Re: please help with groundhog problem
- Subject: Re: [cg] please help with groundhog problem
- From: S* S* <s*@juno.com>
- Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 10:54:56 -0700
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Here
in the west, we've got the groundhog's cousin - the marmot. The
community garden that I enjoyed for 7 or 8 years is on city park property - we
are not allowed to even "harass" the wildlife. Our first year was a
disaster. I grew lots of carrots, peas, & beans. They were wiped out by the
marmots. So I looked around and discovered that other gardeners got away with
growing potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and corn with no apparent
damage. The
next few years I planted those 4 crops in abundance until the vandals & deer
forced me to abandon the tomatoes. By last year, we had "trained" the marmots to
eat the onions and to dig up and eat the sprouting corn. That left us only with
the potatoes. Possible extermination of the marmots just doesn't look like
it would work since a rocky river bank is so close by and there are miles of
suitable habitat. It would be a shame to introduce poison into the environment.
We simply decided to not return to the community garden this
Spring. Over
the years, others have tried chicken wire fence - leaving the top unattached and
floppy. Marmots are big, fat guys and they can't climb over something like that
very well. But, they always learn to get in somehow just like they learned to
eat new crops over the seasons. Right
now, a 2 1/2 acre garden with FREE water has NO gardeners. Some of the old
gardeners still feel they have a "stake" in the garden and are trying to come up
with some appropriate use for the ground so that it won't be lost. Native
perennials and ornamentals are the latest idea but that seems unlikely. Sad but
true, the garden has been lost for this season at
least. On a
more positive note, in another location, I have been very successful in ridding
an area of ground squirrels - these guys are like prairie dogs in Colorado and
elsewhere. My technique is to drive large rocks into the opening of the burrows with a sledgehammer. I honestly think that the squirrels just find another place to dig out but I continue to harass them - so they leave. This
hasn't worked for the marmots because they live in the rocks rather than in soil
and I've never been able to close the entrances. Maybe
concrete!?! Steve Spokane, WA -----Original Message----- In out fourth year of operation, this is the first year we
have had a |
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