Groundhogs and raccoons in the garden! (with pictures)

Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 09:11

Meet the accused:

And now for the evidence:

As Ma has told you in previous posts, the raccoons have eaten EVERY cantaloupe and watermelon in the garden, even if they aren't ripe yet.  We know the damage is from raccoons because we can see their claw marks on the inside on the melons.

Here is an interesting melon that I found about 100 feet from the garden:

Look how a raccoon broke a hole in the melon and dug out all of the flesh.  This melon must have taken quite a while to eat. One little raccoon probably pulled it from the vine for himself and rolled it away from the others who were feasting right their in the garden!

In addition to the melons, ALL of the green bean leaves, cucumber leaves and sweet potato leaves have been eaten. That's where the groundhog comes in. Laura and I saw one eating the beans last weekend. He was pretty fat! What upsets us the most is that he (or they) destroyed the sweet potatoes. This was our first year for growing  them and we only had a small bed full.

This is what the sweet potato bed looked like before the attack:

And this is what it looked like the day after:

Now, a week later, there are absolutely no leaves left.

I never like to end a post with negatives, so next I want to show pictures of the wonderful salsa we have made:

And we have still had some good harvests even with the critter attacks:

We have had a great time tending and harvesting the garden and have been truly blessed. We were pretty upset about losing so much to the critters, but the weather has been so hot and dry that we also feel sorry for the animals. Next year we will have a fence to keep them out.

As for the rest of this year, we will be planting garlic, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce and spinach in the garden and we will figure out how to build a temporary fence around a bed or two. I will share more of that with you at a later date.

Until then, stay cool and happy gardening!

Blessings,

Pa

Sorry

Posted by VickisMom on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 09:55 - Link

I hate to hear about your varmints in the garden. Your salsa looked good. I need a good recipe for that. I love salsa and chips. Take care. Patricia

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Posted by lisalouhoo on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 10:01 - Link

Oh no, what a loss. But the salsa looks great. Love your Little House themed blog.

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Posted by jenferris5 on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 10:09 - Link

I have had similar damage in my own garden...I was blaming the chickens, but I am wondering now if I may have some masked bandits making midnight visits? The chickens do find ways in around the back edge of the fence, but I might check for coon prints in the morning...

Suggestion...?

Posted by kember on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 10:18 - Link

Awww. Sorry for you loss. I'm not sure if it would work, but, my grandparents had peach trees, and every year their harvest would get eaten by 'possums, raccoons and, as pretty as they are, thieving, nasty, bluejays. This year my grandparents put nets (maybe a shrimping net or just a special plant one. As long as it has small holes.) over the trees and weighted them down with bricks. It worked!
This may work for small patches,

Kember ><>

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Posted by blessedmomof10 on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 11:37 - Link

The salsa looks yummy! Sorry about the problem with the critters..........

Gloria