Every garden has its pest and ours at this moment is groundhogs. If you don’t know what a groundhog is, think beaver with a short stubby furry tail. Groundhogs are a member of the rodent family.
They get the hog part of their name honestly. They are hogs when it comes to munching on tender garden plants. Imagine how disheartening it is to go to the garden early in the morning and find the sweet potato leaves gnawed to the stem. Or bean plants nibbled down to the ground.
We put up a very temporary and lightweight fencing to slow down entrance to the garden. That got us through about a month. Now the varmints are plowing right through that fence and it is time to get serious.
Many recommend shooting or trapping and relocating, but we are choosing other methods.
Cayenne
Our first line of attack is a healthy dose of cayenne pepper around their favorite munchies.
Distraction
Next we have installed whirly gigs and scarecrows to scare them away.
Barrier
But the big guns is a wire mesh fence with solid wood frames all the way around the garden. Of course they may tunnel under, but they will find their holes full of cayenne.
2019 Battle of the Groundhogs is on!