I was feeling sorry for the groundhog because of the drought and heatwave that we are suffering with. There is very little water or food available in the wild. I had almost even forgiven him for eating all of our bean leaves, all of the cucumber leaves, some tomatoes and zucchini and all of the zucchini leaves. But now he has gone too far. He has crossed the line! He has begun eating my beautiful pumpkin plants!
Come on Mr. Woodchuck, at least let a man grow some big pumpkins for his children to enjoy at Halloween. I haven't even gotten around to putting a post on about the pumpkins.
I purposely started them late so they wouldn't get too big too soon. They are at the end of the garden and I am letting them grow out onto old carpet and tarps.
Things were growing along great and we had a dozen or so baby pumpkins.
Many of them had grown much bigger that that photo, but now Mr. Groundhog has eaten them and some of the leaves! It's time to declare war. My Have-a-heart trap was loaned to my in laws and I am getting it back tomorrow night. At the rate the groundhog is going though, that's too long to wait.
Sometimes a gardener has got to do what a gardener has got to do. I must sit out in the garden all night and all day tomorrow and make sure the groundhog doesn't eat anything else!
Of course I can't really do that, so my daughters and I whipped up a quick likeness of me, set it next to the pumpkins with a 24-hour-a-day talk radio station loudly playing. My wife added soap to the scarecrow to add more "human smell". I hope it works.
Tomorrow night we will set the Have-a-heart trap and hopefully on Sunday Mr. Groundhog and I will take a nice long drive to his new home.
Get ready Mr. Hog, soon it will be moving day!
That's terrible! Vermin!
Good luck with your battle.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Posted by: August 25, 2007 at 01:20 PM
How awful of that hog. Hope you catch him,
I like the idea of tarps and old rugs under the pumpkin vines. I think I will do that next year. Thanks!
Posted by: August 25, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Good luck with your groundhog dilema..we are having the same problem, he has eaten the watermelons, squash, cantelope...
that is an excellent idea using old rugs and tarps under your pumpkin vines, going to give that a try next year under the watermelon vines..nice site!
Posted by: August 25, 2007 at 07:35 PM
Ha! I am wondering now if I have a groundhog. I was giving the credit for my damaged pickles and zucchini, to the racoon's. Maybe I am wrong. I better get my trap set.
Posted by: August 26, 2007 at 07:33 AM
If they're hungry enough, it wouldn't matter if you were sitting out there in that chair all day long. :(
Good luck. Perhaps a "I don't have a heart" trap might be a better solution.
Posted by: August 26, 2007 at 05:49 PM
He looks pretty cute to me! we don't have them here in the UK
Posted by: August 26, 2007 at 10:58 PM
I'm sorry to here about the groundhog and the drought.
Your scraregroundhog is very cute but have you ever thought about maybe adding some stuffing or some socks? He looks a bit like Flat Stanley meets the invisible man.
Good luck.
Posted by: chigiy at Gard | August 27, 2007 at 07:58 AM
Marc,
I never knew you made such a handsome scaregroundhog! (I like that phrase!) Hang in there buddy. Hope he doesn't get carsick when you cart him off.
Posted by: August 31, 2007 at 05:28 AM
Hey there! How's the garden growing? We still have a serious drought here in the northeast. Everything is sooo dry. I hope your garden is doing good.
Posted by: September 08, 2007 at 06:38 PM
Did you move him yet? I just posted on my blog about my groundhog problem.. he demolished my pumpkins. They are destroyed. I have the Hav-A-Hart trap but I read on another site that they have a low rate of survival for some reason after being relocated. :( Short of murder I don't know what to do! Did your scarecrow work?
Posted by: Gerri | September 09, 2007 at 05:09 AM