Since I actually have some more spare time and am not stuck up in the northern tundra that is the province of Alberta, CA in the oil sands (but really Tar Sands)....I shall pontificate further.

The quail thing has actually got out of hand. One can only eat so many crock potted quail and not onsider alternatives. The major problem areas this year are the wild flower patch and the raised bed gardens.

This year I enclosed the entire wild flower bet in chicken wire and bird netting. Early returns look promising. However for whatever reason, what ever likes carrots has made a concerted efforts in removing all greenery from said seedlings. There does however appear to be an answer.

Tom T, from my neck of the woods in northern Nevada built a series of A-Frames to protect the seedling summer crops from quail depredation and it has apparently worked for everything but carrots. The A-frames are staying on a bit longer for the carrots. I built an extremelyy cheap A-frame of chicken wire and 1x1 pine for the more delicate veggies last week. Appears to be working so far.

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Future Tip:

Squash Bugs

Never heard of Squash Bugs until I moved here in 1991 and over the years have finally figured out how to deal with them. THe answer is, you don't. You let everyone else deal with them. Wait until late May or early June and then plant your squash. Squash bugs it seems, delight in the earliest producers of squash flowers and tend to leave the Johnny Come Lately squash plants alone.

One would respond that if you don't get those plants in early and due to the short growing season that you are cutting off your nose to spite your face if you don't do this.

My response is: How many car-loads of Zucchini do you need to produce that you think you can actually consume? Not that many.

Plant squash later than everyone else in the neighborhood and the the Squash Bugs will tend to ignore what you have in favor of everything else. I have been doing this for the last six years and it works fabulously.

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For those who like Cacti:

Cacti to great in Northern Nevada and if NotoLover is still around and you want some, everthing I got from here has been growing gangbusters.

However, one thing I have noticed is that after a couple years, that single pad you planted which is now 3' plus in diameter; the center rots out and the pads producing flowers are living on borrowed time. Take a close look at the pads. If they start looking wilted and they are getting enough water, look at the original pad(s). Odds are they are dead and the rest of the pads are living off of water reserves. They will shrivel and die because the center of the plant is dead.

The best thing to do is remove the entire patch and select a couple healthy pads as a replacement. These will in turn grow, replensish the patch and look outstanding until the center gives up the ghost. I'll put up a page or two later abou this.

~dRahme.

Here is a link that might be useful: June