Stupid whislepigs (aka Ground Hog)

So when everything starts to look like it is going to be really tasty, and I’m anticipating good food, but there’s still a week or two to go, I get a feeling of impending doom. And that is when a whislepig started in on my crops.

The little furry mooch took out 2 cabbages, 2 kale, 2 tomato plants, 4 red lettuce heads, and one watermelon. I worked really hard to keep that watermelon alive. It started to wither, and I got it compost tea, I aerated the soil, I made sure it had enough light, and wasen’t competing with anything. That watermelon was a line in the sand. “Take this watermelon, and it’s war, whistlepig!” I thought.

“You want war? Then I’ve got war for you. Organic, all natural, fresh ground war.” I now have a garden seasoned with black pepper. My research says they hate the smell. They also hate is ammonia, but it’s a lot less natural, and if it spills on your crops they’ll die. Either way, they need to be reapplied after every storm. Not my favorite idea, but let’s give this a go.

It has not worked great. Today I lost half a ground cherry plant. I really need a fence, but it costs money and I don’t have the time to make it from nothing because I am leaving with my kids for three weeks for a family reunion in the great mitten state. My plan was to give my husband a easy list of things to do each day, or every couple of days, to keep it going. But I can’t have him do that if my garden is under assault. This needs to be fixed before I go, he does not have the time to pepper my garden.

So I have no idea how to protect what I am growing. I don’t have the income for a fence yet. I will try to keep up on the prevention until I leave. My search leads me to believe like any creature it most likely should not be removed from the face of the earth. They help with irrigation in nature and being food for other creatures which surprised me. There is a lot of nature out there, I would like the groundhog anywhere else then in my garden. I am sure I am not the first, and because we don’t rely heavy on this garden for all out food yet. The ground hog can keep living. I will have to think of a fence for next year. But a fence tends to be costly unless I can get free materials. Even then I have never put in a fence by myself. I might have to bring in some help.

So far my math is: If I get a Natural Wood Snow Fence 4 feet by 50 feet it will cost 65 dollars. One section of mine is 50 feet so it would work but I have 4 section so that would be 260 not including the poles to hold it up with. So a lot of thought will be needed to see what I can do with out spending too much.

If you would like to read on about gardening adventures, click here.