Slightly Ghetto Gardening

Over the weekend we moved my balcony garden over to the house. Casualty #2 from moving - I lost 2 of my favorite containers, the tray bent and they went crashing to the ground. Of course the plastic pots didn't fall, just the nice ceramic ones from Terrain.

Since my future gardening plan is to create raised beds in the backyard behind the garage, I wasn't quite sure what to do with the pots this summer. I didn't want to put them where they would burn out the grass, but I wanted them in full sun and to be within reach of the hose. So we stuck them at the end of the turn-around in the driveway. Not really the prettiest place, but we are without a patio and time for landscaping. I then put up some deer netting with 4 stakes because the woods behind our house are basically a deer highway and I wasn't putting out a rest stop buffet.

Unfortunately deer netting does not keep out the thousands of chipmunks that seem to live on our property. Honestly I gave serious thought to exterminating them with juicy fruit gum (they like the taste but can't digest it), but the reality of it is that I can't even kill a plant willingly, let alone an adorable woodland creature. Squirrels are a different story, but chipmunks? They are just so darn cute! One snuck under the deer netting when I came outside. The poor thing was so terrified, running into the netting and getting tangled up and making these pitiful chirping noises in terror - I felt just terrible! I even propped up the netting so he could escape safely. Seriously I wanted to cry and put out apology peanuts (but I didn't!). So much for my stone-hearted approach. Our new solution was to sprinkle some organic animal barrier on the grass around the netting and then hold down the pavement section with rocks. Hopefully that will help. And it looks even more awesome.