Thursday, October 1, 2009

That darn groundhog ............



My cabbage and collards were looking so good. The picture above was taken on September 22nd. I was looking forward to coleslaw, boiled cabbage, and pots of collard greens.





Tuesday, I looked at the garden and this is what I saw. All my cabbage had been eaten. I didn't know who had been feasting on my garden, but they evidently like cabbage. Yesterday I saw the groundhog in the back yard. I watched as he crept up to the garden and began chewing. I ran outside screaming like a crazy woman and chased him away. I thought he had gone to groundhog heaven, because I hadn't seen him all summer. Maybe he has been feasting in the neighbor's garden which is across the road from his den. Unfortunately, he had discovered my garden.






Today I checked the garden again, and it looked like this. He must have come back when I wasn't looking. After finishing off the cabbage, he ate at least half the collards. I rescued what I could and we had a big pot of collards for supper. They sure were good. That groundhog has good taste, but I'm afraid he's going to be disappointed when he comes back for the rest of the collards. They're in a pot on my stove.

5 comments:

Greener Pastures--A City Girl Goes Country said...

Yikes, now I know why my neighbor shoots them. I couldn't do it. But if they were eating my garden like that, I'd want to! May I suggest a nice dog from the local pound and some Invisible Fence so you can just let him roam freely around your yard and scare off the critters?

www.GreenerPastures--ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com

KathyA said...

That is sooooo discouraging. I love animals BUT their eating my stuff infuriates me.

Gilly said...

I had to Goggle groundhog to see what it is! Sounds a bit of a trial for gardeners! We don't have such creatures, though deer and rabbits make up for it!

When we went to the Dolomites (mountains) in Italy, we saw marmots, which are the same family as groundhogs and I would imagine very similar. I thought they were cute!!!

Arkansas Patti said...

First off, thank you so much for visiting TNS and for your comment.

Those pictures are criminal. As a gardener and an animal lover, a person gets torn when it comes to groundhogs, rabbits and deer.
Havaheart traps only work if you have absolutely nothing else good for them to eat.
Yours may have met with a road accident as mine did.

Sweetflutterbys3 said...

I have the same problem and all in just the past few weeks. No problems all summer. Then I went out to my garden the other week and all the pepper plants and some of my collards were eaten up. And I have a fence around my garden too. Darn groundhogs!!