Readers, Welcome to my blog (formerly Birds, Blooms, Books, etc). I'm entering a new decade taking on the challenge of moving from Maryland after living there 46 years and learning about my new home here in New England in the Live Free or Die state - New Hampshire. Join me as a write this new chapter of my life.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Animal Battles

I've written about my battles with the deer and the measures I've taken to minimize the damage from their eating habits.  I can say I have partial victory in that regard.  Only partial because my Deer Protection Plan is concentrated in the backyard and the deer still manage to browse through out front.

Look carefully at this Autumn Joy sedum in Mom's Garden out front and you'll see they've been eating the leaves and some flowers.

This silhouette shows the damage.


Fortunately they don't like the pink muhly grass.


Another animal I battle is the ground hog.  I saw yesterday that it was gathering dead leaves and taking them into its den under my porch.  Won't be long before its hibernating but in the meantime it is munching away.  Lately its been favoring some new yarrow that I planted so I had to take action to keep it out.

They (I think there is more than one) live under the porch.
Here are the two entrances.  The chicken wire did no good.




It's an easy toddle for them to the Perennial Garden.


One stop is here to eat the forget me nots.



They've been in this patch of black eyed susans.



This bed is where I planted some new perennials.  The aster has a fence of bamboo stakes around it.



The yarrow has a tomato cage with netting newly installed this morning.




When I planted these several weeks ago I thought the cone flowers would be their target plants so protected that with chicken wire.  Didn't know they liked yarrow.


Next year I will have to do better to get those ground hogs out!






2 comments:

Dawn Y. said...

Oh, Marcia! The hungry groundhogs seem to think that my perennial garden is their salad bar! They always seem to find the newest plants right away. When I bring plants home from the garden center, now I hide them in the garage until I plant them. The hungry groundhogs would eat them right from their pots! I think they are living under several front porches in the neighborhood. If I could only train them to eat the weeds!! Wishing you a nice day in the garden! ♡Dawn@Petals.Paper.SimpleThymes

Betsy Banks Adams said...

It is always a battle --dealing with the critters, isn't it? Our critters have never touched our Autumn Joy Sedum... BUT--we have had other problems. One year, rabbits ate all of our Impatiens ---so I don't even try to have that beautiful little annual anymore. Chipmunks do the MOST damage to us---and there's no good way to get rid of them. They dig tunnels under our flowerbeds damaging many of our plants/flowers.. They also dig up bulbs thinking they are nuts...

Human hair (which I get from my beauty shop) and Liquid Fence does the best job overall for us --when it comes to deer. About groundhogs? We had one one year with a den in the big tree out back... We made sure he was OUT of his den --and we plugged it up with big rocks. He moved away from our house --and we haven't had any trouble since... Somehow (maybe concrete) ---you need to get him away from your house. They can do tons of damage.

Good Luck... Isn't it FUN to share our lives with critters????? ha

Hugs,
Betsy