubing and tubing T’s, gorilla tape, edible plants, and most importantly, an automatic timer to keep the garden watered when the kids 😉 forget to water.
Connie took the kids to the local feed store nursery so they could pick out their favorite edible plants for their own garden tub. Edible plant choices made were: broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, strawberries, lettuce (which is used almost daily for sandwiches), beets, radishes, onions, oregano and celery. Then they got to work.
Each one of the four grand kids labeled and decorated their very own mini garden tub then planted their plants. First Mr. P (who is quite handy with a drill at 7 years old) helped them drill drain holes in the bottom of the tubs. Next, each filled the bottom of their tub with gravel. To add in some fun, they used toy dump trucks to move dirt mixed with soil amendment to fill their tubs. Finally, each gathered the plants they chose to grow, attached the drip system, and planted their plants.
How Did the Grieb Ranch Garden Grow?
Well, the gophers and squirrels were beat to start off with, but not the little birds and bugs. They are enjoying destroying the kid’s garden. You can imagine how horrified Connie was when she went to pick lettuce for her sandwich, only to discover the birds had eaten a lot of the grand kid’s garden. Her solution was to re-purpose shiny Christmas decorations to scare away the birds. We’ll see if this will help encourage the destroyed parts of the garden to survive.
It will fun to see how the kids solve their garden problems. We will see how the Grieb Ranch Garden will grow in 2020 and into 2021.