Re: GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers

**"* P* <r*@comcast.net>**

Cathy,

I guess you didn't like my write up on Midwest deer...problems and my solutions...I give up...

Sandie Parrott 

-----Original Message-----
From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [g*@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Cathy Barash
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 1:17 PM
To: 'Judy Lowe'; 'Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum'
Subject: Re: [GWL] GWL groundhogs, rats and city slickers

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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