City Farmers: Protect Your Garden From Deer, Rabbits, Moles and Other Critters

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This excerpt is taken from “Your Farm in the City,” a guide for city farmers and other urban dwellers looking to grow food and raise animals within the city limits. Truly all-inclusive, this handbook that takes you from the planning stages, to implementing your dreams, to the best ways to improve your established business. COVER: BLACK DOG & LEVENTHAL

The following is an excerpt from Your Farm in the City by Lisa Taylor and the Gardeners of Seattle Tilth (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2011). One of the biggest issues city famers have to confront: all the urbanite garden pests. Not all troublemakers have six legs, compound eyes, and an abdomen. Many urban gardeners must battle larger, four-legged pests. No matter what the size, understanding your enemies’ habits and habitats will help you know how best to keep them out of your garden. This excerpt comes from Chapter 9, “Loving Your Enemies.”  

Deer

• Deer love garden vegetables, flowers, and roses. Fencing that is 10 feet tall or shorter (6-foot) electric fences are effective ways to keep deer out of the garden.
• If you use electric fencing, lure the deer with peanut butter on strips of fabric so that they will get zapped — otherwise they will just leap over fences shorter than 10 feet — electrified or not.
• Cover young tree trunks to protect bark — wrap them with plastic protectors or burlap.
• Plant things that deer don’t eat.
• Coyote urine, which can be bought in pellet form at garden centers, is an effective deterrent, but washes away in the rain — great for dry climates.
• Motion-activated sprinklers are extremely effective deterrents.
• Natural enemies include cougar, wolf, and coyote. Watchdogs (or recorded barking) may help keep them away.

Raccoons

• These critters eat fish from ponds, raid chicken coops, and eat the corn when it is ripe. They will greedily eat all your grapes or other delicious fruit the night before you plan to harvest.
• Cover fruit with tulle netting. Use hot pepper spray on corn. Predator urine and recorded dog barking may be effective. Motion-activated lights have little effect.
• Raccoons are difficult to deter.
• Keep cat food and dog food inside. Lock any pet doors at night — raccoons will come in to eat dog food! Use squirrel baffles to protect bird feeders.
• Raccoon-proof your chicken coop and close it up each night. Provide nighttime protection for other livestock.
• Raccoons are strong and can pull or pry things open to get to food. Urban raccoons are not scared of humans and are often fed because they are “cute.” Don’t feed raccoons!
• They typically have one litter of four to five babies each spring.

Rabbits

• Feral rabbits are a problem for many city farmers. They eat everything in the garden. Nearly 80 percent of their diet is grass, but you would never know it after they have thoroughly consumed your lettuce and broccoli.
• Rabbits have three to four litters of six babies each year.
• They feed in the early morning, but can be seen feeding throughout the day (when populations are large).
• Grow greens in a covered hoop house.
• Silver mylar tape or old CDs hung on strings around beds are an effective deterrent, since rabbits frighten easily. Fences should be at least 3 feet tall with wire buried underground to prevent rabbits from digging through to the garden.
• Catch rabbits in humane traps using carrots, lettuce, or broccoli as bait. Take them to a shelter to be neutered — there are rescue agencies in many big cities that will provide sanctuary for feral rabbits.
• Their natural enemies include hawks, falcons and other large raptors, feral cats, coyotes, and dogs.