How to keep critters in NJ from eating your Jersey tomatoes

If you’ve grown any fruit or vegetable in New Jersey, only to find it just before they come ripe and have been wiped out, you know the anger and frustration that comes along with that. You watch these little things grow from tiny buds to flowers to fruit, or vegetable.

Then some woodland creature comes out from the woods or your neighbor's property or drops from the sky and takes huge chunks out of your tomatoes. Or carries away your peppers or eats all of your snap peas, or figs. You’ve also heard all the tips about using cayenne pepper flakes and putting marigolds around the border of your garden. Sometimes these things work. Many times, they don’t, only adding to the anger and frustration over on your peaceful, garden oasis.

I have been using it to plastic owls off of my patio to scare birds and small critters away. Over the last couple of years, it seems to have worked, but the little critters may be catching on. It might be time to pull out the big guns. No, not real firearms.

I’m talking about the SCARECROW! Not the kind that you stuff with hay and put on a stick with fake arms and torso and a funny hat.

This is a brand of motion-sensing water sprinkler that can shoot in a wide range from left to right in the end and adjustable height. There are two problems you may run into. The first is that you may forget that it’s set on and walk in front of it yourself and get blasted with a strong stream of water. No big deal, it’s summertime you can take it. The other, however, is it seems the deer in my backyard had an uncanny ability to wait for the battery to die. Keep a few 9 V batteries on hand and change them at least once during the summer. It works. Happy gardening!