A Busy Spring

It's been awhile since I have taken some time out for blogging.  Besides getting the vegetable garden cleaned up and planted and pulling out garlic mustard, a major distraction this spring has been dealing with 'our' groundhog.

'Our' groundhog climbing a 3" diameter hackberry tree in one of our gardens.  

Last year I tried compromise, but that has been pointless, since we never actually entered into dialog. I tolerated it nipping down the New England aster and black-eyed susan seedlings and the occasional visits to the vegetable garden.  The tipping point was when it ate my newly planted Liatris and Amsonia plants.

My first approach was to use used cat litter and sudsy ammonia to stink up the burrows.  I think this was only slightly annoying and after a short time the ground hog returned.  Right now I am trying a castor oil solution.  This seems to be longer lasting, but I will need to keep up the treatments for a while longer to encourage a permanent move away from my garden.  In addition to using repellents in and around its burrows, I did complete a buried fence around the vegetable garden.  Hopefully this will remove another attraction from the area.