Let me first get this straight. I am not mean to animals. I do all possible to not be cruel to them to the best of my knowledge and live somewhat in harmony with them. They have their space, I have mine. I do not feel like I have presented myself as someone that animals would choose to wage an all out war against. And maybe that’s the thing. They see me as easy prey.
And it’s so not cool.
At the beginning of my gardening season, I felt pretty good. I had 3 different motion detector sprinklers going to keep the groundhogs at bay. (Except I think they might have been going constantly because I was changing batteries weekly.) Produce was growing. My plants were thriving.
And then my sprinkler splitter broke.
And my husband refused to buy a new one since this one was brand new and he wanted the company to replace it.
And my well meaning (though somewhat gullible) husband also assumed anyone would get back to him in a timely manner so we could have the sprinklers going again this season.
So basically, my garden was left unprotected except for the fence surrounding it that apparently is useless.
It all started with the ground cherries.
This was my first year growing ground cherries. And I got quite a few off of them to start with.
But then something discovered how sweet and delicious they were.
Every morning I would walk my garden, admiring the fruits of my labor, only to come to the ground cherry plant.
And there I would find a pile of empty ground cherry shells.
Every single day a new pile.
And then it was the strawberries.
Despite the cage I built to cover them and protect them from the birds, someone was coming in under the cage..
And every day my half ripe strawberries would be gone. I might have gotten 6 whole strawberries off those bushes this year. After that, nothing. Not a single strawberry could even get close to picking before someone grabbed it.
And they didn’t stop at strawberries.
My corn. My precious corn that was growing lovely and tall and the cobs were bulging and so close to being ready to eat.
One morning I went out. And what I found was a murder scene.
Every single corn stalk brutally ripped from the ground. Tossed among my peppers plants.
Every cob shucked and nibbled. They didn’t even go whole hog and eat the entire cob. They actually nibbled the corn off the cob as if they were sitting there having a wildlife BBQ right in the middle of my garden.
Clearly these animals thought my garden was just for them. But at least I still had my tried and true fall harvests of apples and grapes. I was dreaming of all the lovely things I would can with those tasty fruits. The applesauce, the jelly, the pie filling!
I bet you know where this is going.
I started noticing my apples falling a bit earlier this year. Last year it was the beginning of September but this year it was the end of August. I was busy at the time and couldn’t go out right away to pick them. I thought I had a few more days though, since it was so early. It was only 3 days later.
3 days!
I headed out with a whistle to pick my apples. My big bucket swinging. I was ready!
But what I found was the saddest site I could behold.
All my apples had fallen to the ground.
And every single one of them had large bites out of them from critters. It was like a full on apple massacre.
Not willing to lose hope, I told myself, I had another apple tree that was still holding onto its apples. They weren’t quite ready to be picked yet, so I was going to be ready for them this time. I was going to get my apples!
I checked them daily for readiness. They weren’t going to get the best of me.
A week later I went out and found a completely bare tree. Not a single apple. None on the ground. Nowhere. Someone had stripped it clean.
So much for my apples.
But I still had my grapes. They were just turning purple. Nearing picking time. I was so excited to make some more cinnamon grape jelly this year.
And unfortunately, this story does not end any better.
Because one morning I went out to check on those grapes. And I found every single bunch stripped of every single one of those grapes. Each one plucked off.
Every. Single. Grape.
Needless to say my garden was a bit of a bust. For me at least. I have a feeling the local wildlife felt differently about my gardening attempts as they got to enjoy it far more than I did. But if me and the animals are going to live in harmony, something needs to change.
On to next year. Where we will be devising a new battle plan in order to win back our garden space. One way or another we will figure this thing out!