Re: GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers

**"* K* E* <b*@xnet.com>**

Cathy,

All the four legged critters were here long before I moved to this 
address, so I've always felt I was the intruder.  Consequently, though I 
get riled  when I find blossoms nipped and discarded or bulbs dug up, I 
figure they are doing what their make-up dictates, thus grousing to 
myself while grudgingly making allowances for their actions.

However, the absolutely "worst" garden pest I ever encountered in my 
garden was...my neighbor!  When we went away for a week-end just before 
a bumper crop of tomatoes, cantaloupe, beets and other vittles were 
prime for the picking, he helped himself to everything in the huge 
vegetable patch because "they would have spoiled" in the two days we 
were gone.  In other days, weeks and years if he needed a tomato for the 
salad, or cucumbers for pickling...well, there was this patch right next 
door for the taking.

My newly planted currant bushes were ripped out of the ground because he 
"was allergic" to them.  And when the hazelnuts started to produce nuts, 
hey, if he didn't pick them, the squirrels would have gotten them first.

And finally, to add insult to injury, when he first encountered garlic 
mustard, he couldn't pull it up fast enough from the roadside ditches 
and plant beds of it throughout his 2 acres because the plants "reminded 
him of home" (in Eastern Europe).

And as to bloomers, especially dahlias and glads, let's just say he had 
more bouquets in his kitchen than I did.

So what did I do to deter/control/eliminate the pest?  Did I stand by 
quietly and idly while all this went on?  Of course not.  But a certain 
peace between neighbors is far better than outright hostility.

Unfortunately with this type of "pest", there still are no deterrents 
that one can buy on the market for use in this pest control.  However, 
as luck would have it....he finally moved away.  And problem solved -- 
except for the garlic mustard which I'll be battling for as long as I 
garden at this address!

Betty

On 6/20/2012 12:16 PM, Cathy Barash wrote:
> Judy,
>
> I'm still trying to get the info my story and original query...
> 	So rats were your worst garden pest. How did you deter/control/eliminate them?
>
> Anyone else? I don't have any "experts" from New England, Midwest, Southwest, or Pacific Northwest.  You must have conquered or dealt with the worst garden pest in your region.
>
> Cheers,
> Cathy
>
> Cathy Wilkinson Barash
> Senior Editor, Garden Gate
> August Home Publishing
> 2200 Grand Ave.
> Des Moines, Iowa 50312
> 515-875-7035
> ïïPlease consider the environment before printing this e-mail
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Judy Lowe [h*@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 10:12 AM
> To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [GWL] GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers
>
> This groundhog discussion is the most entertaining thread we've had in a long time! :-)
>
>
> I was especially interested when the subject of rats came up. When I lived in Boston (Back  Bay area; a block from Symphony Hall), rats were a huge problem; they were about the size of squirrels. The first years we lived in our rowhouse, we had no problem with them being destructive to plants. (I grew everything from roses and shrubs to herbs and tomatoes in big containers.) But then a rat family (colony?) moved in next door where the young couple built a foot-high raised wooden platform behind their rowhouse (over 1870s brick yet), and the rats made a home underneath. The last two years we were in Boston, they ate everything from seedlings to clematis blooms. They were somewhat deterred by thorny rosebush prunings stuck thickly around the edge of the pots.
>
> But talking about rats in your garden was always a "yuck" to others, so I kept quiet about them (most of the time) and listened to suburbanites' deer tales.
>
> As to the city residents moving to the country, I, too, get tickled that so often they destroy the very things that appealed to them about the country. When we lived in Tennessee, I disliked the dusk-to-dawn lights that were always installed by these folks when they moved to our vicinity. Made it hard to see the stars at night.
>
> Judy Lowe
>
>
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