18 May 07
Invaded by Lagomorphs
My three-sisters garden is chomped to the ground. The corn has no chance: the second it peeks out, the cottontails are on it. They take bites out of the squashes and spit them out, but tell that to the poor squashes. I can’t plant beans till the corn’s four inches high, etc. Oh woe is me.
I sound like Fred. I may start sounding like Mr. Macgregor.
This is my entry for Illustration Friday’s theme, Signs. It’s far more polite than what I originally had in mind: let’s just leave it at that.
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Bunnies at least can be deterred by a sturdy 3-foot fence. Be glad you don’t have woodchucks and whitetails to contend with!
Dave: no, but I have pocket gophers, which are nightmares on legs. (They eat the roots of tomato plants.)
And the 4-foot fence I put up last year, the bunnies now get under.
But I’ll grant you, no deer is a blessing.
You have my sincere sympathy… this is a big problem for an avid gardener! I once knew a guy who was a vegetarian, but would sit on his porch at dusk and shoot the rabbits and gophers trying to use his garden for their evening meal! Talk about paradoxical…but garden murder can drive people to do strange things.
I´m so sorry to hear of this, but I say don´t give up!.Work with nature not against is my motto. I used to swear by the birds who would do damage in the vegetable garden and refuse one winter to feed them! (they are very dependent on this) atlas the snails and caterpillars took over instead. Now I encourage both frogs toads and birds into the garden. All of which take to these creatures as a great delicaty!. Snakes too come in which I don´t really want as they eat the frogs and toads and we have a small cild here too.(how does one catch snackes?) Deers and hares are too a problem. We have a fence around the whole garden. In the summer these tend to have enough food outside the fence, but in the winter they can enter. Deers finsh off the brassica and hares do damage to the bushes and trees. The hares can only enter in the winter if there is alot of snow as the ground is frozen for them to dig under. Otherwise I would just have to dig down the fence by half a meter to make sure. My biggest fear at the moment is the boars. If they get in it would be a distaster.(our neighbours feed the wild boars and they are increasing in numbers fast) To prevent them so far we have electric fencing around the garden and we don´t grow potatoes or corn which they will do anything to get to. Yes it´s tough being a gardener, but also rewarding as you know. So I hope you will find strenghth to carry on and grow your vegetables. Don´t let a few bunnies deter you! You beat them and laugh at them when they no longer can enter your harvest!
Since I’ve let my garden become one with the chaos of invasive plants, I have little to share…but I do recall, about three years ago, a raft of lovely ripe tomatoes being carefully punctured by ambitious grackles — through the bird netting.