Update on Groundhog War

After spending a fortune on fencing, repellents, cayenne pepper, hot pepper flakes, and cutting up rags to soak with ammonia I resorted to traps to resolve my groundhog problem.   As adorable as they are, I refused to turn my garden over to them and nothing I tried deterred them entering to enjoy a buffet.  I swear, they knew when I left in the car and when I went inside.  I would peep out the window when I was at home and there they were digging and chopping my pole beans down.  If they weren't chomping the green beans, they were eating the leaves on the cucumbers.  Once the veggies produced, they would take 1 bite out of something and move on to the next veggie to take 1 bite of it and leave it on the ground or vine for me.  Oh hell no, I reached my limit when they started chomping on the tomatoes.  My favorites!  I planted a garden so I could taste a home grown tomato.  I had to declare war.   I actually considered an electric fence, but my grandson runs the yard whenever he pleases and I couldn't take a chance of him getting close to the fence and geting shocked if Mama forgot to turn if off.  Traps were the only other alternative

In the state of WV, it is illegal to relocate wild life unless it's on your property.  I was disappointed, but I understand.  Why relocate the pest and make them a problem for somebody else.   I had contacted a trapper who agreed to cage them and relocate him on his 300 acres; however, he never showed to do the job.  Because we were unable to relocate on my property, I called in another trapper.  He placed cages around the garden and around the storage building they had burrowed under and we waged war.  I knew there was 2 babies and the mother.  Research showed, the males leaves after the mother gives birth.  Within 10 minutes of me leaving, one wandered into a cage in the front of the storage building.  The next day the other entered a cage behind the building and the mother entered one yesterday.   Hopefully, I have resolved my problem, at least for awhile.  We're going to cement the openings under the storage building, so no other animals can make a home there. 

Hopefully,  I can get my pole beans to germinate and start climbing for mama, and I will get a great harvest.  I'm praying that my cucumbers will recover.  I still have lots of tomatoes producing, so it seems that I was able to resolve the problem before they did too much damage.  So adorable, but truly a pain for the gardener. 

Intruders, Intruders!

Intruders have invaded the garden patch!  Yep, I stepped out on the deck this week to admire the fruits of my labor and saw a baby groundhog scurrying around the garden trying to find a way out when he saw me.  Needless to say, my blood pressure went up a few notches.   I ran back in to put on a pair of pants, couldn't be caught in my tee and robe in the garden, and of course the little monster was gone when I returned.  That's probably a good thing, that would have been time enough for him/her to devour a few more things.  I am declaring war!   As you can see, there's not a leaf left on my pole beans.  Gone, all gone.    

A family has burrowed under one of my storage buildings and I need to come up with a plan to rid these creatures from my property or least my garden.  I thought we could share space since they haven't done damage to the structure of my building, but they don't understand my garden is off limits.  Until I came up with another plan, I googled my problem and a temporary solution is to sprinkle crushed pepper flakes or cayenne pepper around the perimeter of the garden.  The groundhogs aka woodchucks will remember the experience once they encounter it and stay away.  So far it's working.  The cayenne pepper washes away, but the crushed flakes has remained even through rain.  Looks like I'll be heading to Costco or Sam's today for an industrial size container of each.  I found a site that gave a tip on sprinkling a little dirt or sand with the pepper to keep it from washing away.     

It appears the intruder nibbled on my cucumbers too.  Thankfully the cukes still have their blooms.  I sprinkled a little cayenne pepper on the leaves, hopefully the pepper will ward them off.  It seems the groundhogs have an acquired taste, they didn't seem to be interested in the squash, peppers, tomatoes or herbs. 

These cucumbers are suppose to be bush; however, they seem to be sprawling.  I'm wondering if they were mislabeled.  That seems to be the story of my life, lol.  I end up with the wrong color shrub and now it looks like I'll be dealing with mislabeled items in the veggie garden. 

Oh well, it looks like my adventures in gardening will not be boring.  Thankfully all was not lost with my pole beans,  a few of the plants have new growth.  I pulled up the few plants that seemed hopeless, and in the process planted a few more seeds.  I've learned to turn negatives into positives.   I'll keep you posted on the new war!  If you have a remedy, please leave me a comment on how you conquered the groundhog in your garden.