Fri 25 Jun 2010
First Tomato
Posted by brooklinemama under food (growing, cooking, preserving) , garden , natural world[7] Comments
This should have been a joyous day, a glorious day. Instead there was cussing. I don’t often cuss, so it was shocking. What happened? The chipmunks got to the first tomato of the season.
THE first tomato.
The ICONIC tomato.
The one you take a picture of:
Its good side
Its chipmunk side
They also got the second one, which wasn’t nearly ripe. There are, by my latest count, hundreds of tomatoes ripening in that hoop house. At this rate we’re not going to get to eat any of them. The chipmunks have dug tunnels underneath the sides, so putting on doors will not help. What do you think? Coyote pee?
June 25th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
oh my, if you figure this out, I’ll be dying to learn. It is difficult to grow just about anything where we are due to the out-of-control chipmunk population. Please post any success you have.
June 25th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Last year, I pulled one beet after another that was half eaten due to chipmunks.
That said, and maybe this will gross you out, but the “good side” of the above pictured tomato looks delicious, and if it were my tomato, I’d be cutting off the chipmunk bites and enjoying the half he did leave. I mean, he only ate half :).
If chipmunks are a real problem for you, you might consider getting a cat, though.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Wendy, I admit it! I ate the other half! Really now, I couldn’t be as wasteful as those nasty rodents.
We’d love to get a cat, but it would have to be an outdoor cat, because I am allergic. However, the winters and the wildlife here are such (cold, and fisher cats) that an outdoor cat would be cruel.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Brynn,
I am buying the coyote pee from the upscale garden center tomorrow and will apply it immediately. I’ll let you know what happens!
June 25th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Oh no! Not the first tomato!
June 26th, 2010 at 1:21 am
You know, I’ve never had any animals eat the tomatoes. The chipmunks only seem to go for the strawberries, and part of that is my fault since I actually fed them strawberries last year.
Squirrels, on the other hand, have been more of a problem for me. As far as I can tell, they are responsible for consuming all the leaves on the goji seedlings I planted! Unless they regenerate the leaves, that’s about 20 plants and all the work that went into them lost. And they gnawed off several asparagus sprouts. The reason I know it’s them is I’ve seen them in the beds in the morning digging holes.
They actually have these water sentry guns that are motion-detectors. I have considered setting that up, at least in the backyard. But I know it will go off prematurely anytime the plants sway in the breeze. They seem more designed to overlook lawns, not vertical gardens with trellises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5D3GKlTkpY
June 27th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
LOL. Oh my but how I can relate. Fortunately one of our cats loves to hunt chipmunks and is keeping them under control. For us though, chipmunks tend to destroy the strawberries mostly. Birds are the ones who get to my tomatoes.