Have you ever nurtured seedlings for several months, then gone out the garden with a basket just before dinner to pick said vegetable, only to find their stumpy remains?
If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve likely come across a post about groundhogs. This infamous garden pest is a continual source of frustration. I try to recognize that he or she is a creature just trying to eat, but it doesn’t soothe me when tender beans or baby lettuces just at their peak are mowed down to bitten-off stumps. We live in a small town loaded with home gardens and few natural groundhog predators. Kurt dislikes relocating groundhogs with the Havahart (which I understand, as I have yet to even attempt it), so I’m always trying something new to discourage the rodents.
My latest groundhog garden tactic: circling their favorites with onions. I’ve never grown onions before, as my garden space is somewhat limited. (five beds, four feet by twelve feet) Kurt and I typically grow vegetables that are: our favorite, expensive, or difficult to find. Onions do not meet our criteria. However, over the past several years I have not noticed groundhogs eating other alliums such as garlic or scallions. As such, this year I surrounded the spinach, arugula, lettuce, chard, beets, parsley and kale with red and white onions. I purchased the onions as sets (they look like bulbs) from a hardware store. I’ll let you know if my onion fence works, and please do share in the comments section if you have tried and true groundhog discouragement methods.
No comments:
Post a Comment