Snakes in the Greenhouse

growth everywhere!

I've wanted a greenhouse for a very long time. Now that we have one, it's a joy. I grew salad greens that lasted in there through the winter (with covers). For the first time since we've been in Cape Breton I've had tomatoes ripen on the vine, and my peppers love it. So to do the snakes, rodents and ants. Once again I'm faced with attempting to control wildlife and looking for the most natural way to do it. I've put ant traps in, chemicals, I know, but they are not sprayed and can just sit on the edges of the beds. The snakes I think I'll just learn to live with. My guess is that they are there not only for the warmth, but they are probably eating some of the insect life and perhaps even the rodents. I'm covering the exposed ground outside of the beds with cardboard and newspapers to keep the growth down. This in turn should diminish the appeal of the place for critters that were living in the long grasses that were growing up. Once more, I'm trying to find a way to work with it instead of fighting it all the time.
This "live and let live" approach is not one of laziness. Far from it! It is necessary. I have no money for equipment and machinery, and I have limited time to work the farm. With 42 acres, we are just letting most of it be wild and are more seriously just trying to work the area around the house and barn.

This scraggly looking greenhouse is improving all the time