My nemesis, the big fat old groundhog who has decided, despite my decision to the contrary, to live under my porch, adjacent to my strawberry bed, has made his first spring appearance yesterday. Briggsy and Diva, my cats, were in the window all agitated and upset, so I looked out and saw that brown butt waddling down the walk. There’s an opossum who has put in an occasional appearance as well. They both look at my garden as one big gourmet salad bar.
Groundhog proofing my beds has been an ongoing battle. But if you learn a bit about how the groundhog lives and what his issues are, you can keep him out of your beds.
Groundhogs have a decent enough sense of smell, but they don’t have very good eyesight. Fences are usually enough to keep them out, and chickenwire is sufficient for the task. The one issue is that they will try to burrow underneath. I’ve managed to find enough old brick and rock around the property to pile around the bottom of the fenceline to keep that from happening. Groundhogs aren’t that smart, and they’re easily discouraged. Another thing you can do, in the absence of rock is to buy a bunch of tent stakes and hammer them in around the bottom of your fence perimeter. The longer the better, and I’d put one about every 4 to 6 inches.
I also have to keep the front gate closed so he won’t easily come in my yard. I’ve got a plastic groundhog barrier wired to the bottom of the gate. I had noticed he used to be able to walk right underneath it. If the gate is closed, and that barrier is there, he won’t come in the yard. My bad for not closing the gate!
I’ve given up trying to keep the squirrels out, and have just become resigned to the fact that I will never grow fresh dill outside, since they will eat it down to the nub, then tear out the root and munch it.
My strawberry patch is chickenwired around, the porch skirt has rock against it (so the groundhog cant easily come into my strawberries from under the porch) and I’ve got a chickenwire cover to keep the birds out. That’s a fairly small bed against the house, only around 2.5 feet by 8 feet, and has the porch skirt and part of a house wall as the 4th side, so it’s not hard to fasten that.
Scarecrows do work, to some degree. I also hang aluminum pans around the fence and by string over certain things the birds like. Hang the aluminum pans so they bang into the fence and into each other in the wind and make noise. This seems to help. You just want to keep the birds off the plants. They really only seem to want to eat my beans, raspberries and strawberries so far. And the birds are more help than hindrance.
I have a garden snake who seems to be helping me out on bug duty, as do the birds.
What do you do to keep the critters and garden pests out of your veggies?
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