Monday, April 12, 2021

On bunny patrol...

HALLIE EPHRON: Yesterday, my husband was sitting in his usual spot in the morning sun by our atrium door, narrating the peregrinations of a pair of bunnies who were zipping back and forth across the yard.

When I looked out, I caught a glimpse of one of them. It was carrying a baby bunny in its mouth across the patio… No baby on the return trip.

I went out to investigate. Freshly dug earth gave away the location of a new den alongside the house, into which momma and poppa bunny were moving their newly hatched brood. Shorn shoots all around testified to the fact that they’d been up to this for some time. My coreopsis and black-eyed susans that had been starting to re-emerge in that spot had… vanished.


Where’s a red-tailed hawk when you need him? Because seriously, after losing half of my perennials last year I am over thinking these guys are cute.

How are your relations with the critters in your environs? Snakes? Frogs? Squirrels? Flo and Eddy?? Is the entire peaceable kingdom welcome?

LUCY BURDETTE: We are in Key West for a few more weeks and John has a glorious garden growing on our little balcony. Tons of tomatoes, some nice peppers, and various herbs. Our perpetrators come in the form of mockingbirds. We love their spring songs, but it’s infuriating to both us and T-bone when they land on the rails and start pecking at the ripe tomatoes.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they ate a few, but to ruin a whole batch? Not cute! (Though I would have loved to have seen those baby bunnies…)


RHYS BOWEN: I feel your pain, Hallie. You have seen our garden--we are open to a hillside and every day we have at least five deer in the garden, sometimes as many as ten including a rather large stag. We also have several jackrabbits, gophers, and occasionally foxes. This means that the only plants I can grow, apart from our balcony, are highly poisonous or scented. We have oleander, lavender, rosemary and several citrus trees, although the deer now strip them of leaves as high as they can reach.

It’s quite disheartening. Guests think the spotted fawns are adorable. Me? Not so much. I keep mouthing the word ‘venison’ to them but they don’t go!


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Flo and Eddy and duck pals--goes without saying. Jonathan keeps wanting to let them in. ALL the birds--we are enchanted. We have actual goldfinches!

Our squirrels are completely hilarious, truly, so entertaining, but trust me, the first time one of them nips off the bud of a new tulip, I go homicidal. (I use pepper stuff the tulips, because..those critters need to stay the heck away.)

The raccoons who moved lock, stock, and babies into our attic--not so welcome, and it was a MESS.
And oh, the bunnies. They are SO cute, and our hosta are the worse for it. I think the only reason they stay alive is that they are so ridiculously adorable. We love ours, gotta admit.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: The squirrels are my garden nemesis! They dig up all the pots on the deck, patio, and even on the front porch. But, weirdly, they haven't been too bad so far this year. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by writing that… I have tried every kind of repellent over the years, garlic, hot pepper, you name it, and the little pests just seem to think it makes the plants tastier.

I had some little herbs and veggies out on the deck last week, still in their plastic pots, and SOMETHING ate the parsley, chives, dill, and bell pepper plants right down to the dirt. Not sure if I can blame that one on the squirrels!


JENN McKINLAY: The bane of my existence is snails. Yes, snails. Forever, I’ve wanted a strawberry patch but my yard is thick with gastropods. When I was taking the classes to become a certified Master Gardener, the instructor assured me that a shallow dish of beer would take care of the problem. I ended up with drunk snails and no strawberries.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We have remarkable few garden pests, because we have foxes in our neighborhood! Last spring we had an enormous ground hog waddling around. We got a have-a-heart trap, but it didn't work... then the next door neighbor announced he had shot a large groundhog that had been digging in his garden. A little more violent than I was going to go, but I can't complain.

This spring, we have a pair of turkey vultures hanging around for the very first time! They're even better than a hawk, because they DON'T kill other birds, but their low swooping definitely frightens off small critters (including the dog.) Anyway, the solution to small garden pests seems to be larger, more frightening animals, and I am all for this.


HALLIE: So are you living in the Peaceable Kingdom or are your hostas and tulips and tomatoes and strawberries fighting for their very lives?

71 comments:

  1. Like Rhys, we have deer [and during hunting season, we have venison]. But we’ve fenced in our garden and they leave the plants alone.
    The herb garden grows in a raised planter box on the porch . . . so far, we’ve been lucky with no animals bothering it. But the butterflies like to come and then we find larvae crawling on the stems and we have to remove them.
    We also have turkeys . . . they don’t do much damage to the plants, but they are the nastiest creatures. When the turkeys decide to wander through, we just get out of their way because it’s so much simpler than trying to keep them away . . . .

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    1. We have turkeys in great flocks in this very urban suburb. Yes, keep your distance. But they are amazing when they're "displaying" - puffing up their iridescent pouches and fanning their tails and strutting their stuff. We take pictures. From a distance.

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    2. Joan, suggestion for your caterpillars: dedicate a part of your garden to butterfly/caterpillar friendly plants...like milkweed and parsley and thistles A little cringe here that your “removal” of the caterpillars will mean fewer butterflies.
      Don’t critters make life interesting.

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    3. There's a farm with several horses near us, and last night as I was walking the dog, I saw a flock of turkeys in one of the paddocks, presumably scarfing up grain or other goodies that had fallen to the ground. Even the horses were staying away from those birds!

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    4. Elisabeth . . . we don't kill the caterpillars; we dig out the plant they've made into their home and move it to a green space we've saved just for this purpose. They're out of the herb garden but they still have enough to eat so they're okay and we can enjoy the herbs without disturbing them. It's a bit labor-intensive, but it's the right way to do it . . . .

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    5. Julia . . . I don't blame the horses one bit! "Wild turkeys" should be a definition of "mean and nasty" . . . .

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  2. Bunnies and woodchucks are my worst enemies for what they do in the garden. I finally built an elevated wooden box - on metal legs - to grow my greens in in the garden. One woodchuck nests under our shed, and the bunnies are around. Last year the woodchuck even munched on a ripe eggplant, a first. Grrr. Our squirrels don't seem to be as destructive as others mentioned.

    Rhys, my uncle has a house in the Alexander Valley near Healdsburg, and he's a big gardener (still, at 93). I have seen him dash out and curse at the deer that just leapt his very high fence!

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    1. Deer are seemingly spring-loaded. I've seen them jump, from a standing start, over a seven-foot fence.

      Steve says they will only do that if they can see to the other side, though.

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    2. Somehow, the deer that used to wander through my parents’ yard and garden found the hostas tasty just before the first frost. That frost that leaves the hostas brownish yellow like over cooked spinach. Saved the parents a great deal of fall clean up.

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  3. Like DEBS, squirrels are my main problem. SATAN the squirrel is my primary nemesis. I have been told that black squirrels are a mutation but they are the primary type of squirrel here in Ottawa.
    He either leaps from the nearby tree onto the second floor balcony railing or brazenly runs up the main building staircase towards my edible garden! The groundhogs and rabbits have not figured out how to make it to the second floor (yet).

    Last year, Satan constantly dug up my plants or knocked down the smaller pots. Most of the damaged seedlings did not survive.

    Because of the mild winter, I started my edible balcony garden in mid-March instead of mid-May. Less than one hour after I put the new seedlings outside, Satan came visiting! Seriously, how did he know?!

    I modified my edible balcony garden design a few weeks ago by using 5 rectangular and 2 large round balcony rail planters, and fewer smaller pots for Satan to knock down.
    So the 2021 edible balcony garden battle has begun. I keep a score throughout the season.
    Current score is Grace 3, Satan 1.


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    1. GRACE: I am keeping track of your score!

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    2. GO GRACE! Squirrels are incredibly devious. And where you see one there's probably more...

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    3. Squirrels are rodents, which as a class are intelligent creatures. Like rats, which are supremely adaptable.

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    4. AMANDA AND HALLIE: Thanks! Yes, part of me admires Satan's dogged determination and devious nature. I am also using more bloodmeal which is both good for the leafy greens, and critters are supposed to be driven away by the smell. And since I started two months earlier, I have been able to enjoy eating several harvests already, so add another score for me.

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    5. Yay, Grace, and thanks for the bloodmeal tip. I'll pick up some next trip to the garden center.

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    6. Yes, bloodmeal really works! We call it rat blood, which sounds even scarier.

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  4. I'm not growing anything in the yard that would be worrying me about being under attack by nature's creatures so birds, squirrels and whatever else is out there.

    However, for some reason there seems to be a skunk that lives in the neighborhood somewhere. So every so often, the little bastard lets go of his natural defense system and I actually want to wear a mask inside the house to ward off the demonic-like stench that settles into the air.

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    1. We used to have skunks ... then a round of rabies wiped them (and most of our local raccoons) our. Back then we had no bunnies.

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  5. Rabbits and deer. Last year deer jumped the fence and trampled my large hostas. I keep my herb pots on the deck, but the dogs not only graze (tarragon seems to be the fave), but dig up the plants. And a three foot black snake making the rounds in the spring...I'm watching for him. Rabbits prefer daylilies, which I spray with deer repellent. This year, we get cicadas! The birds love them, but I don't.

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    1. Cicadas! Nightmare. I was once camping out, sleeping on the ground and dead cicadas started dropping from the tree overhead. They are formidable creatures alive or dead.

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    2. We get cicadas, too, but I actually think they are fascinating.

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  6. Although we live in the city of Rochester, Washington Grove, a 100 acre woods, is a couple of blocks away. We feel fortunate to have this preservation area so close, and people with or without dogs walks the trails daily. It is home to all matter of birdies and beasties!

    So we have deer, wild turkeys, woodchucks, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, hawks, and several regiments of chipmunks. However, they do very little damage in the garden. The chipmunks like to take a bite out of the tomatoes, but only a bite. You'd think they'd remember that they hate tomatoes. The deer can't get into the backyard because of the fence. The foxes come out only at night, staring balefully into our lighted windows. The bunnies raise their littles in our rock gardens and provide hours of delight as they change warrens.

    There are birds of every kind, tons of cardinals and blue jays and finches and song sparrows and chickadees, owls that we hear but never see. The hawks circle, usually in the late afternoon, and when Sergeant Pepper was tiny, he was never allowed in the garden without one of us being with him. Now that he is bigger than Penny, they ignore him in favor of squirrels.

    One year a wild turkey nested behind our garage. We didn't know it until she brought her brood out to graze! They were an even dozen, and every one survived the summer. It was fascinating. They cleaned up every seed and bug, and our garden flourished under their watch.

    None of the above consider hostas to be lunch.

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    1. Ann, you do truly have a peaceable kingdom.

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    2. Oh, Ann, I want to permanently settle on your back porch and watch animal life...of course, I imagine one sunny mild day after another. Enjoy all that nature.

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    3. Your very own Hundred Acre Wood, Ann!

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  7. I'm in the woods so I have critters! The deer have been known to eat the tops of maple saplings, which doesn't make me very happy, although the tree comes back year after year, only to be "pruned" again. They will also eat my hostas right down to the ground unless I remember to put out a preventative. Dryer sheets work well but must be replaced after the rain. Original Irish Spring soap might work - I've had mixed results. I've seen the chipmunk helping himself to apple cores in the compost pile. As for bunnies, my cat loves baby bunnies and even half-grown ones, but evidently she only likes their heads!

    Inside, my problem is my male cat who loves to chew on citrus leaves, which is bad enough, but then he throws them up!

    Jenn, I'm not sure if this will work for snails but it is supposed to work for slugs and aren't they sorta related? Copper. I've heard of putting a copper strip around the raised beds but I don't do that; instead I have scattered a handful or 2 of old pennies in the garden.

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    1. I can forgive the wildlife for mistaking my compost pie for a feeding trough.

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    2. Ha ha! Not pie. Though it's a fortuitous typo.

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  8. We have a murder of crows this year, swooping down onto the front beds, making their very loud cawing noises and pecking away at the leftover bird seed. I don't know whether to describe it as fascinating or infuriating; they're not doing any damage to my not-yet-poking up perennials. But they do scare away the smaller birds, which currently are the migrating juncoes and ever-present sparrows. This is the first year the crows have been present like this; rather odd.

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    1. Crows are truly formidable, especially up close. And LOUD. Do they damage perennials?

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    2. Oh, that is odd. Murder of crows is such a deliciously creepy term.

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    3. AMANDA: We get crows every year, weird that they made their way to Winnipeg for the first time. They are LOUD, SMART and FEARLESS!

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    4. We have had a murder of crows in our neighborhood the last year or so. We love watching them, and we even bought in-shell peanuts to put out for them. Unfortunately, the squirrels found the peanuts, and promptly dug up my flower pots in order to bury them.

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    5. Hallie: No perennials are up and growing yet; everything is still below ground -- and today has been covered with several inches of April snow...

      Grace: It's not the first time for crows here; just the first time so many have descended on our front yard.

      Deborah: It's faintly amusing how the animals do their own thing with what we put out for them, isn't it! We had a peanut feeder up especially for the blue jays, but it was the squirrels who acrobat-ed themselves onto it to empty it!

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    6. The crows are SO gorgeous. And incredibly smart. And definitely sinister.

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  9. The deer come in at twilight or early morning to eat the fallen apples and pears in the orchard. As do ravens. A pheasant escaped from the nearby conservation club. Wild turkeys. There's a groundhog under the woodpile and I won't mind if one of my neighbors blasts it because they depend on their gardens (and share produce). Bunnies sometimes (pretty sure the coyotes keep the population down). Red fox, bald eagle, squirrels, ground squirrels, many small birds--don't mind any except for those pesky squirrels. They got into the attic one year--even the exterminator gave up. One got into the downstairs--the two youngest cats gave chase (I was standing on a chair, laughing as Jimmy C came around the corner like a motorcycle laying on its side through a curve). The squirrel escaped outside and so far (knock wood), none have ventured back.

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    1. We had squirrels in the attic and they were a real chore to get rid of. Because you don't want to put out poison and then have them rot between the joists. Ptooey.

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  10. Forgot to mention spiders! We have them in profusion and as far as I know, ours aren't the bad biting kind - so when one has made its way indoors I carefully capture it and drop it outside where it can catch some mosquitoes.

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    1. Same! Lots of Daddy Longlegs in our yard and shed.

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  11. We have a mostly peaceful kingdom. I gave up on the tulips ages ago - the deer don't like daffodils, my Asiatic lilies or the hyacinths. They don't bother my hostas either, maybe because the hostas are surrounded by this weird lemony mint that I cannot get rid of (this year, I'm giving in - the hostas will eventually come up over the mint and so will everything else, which means I'll have a few weeks of lilies and daffodils, then my front beds will be leafy green mint, hostas, and my boxwoods).

    We no longer have a garden, but even when we did, the critters seem to have kept away.

    I'll have petunias or something in my flower boxes again. Last year I got the most lovely hummingbirds and butterflies.

    Hallie, I could have Koda come to stay for a while. He'll take care of your bunny situation in a flash (literally).

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    1. Liz, the mint is probably lemon balm. It makes absolutely delicious tea, and is naturally sweet. I make sun tea in the summer with it.

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    2. Now that I think of it, the critters have never bothered my mint which even grows in the cracks in the driveway sphalt.

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    3. The deer don’t touch my lemon balm but it spreads everywhere!

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    4. I have an entire bed of mint and lemon balm. Lovely teas, wonderful smell. But we do have to pull the strays so that they don't take over the whole yard.

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    5. I wish the deer would touch the lemon balm. I never planted it; I suspect someone in the past did. It is between our sheds, in our front garden, and all under the big rhododendron in the front. I couldn't get rid of it now if I tried (and I have). I think I'd have to excavate my entire lot!

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  12. We are a wild kingdom family. We love all our critters, indoors or out. This year the squirrels swiped all the bulbs I planted in the antique planter (the kind you hook behind a horse - we found it abandoned on our property when we first bought the place) and we've no crocus on one side of our house anymore. Just deep holes. That said, we figure the critters are trying to make a living and we make plans to replant next year. They left the hostas, all the bulbs on the south side of the house and some on the north. I'll wait to see what blooms and make a list for fall!

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  13. Jenn, do you have access to wood ashes? A circle of wood ash around desirable plants might help with the slugs. It's very caustic to them. It never would have occurred to me that you'd have slugs in the desert!

    I use a granular product to keep rabbits away from my veggies and flowers, but it doesn't work for squirrels, weirdly. This spring is the first time I have ever had problems with anything eating my garlic--squirrels were digging them up! They even passed by the tulips for garlic. So weird. I ended up laying a plastic grid over the beds, which seems to have worked.

    Steve feeds birds all over the place, which means we also get squirrels galore. As well as raccoons, skunks, deer (yes, they will suck the seed right out of a feeder), and mice, I'm sure. He thinks I'm crazy for planting edible shrubs and trees, but I'm determined. My theory is we can all share. We'll see. I have pear trees (a squirrel already stripped the bark off one), hazelnuts, sour cherries, atonia berry, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, elderberry, and a couple more that I won't try to use as people food. I know there is little chance of animals bothering horseradish, and asparagus is usually safe, as are onions and potatoes, as long as the beetles are controlled.

    I don't even try to grow hostas. And will probably not try to grow tulips any more, either. My neighbor warned me about the deer and squirrels, but I got seduced by the darn bulb catalogue and planted over 100 tulips. Guess how many made it to bloom? A dozen. Sigh.

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    1. KAREN: I wish I knew how the City of Ottawa keeps their tulip beds safe. They plant over 600000 tulips throughout the city in unprotected beds for our annual Canadian Tulip Festival in late May. The festival will be virtual again for a second year, with only locals allowed to go view them in person.

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    2. Karen, we have two pear trees at the back of our property. They are lovely and flowering now. But I know long before the pears are ready to pick, the deer will have eaten them. Then they wait for the fruit at the top of the tree to fall and they eat that too!

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  14. Karen, my sister lives in a small development and has feeders at the corner of her garage--one morning she got up to find a doe standing by as her fawns ate from the feeder!

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  15. My Hubby recently saw bunnies and a family of crows fighting. The crows took off with a baby bunny. Knew they ate carrion but didn't know they hunted. The fewer bunnies the better. They & the squirrels strip my rose bushes, eat the blossoms on annuals and perennials. So with our new puppy chasing them and the crows hunting them we may keep the population down

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    1. I had visions of a pack of hyenas hunting down a young gazelle on the African veldt... Yay for the new puppy (hope he's reasonably large.)

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    2. Smaller birds will often harass crows that get close because they will eat eggs and babies.

      It's a bird eat bird world.

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  16. I have been awakened a couple times by the glorious scent of a skunk that had wandered between the homes. The scent lingers, trapped under the patio covering and even in the house despite the fact that all windows and doors were closed during the visitation. Yuck!

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  17. I know I have raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and the occasional skunk in my yard, plus an army of squirrels and a cotton rat or two. But I also have house finches, wrens, chickadees, titmice, a pair of nuthatches, two types of sparrow, robins, dove, and mockingbirds. I'm fine with them all, as long as they stay outdoors. A couple of blocks to the west there is a little creek, where the local coyotes hang out. They, along with a rare bobcat and some owls, keep the rodent population more or less in check.

    Like Jenn, I've had little luck with repellents. I once tried to protect a rose bush from a type of caterpillar that was supposed to be repelled by a nasty garlic spray. I drenched my rose bush. The caterpillars got one whiff and said, "Italian food!" They stripped it to bare twigs. The leaves and blooms did eventually grow back, but dang! It was ugly there for a while.

    By the way, my sister, who also grows strawberries, recommends elevated beds and salt. My sister does not mess around when it comes to snails. Good luck.

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  18. Honestly, by greatest outdoor nemesis isn't a critter, it's a plant. Japanese Knotweed, the devil's landscaping bamboo. It's becoming endemic all throughout southern Maine, and we're been whacking back stands of it on our property for years now. It never really helped in the long term, but Ross was a strict organic guy so...

    Last year, I bought the most potent Round Up I could find, and the Guest Son sprayed the knotweed twice, once in spring and once in August. I'm sure I'll have to do it again this year, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to knock it back by poisoning the $#*^ out of it. I'll make a contribution to the Maine Organic Farmers Ass'n as recompense.

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    1. agggh! Knotweed is a serious blight - I'm not even sure Roundup will kill it. See: https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/japanese-knotweed-invasive-plants.html

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    2. Julia, our former neighbors planted bamboo on their side of the fence. Bamboo!! How could they not have known better! There is now a bamboo forest over there and it comes up everywhere on our side of the fence. You cannot kill it with anything, including Round Up.

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    3. The only thing I know to do with the spreading type of bamboo is to keep it mowed. Shame on your neighbors for not putting in guards. That's how polite gardeners keep it in bounds.

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  19. I put some flowers out in boxes on my balcony last year for the first time in years. By the end of the year, squirrels (or at least one) had decided it was the perfect place to bury peanuts. And we're talking fully shelled peanuts that someone is obviously feeding them. They killed the plants in one planter. I bought some stuff to spray to discourage them, but it didn't work, so I dumped out the dirt and put the planters in my garage all winter. I'm got new plants in them now, and new stuff to spray. Hoping the squirrels have moved on in the last few months. Now, if only my plants would bloom!

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  20. On a nicer critter note, the dogs found a baby possum hiding under our fire pit last night. We encourage the possums, as they eat all sorts of bad bugs in the garden. And they are cute!

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  21. I keep pulling up "trees" that sprout from nuts the squirrels bury in the flower beds. Evidently they plan to reforest my neighborhood. Our lizard crop is way down. Last year we had 3 varieties everywhere: our native American chameleon, a little Italian brown jobbie that showed up a few years back, and the latest intruder-an aggressive Cuban anole. AKA little Cuban b******s. No one has seen any of these guys after the big freeze. My little brother has seen some of the original natives in his yard. I'm hoping they return too. The other species were crowding them out.

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    1. Are those the little green anoles, Pat?

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    2. Yes, they are usually green but can turn brown if that's what they're sitting on. Males have a ruby colored throat they puff out. They can grow up to 8 or 9 inches long, tails included! The Cuban anoles have a really rough ridged back, prehistoric looking.

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    3. We haven't seen the Cuban ones here, then. Just the the little ruby throated guys.

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  22. Wonder if there are anything like wildlife santucary (sp?) for these animals?

    Diana

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  23. The squirrels, gotta admit, are SO funny. They are brilliant! If you can, watch this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

    It's amazing, and you will never look at them the same way.

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  24. Last year I paid to have groundhogs trapped because they were eating some of my perennials. I caught 3 but at least one was left. After I found 2 skunks in the traps, I had them taken out. I hope this year the groundhogs will stay away since I have neighbors in two houses that were empty last year.

    Squirrels are the worst! They take bites out of the tomatoes and eat some bulbs and DIG everywhere, dislodging plants. Since I live in the city, there is not much I can do. I tried chili powder but that didn't do that much. Unfortunately animals don't understand some for you, and some for me.

    That said, I enjoy the birds and butterflies. One year I didn't harvest my parsley because the caterpillars were eating it, and I thought they turned into my favorite swallowtail butterflies. Good luck in everyone's gardens this year.

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