RE: Groundhogs & various wildlife

I used to get upset at a family of groundhogs living in my iris patch and fought with them for awwhile. Then I realised that they didn't touch any of the iris. I did see them busy in the garden eating things but when I check more closely I saw that they were eating the weeds, particularly the dandilions. After that I let them be and never did see any damage to the plants. I have found some  rabbit damage but it was minor. They would build a nest under a nice clump of plants and disturb the roots but no feeding damage. The baby bunnies did look very cute nestled under the iris plants. This year so fa have have 4-6 kildeer nests in the garden, in the shelter of iris clumps. It takes about 30 days for them to hatch and then parents and babies are running all over the garden, hopefully getting bugs and grubs. they are pretty noisy birds. I have had a few problems with tops of plants being nipped at the top. It does appear to be deer sampling plants. They don't usually make a habit of it. A spray of water, onion and black pepper  onto the buds should discourage this.
The worst pests were some free range chickens. They would dust themselves  in disturbed soil and  this is usually during planting season. the plants would be pulled up and scattered as they dusted themselves. This was solved by keeping plants well watered. Mud doesn't make as good of a dust bath as dry soil.
Chipmonks plant sunflower seeds in the garden and patches of them show up in odd places. The seed are from the bird/squirl/chipmonk feeder.  The squirals plant black walnuts  all over the place and these get dug out as  they sprout. 
Voles will eat buds and seem to favor them . They need a matted place to nest so cleaning up under plants remove their shelter. Again a hot spay will  discourage them. They will clinb plants to get at buds. Having cats around also help deal with them.

Chuck Chapman

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