seen in the garden: container-grown woodchucks, and buddhist frogs
THE ROAD TO enlightenment, the path to peace? Uphill. Or so a determined frog out back wanted to remind me the other day. This little bit of amphibian wisdom was one of the snapshots I shared on Instagram recently, and wanted to share them here, too.
SEASONAL SUMMER COLOR for Containers Tip Number 1: Try the little-used short-lived perennial Marmota monax (its common name is Woody You Fat Devil) in pots this week. What do you think? Have you ever grown it? How did it do? (How mine did: He or she and a cousin went into Witness Relocation the next morning.)
CURBSIDE PICKUP Begets Curbside Pickup, or: Seed Pod Takeout Pop-Up Shop: No, those are not olives that are long overdue for a haircut the way I am. Longtime friend and gardener neighbor Mark wanted seed of celandine poppy aka Stylophorum diphyllum … and I said sure, and packed up recycled takeout containers of pods from my latest curbside pickup food binge at our mutual pal David’s CrossRoads Food Shop and left them at my curbside, and Mark did a drive-by. (Got that?) Passalong plants, social-distance version.
- Impromptu little bits and bobs like these are what I mostly post over on Instagram (or if Facebook is your preference, they appear on my A Way to Garden page there, too).
Margret, how did you trap the woodchuck? We have one that’s making a mess of everything and so far we’ve caught 3 raccoons….
Learning the various local animals’ habits is key here. Raccoons (and skunks) are mostly nocturnal, woodchucks diurnal. Any baited trap put out for woodchucks must be closed each evening and re-set in the morning if you wish to avoid trapping nocturnal animals.
Purple Cone Flower cuttings in the trap have been successful for me. Or sweet potato vine. Two of his favorite things to eat in my garden!
I just stuck in some old spinach/lettuce leaves & it took less than 24 hours for a ground hog to wander into the trap. I have more trouble with hairy rats (a.k.a. squirrels) then groundhogs. I could use some advice on how to trap feral cats.
I too have left passalong plants at the curbside with a sign labeled FREE PLANTS.
I have gotten rid of extra tomato plants, pepper plants and hostas. We used to offer these things at our local horticultural society meeting but those don’t exist these days.
Fine. But then what does one do with the humanely-trapped woodchuck/ground hog?
It is my understanding that it is illegal to transport them across town lines with the intent to let it go…
Illegal or not, take trapped animals somewhere with trees, shrubs, and water. My friend drives his love trapped animals to a local park that has all the requirements for them to survive And hopefully stay there!
Fines probably vary, but here in Michigan it’s $500 if you’re caught dumping trapped nuisance animals
Where did you get the Buddha statue?
I love this website but the fact that y’all are ok with trapping and dumping animals you consider to be a nuisance, when it’s you who are the nuisance to them…it’s their land too, well before you decided it was yours and that no other life forms should be tolerated…due to this I am unsubscribing. No garden is complete without compassion.
I laughed out loud at Linda M.’s comment that purple cone flower cuttings worked for trapping woodchucks. Just today I learned that it is the woodchucks that have been eating my purple cone flower when I watched a juvenile happily munching away on a big fat purple cone flower leaf . . . sigh. I am in the camp of live and let live. I live in the woods and have made peace with the fact that the critters and I must learn to co-exist in my garden. Although I agree with Kat’s position regarding the so-called “nuisance” animals, I’ll not be unsubscribing. Just please don’t release any of your exports in my yard, please, I have my fair share!