Fish Like a GIRL

Ah, summer. I have been so happy watching my garden grow like crazy for the past couple of years, especially since we bought our house and Chet created my raised beds. It seems almost anything will grow in them.

To get to the “thief” referenced in the headline, it seems, in this new location, there a number of pests around. Potato bugs and whatnot were an issue last year.

My snap peas seemed to be doing really well until the night before this photo was taken, when most of them near the trellis were munched off.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

This year, I have something digging random holes in my perennial gardens and even the raised beds. I have seen some nine-banded ground squirrels around again, and I am hoping the red-tailed hawk will take care of them as it did two years ago.

Sadly, that same hawk was responsible for our resident mother robin losing her clutch this year, as it swooped down and grabbed all the babies from the nest shortly after I realized the robin had built it on top of the front light of the new garage addition. But I digress.

This morning, I grabbed my coffee and came out all excited to see how my plants were doing. (Yes, we gardeners are a crazy lot, for those of you who did not realize that). The first thing I noticed was my beets. Most of them were chewed off almost at soil level.

My first thought was bunnies. I think the rabbits around here are on their third or fourth batch of kids already — or at least it seems that way.

But then, I looked at my peas. Next the beans. Both had already topped out of the three-foot trellis we constructed for climbing vegetables. “Had” being the operative word here. There are still a few strands that are up and over the top, but the others are also chewed back. 

The beans were of interest to something, as most of them were chewed off fairly close to the soil. Other were taken farther up.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

I could not see bunnies climbing up the trellis. So, my thought was it was either something smaller, or something bigger. Something tall enough to get those tops would likely be a deer. I have been super lucky and have not had deer anywhere near the neighborhood, at least as far as I know. My neighbor has said he has never seen deer in all the years he has been here, but he has continual problems with rabbits. We have both found they have a particular affinity for raspberries.

Something has also been chewing on the pepper plants that I have in pots on the ground. 

I can never thin plants out that I start from seed. I feel bad for them, so I have to keep growing them. Am I right, gardening friends? At any rate, those plants I would have labeled as “extra” anyway. 

The cool thing is, they have very well-developed root systems, so they keep growing back after every munching. I blamed those immediately on the rabbits, but maybe that is not true.

It might be groundhogs, a friend of mine said, which got me thinking about these ground squirrels. They have dug in my tiered herb garden and “planted” some sunflowers for me, which are starting to grow nicely behind my lemon balm and one of my basil plants. I do not mind that sort of help with gardening, I suppose. But the munching off of the greens — only of specific plants, mind you — is causing me a good deal of orneriness, as my Dad would have called it.

Now, that is not to say I will not figure out how to win this battle, we all find our creative ways. But the first thing is to determine who, exactly, is causing these problems. Enter the game camera that I have not used since my late husband Rod and I had the house out in Woodboro. I was involved with Snapshot Wisconsin, and had one of their cameras on one end of the property, and put my own trail camera near a pinch point on the other side of the property, just to see if I would find different critters from one end to the other.

The beans were of interest to something, as most of them were chewed off fairly close to the soil. Other were taken farther up.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

I set the trail camera at the edge of the garden this morning. Once I find out who or what wants to share the bounty of my garden, I can then wage my attack. I have a live trap that I can use for bunny-sized critters in order to “rehome” them. However, something as small as a ground squirrel will require different equipment — or at least some modifications. I would rather not break out the sling shot and, to be fair, I have not even practiced with it for several years. I feel like a ground squirrel would die laughing at me before I launched even one successful shot.

All of this brings back a memory of when I was covering some stories involving the Master Gardeners of the North out of Rhinelander. I believe it was Master Gardener Tom Jerow who said that it was easy — a gardener simply needed to plant enough to feed everyone! I have used this expression many, many times over the years. In fact, just this spring, I believe my sister may have had a choice word or two for me when I mentioned that. It was all in fun, of course.

In the good news department, my bergamot, butterfly weed, rattlesnake master and other native perennials have been mostly left alone and are finally coming into their own and taking over the front flower beds. I did witness a bunny take off one stalk of a bergamot, but he/she must have decided it was not edible, and has since left it alone. However, as I type this, I have seen probably the fifth generation of rabbits run through my yard, so maybe they will feel differently. Time will tell. 

I will leave the trail camera up for a day or two and I will report back on my findings. From there, I will determine a deterrent. Or perhaps I will just have to find a way to “plant enough for everyone!”

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].