Critters on the Loose

Whether you grow flowers or vegetables, perennials or annuals, fruit trees or Japanese maples, or a little bit of everything, the likelihood is that you are going to have a variety of wildlife visit your garden, not all of them benign. What to do, what to do!

My neighbor called me because after planting a variety of perennials she went out this morning to find them dug out of the ground and laying on the ground. No, it probably wasn't the local children. Because the perennials she planted were small and tender I suspect a rogue critter of the four legged variety. No, you don't need to get your shotgun just yet. I have used a variety of tricks over the years, some of them working better than others. Here's a few.



Tender plants have not had a chance to establish strong roots and when they are young, they are especially seductive to all sorts of critters including squirrels, rabbits, birds and cutworms. For perennials that are small, protecting them with some type of fencing around them until they have had a chance to grow larger and establish deep roots is one possible solution. I have some wire fencing I cut and place around certain plants until I know I don't have to worry about them anymore. I remove the fencing once I am sure the plant isn't attractive to that pesky squirrel who can't distinguish something good to eat (tulip bulb) and something that's only good for playing with.

My garden seems to attract all the neighborhood cats. The cats are good for keeping the mice at bay, however they are not good for making use of my vegetable garden as a litter box. I lay bird netting over the entire area until I have my vegetables up and going and taking up all the available space. The cats don't like to get their claws stuck in the netting so it works pretty well.

One year my potatoes were overrun by Colorado potato beetles. The next year I waited to plant my potatoes until the end of June. They didn't look like much, and my season was shorter, but all worked out fine. I had just as many potatoes and nary a beetle. I tricked them. They came along at the time of year they usually come, but didn't have anything to eat in my garden so went bye bye. Lately I use Potato Shield that I get from Garden's Alive a company that sells organic products to help you get the better of the pests that inhabit your garden. It works just fine.

And your garden will be just fine. A wise gardener won't give up. She will merely draw another card out of her sleeve.