No More Corn-Eating Raccoons!

Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 11:14

The Raccoons that visit our garden tend to talk to us.

As you can see, this one informed us that he was getting tired of his diet of cat food and is longing for another summertime feast of our sweet corn! To that we say

"NOT THIS YEAR MR. RACCOON!"

Every year we attempt to grow a small patch of corn, and every year we get to watch the stalks grow healthy and strong. We also get to watch many wonderful ears develop, but when its just about time to pick those succulent sweet ears ... the local raccoons have a night corn eating garden party! They take every last ear, eat the kernels and scatter the cobs all around the yard!

This year the only corn they will get is the few kernels left on the cobs that they find on top of the compost pile! This year the corn we plan to grow is called Mirai 301BC and I wrote about it previously in my Out in the Garden blog. The coons won't get any Mirai corn from the garden because number four on my 2007 to do list is to build a raccoon proof fence around that corn! We can't afford to fence in the entire garden, so we are just fencing in the back part of the garden and we will grow the corn inside the fence.

"But raccoons can climb a fence", you might be thinking. We are going to do three things to combat this that I learned from two of my favorite books. First we will make the pumpkin patch but up against one side of the fence (the one furthest from the house and closest to the woods). Raccoons hate trying to get through and over pumpkin vines. Second, we will grow cucumbers ON the fence. According to the book Carrots Love Tomatoes, raccoons detest cucumbers, so they probably won't try to climb over them. If they remember how much fun they've had at their annual corn eating party and are determined to not let this companion planting bother them, I think the third trick will stop them.

We found this raccoon remedy in the book  Jeff Cox's 100 Greatest Garden Ideas.  One of the 100 great ideas shows how to securely attach the bottom of a roll of chicken wire to the top of the fence and leave the top of the chicken wire unsupported. You also bend the chicken wire out a little and leave it floppy. If a raccoon reaches the top of the fence and begins climbing on the chicken wire, his weight will cause the chicken wire to fold down on him and dump him off. Brilliant!

I will post plenty of pictures after we get the fence built. We will also report what our raccoon friends have to say about it! Of course they may take their revenge by convincing their deer friends to jump over the fence, but that is material for another post!

So there you have it - number four on the 2007 garden to do list!