Giambattista
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I've got hungry critters in my garden. Please heelp

Hi all! I stumbled on this forum in desperation, so I'm hoping somebody can help. :)

This will be my 2nd year of organic gardening, and using companion planting, everything has for the most part gone great! Except for one thing, that is: I've got lots rabbits and a very hungry groundhog.

Last year, they devoured my edamame plants until they were dead, same thing with my parsley and cilantro (and when they were gone, my basil). I decided I'd had enough when they started eating all the leaves off my carrots and sweet potatoes.

Fortunately two of the most prolific weeds we have here are wild garlic and onions (I.e. Allium vineale & Allium canadense), so instead of pulling them, I let them grow, and I also planted several types of onions, garlic, and garlic chives around the plants they were eating (that sort of backfired because I can't tell the garlic chives from the weeds) It did work for a few weeks, but eventually they started ignoring them.

I've gotten a few suggestions so far, the best of which was to add fencing, but that is my last resort. I've also been told to get a cat. I can't do that because I'm allergic. And I'm opposed to cats roaming free because of all the birds they kill.

To make a very long story short, I'm looking for something to either plant, or to put around my plants to repel them. I'm getting ready to plant some string beans and limas, and I don't want the same thing to happen again. I've heard that possibly marigolds would work, but I'm not sure about that. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :D

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applestar
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I get both rabbits and groundHOGs and -in all honesty- fencing is the only way unless you are going to go a step further and eliminate them.

Rabbits can generally be managed with 24-28"H chicken wire or rabbit wire fence.

GroundHOG will need more than just a simple fencing. They can climb and they can dig, and they are persistent. Sometimes double fencing with wire fencing and deer netting can be effective for some beds and for a while, but not for their favorite foods like beans, kohlrabi, broccoli, sweet potato leaves, melons, apples and other tree fruits, etc. I've tried everything from putting thorny bramble, greenbriar, and rose clippings where they come into my yard, ground hot peppers, flooding and smoking the hidey hole they dig to hide and sleepover near the garden beds, etc. etc.

In the end, I have to use small battery operated two wire electric fence for absolutely must protect, and I will resort to live trapping the groundHOG for the sake of my own mental and physical wellbeing (frustration, emotional exhaustion, stress, etc.)

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jal_ut
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Three S method: Shoot, Shovel, Shut Up!

PaulF
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Rabbits are easy...chicken wire fence as stated. Groundhogs are difficult. No matter what plants you try they walk through them to the food you are growing for them. Electric fence or shooting is the best, but not everyone can do those things. If you know where the hole is, fill it with gravel and they will move on to another spot. Maybe after a while the spot they choose will be next to some other gardener who tries to fence them out with plants.

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rainbowgardener
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I dunno ... I agree that there are no plants that are going to be effective keeping groundhogs out of your garden. But the deer netting works for me. Since I garden in raised beds with wood sides, I just put stakes in the beds and wrap deer netting around it. For the groundhogs that would be enough. Since I also have raccoons, I have to put the netting across the top too, so the plants are completely caged in. But the deer netting is cheap and easy, To get at your plants to weed, harvest, you have to open up the netting, which is somewhat of a nuisance compared to just having plants in the open, but isn't that hard, since it is just hooked on the stakes, not nailed or anything. And the garden doesn't look as pretty.

But with all the critters that share my yard, I would never get to eat any tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, etc from my garden without the netting. And I do think the critters share my yard. My yard is certified backyard wildlife habitat (National Wildlife Federation) and the critters were here first. I'm certainly not going to start shooting them. I think it is my responsibility to figure out how to coexist with them. If they would share the garden produce, I would do that. But they don't share very well :) , they take it all, so I have to protect it

Giambattista
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Thanks for the suggestions all. I'm too much of a tree-hugger to shoot the not-so-little critters. I'll try the fencing for the bunnies. There's some possibility that the culprit is more than one type of animal; we've also got a ton of squirrels & chipmunks.

I know where the Woodchuck is. I have a garage that sits about half a meter off the ground not too far from the garden. He lives (or they live) under there, so I can't fill in the hole. Thought about fencing around the garage, but I'm, afraid that'd just make it worse. He'd be protected from my neighbor's cat and can just dig his way out.

I'm not sure if there's one or a few. I think that I read they're not solitary. Anyway, I live within a National reserve that's 1 mil acres, so I could just trap them and release them in a game management area.

I get the message from all of you that plants (and some fencing) probably won't work for the groundhog. I tried habanero hot sauce on the edamame; that didn't help. That really should've told me nothing would work.

I've got a lot of bittersweet nightshade growing along my fence. Any chance that planting it around the been seedlings (until I get the fencing up) would help? I know they're very toxic to rabbits. My beans are just seed leaves right now, they they haven't attracted anything. The carrots are just coming up though.

Almost everything else I plant makes rabbitts sick (lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, potatoes, etc) and no animals are really interested in my squash, melon, corn and cucumbers, so I just need to protect the beans, sweet potatoes, and carrot tops. I moved the herbs to window boxes on my deck, so that's taken care of.

Thanks again for your suggestions! :D

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jal_ut
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Critters wanting to dig under a fence will dig right at the fence. You can prevent them from digging under by cutting some 12 inch wide pieces of fencing and laying them on the ground next to the fence, on the outside, and attaching them to the fence with hog-rings. Or, I have also bent the fencing into an L shape to accomplish the same thing.

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jal_ut
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Here the State claims the deer. You can call them and ask them to get them in check or pay damages.

Might be worth a call to your local Fish/Game Dept?

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jal_ut
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A radio in the garden tuned to the local station discourages a lot of wild critters.
Might upset the neighbors? Give it a whirl if you can get away with it and not
upset the neighbors.



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