Last updated on February 25th, 2016
Uh-oh. This morning, during my daily inspection of the too-many gardens here, I discovered a fiendish fat woodchuck in the fenced kitchen garden. The object of Woody’s affection? Sweet potato leaves. Overnight, he practically devoured the entire crop.
I watched the voracious varmint escape the garden the same way it probably entered: by squeezing its rotund body beneath the wire-mesh fence. He seemed offended when I screamed “MERDE!” at the top of my lungs.
If that word offends you, too, please accept my apology.
Sweet potatoes were an experiment this year, so their destruction is particularly unnerving for me. Would you like to see the crop’s rise and fall?
In late-May, I planted several rooted sprouts, or “slips” in a raised bed.
The vines grew with the speed of Jack’s infamous beanstalk.
By late-July, the greenery had filled the bed, and spilled over its sides.
How I looked forward to harvest-time, when I’d dig up bushels of fat orange tubers! I’d bake ’em. I’d boil ’em. I’d use ’em in this awesome Bubble and Squeak.
But Woody the Woodchuck had other plans. He reduced the crop to little more than a series of leafless sticks.
Is this crop beyond all hope? Maybe yes, maybe no. Woody didn’t touch the vines that had extended beyond the bed, so perhaps there are sufficient leaves to provide nourishment for developing tubers. Only time will tell.
In an effort to thwart Woody’s wicked ways, I took a break from writing this post, and purchased a bottle of animal-repellent from a local garden center. The product contains putrescent eggs that are mercifully masked, for human noses, with the pleasant scent of peppermint. Per the directions on the bottle, I applied the spray along the perimeter of the fence, and also on the ground around the sweet potato bed. In a future post, I’ll let you know if the product works as promised.
Meanwhile, let me know if woodchucks are a problem in your own garden. Misery loves company.
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Cary Bradley says
Dear Misery, Company here. Baby bunnies have attacked my beloved beans, both grown for green beans and for dry. Was away and came back to heretofore healthy plants reduced to green sticks. Bereft!!! Thankfully, I could work some chicken wire fencing around the plants and have successfully kept the offender at bay, but not sure I have time left for a crop. Breaks my heart and I’ve decided beans are my favorite crop here in my new digs in CT. Take heart, dear Misery. I stuck my hand into my sweet potato mounds the other day, and felt potatoes already. Maybe yours have a good enough start that some potatoes will spring forth at harvest. Sure hope so! In the meantime, do not feel alone. Company loves Misery and wishes the best for your sweets this year. Here’s hoping! 🙂
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Cary – Thank you for the company! And good luck with your beans — I hope they recover!
Kattrinka says
Oh those evil creatures! Yes we have them too.
myrtle miller says
Dilemmas dilemmas….. If that doesn’t work find out if woodchucks can chew through wire if not proceed to protect your sweet potatoes with meshwire or something that works and plant a few vines for your guest away from your own garden. Now I’m a strong believer that good writing doesn’t have to contain expletives but for a moment I was transported back in time and felt like I was visiting with my maternal ancesters. Blessings to your garden.
Sharon says
You also need to sink that fence about 2 foot down and perhaps add trap rock down there on either side which they hate digging through.
Mary in Iowa says
Holy Cow! What a glutton! I hope he has a serious case of indigestion. How disheartening. I think we’re far enough into the season that if you can protect what you have left of the vines you’ll still have a crop. Some hardware cloth, perhaps, with a few inches buried beneath the soil line, the above ground part staked around the bed?
I should knock wood, but so far I’ve not been plagued with woodchucks. I unwillingly supply gourmet dining to deer, raccoons, chipmunks, opossums, and what I’m convinced was a tour bus full of rabbits who thought I looked lonely and decided to stay rather than get back on the bus. Today, I discovered Cary’s problem with my second planting of beautiful purple “Velour” beans. Nearly the whole 4′ x12′ bed is decimated. The ironic thing is, I planted a trap crop for the bunnies using some old seed. The bean bed itself, I covered with weighted row cover. Some combination of critters who dine here regularly ripped the cover to shreds and chowed down, and the trap crop appears untouched. I have enough from the first picking of the trap crop to make a serving for supper. I can only think that the trap crop is planted in swaths between tomatoes that volunteered and sprawled on the ground. The smell of tomato leaves may be throwing them off the scent of the beans. I can hope anyway.
Kathy Adams says
We were sharing the misery for a while. Our woodchuck visited a couple weeks ago and ate our broccoli and beans. We put fencing around the beds and set a live trap. He didn’t touch the bait(broccoli leaves and cantaloupe) in it.
Then he tried to live under our deck!!! – chewing through the lattice. So we re-set the trap with new bait and placed it next to the deck. This time he was caught! He was released in a non-residential area a couple miles away.
I hope he doesn’t have any relatives lurking about! Now to repair the deck…
Enid says
A garden in Albany NY was invaded and the guy tried everything to scare and deter these voracious critters. Nothing worked until he hired a licensed wildlife trapper who captured them live and relocated them far, far away.
Tammy says
Ack, Kevin, how awful! They’re industries, sly critters, those gophers.
We have a number of “resident” woodchucks and though my neighbors have been known to get out the shotgun, I can’t bring myself to do it. So four years ago I built some mega-raised beds. After consulting with the local extension service, I learned that gophers can’t jump two feet. I built three 10′ long, 4′ wide, 2′ high raised beds. Sucker! I said to the gopher hiding under my neighbors’ wood shed.
One day, just as the entire garden was at its height, my husband and I were eating lunch. We looked out at the gopher, who was chewing grass near the raised beds. Suddenly, he looked up. He stared up at one of the beds for a while. Then — and I kid you not — we watched as he backed up a couple of feet. Wiggling his but as though the after-burners were kicking in, he took off at a very fast waddle for that rotund body and — you guessed it — soared through the air like a freaking F-16 and landed right in the middle of the pak choi.
Apparently we had the only gopher in the world who COULD jump 24 inches.
I drove straight to the local hardware store and bought several dozen metal garden decorative edgers, which added 12 more inches to the beds. And that, finally, seems to have done the trick.
Never under-estimate the ingenuity of a woodchuck!
myrtle miller says
What would probably work really well is to create cylinder wire mesh apparatuses around each plant . You would need varying heights for your growing vines. Also because woodchucks burrow make sure the cylinder goes under the ground as well. I think if you wrote a book about your garden adventures it would do really well. Then you could send the woodchuck a thank you card. You have a gift for writing.
myrtle miller says
I’m sure by now you know this but it’s the leaves of the sweet potato that they like and they also like carrots and they love tomatoes. If you had a dog in your yard you would probably have less woodland guests. but you might have more issues with insects. When I was growing up summer meant time spent at my sister’s who lived by patches of woods. One of her neighbors had the prettiest garden and I guess because of the proximity to the woods you would sometimes see an occasional rabbit. Happy gardening.
Louise says
I planted clover in my back yard and dug a wire fence into the ground. I see the chubby woodchuck and rabbits eating clover flowers. Bees like the clover, too.
terri says
After being laid off from work a few years back, I ‘treated’ myself by enrolling in my local Master Gardeners class. Educated! Inspired! And, ready to have the absolute BEST garden ever………and so it appeared as my perrenial garden sprung to life, the hardened off veggie seedlings lovingly planted, the garden bloomed as my dreams soared UNTIL the dastardly demons emerged from under the deck and in a matter of few short hours all that remained were the remanants of a mighty fine feast for THEM!!!! Traps were set, deterrents were sprayed……long & short, a temporary reprieve at best- the word was out & the critters constantly returned to dine & decimate. A partially successful solution involved digging a 3 foot trench around the perimieter of the deck,, installing a chicken wire barrier which deterred the return to their burrow. Then there was another great dig around the garden, doing much the same- digging a trench, attaching a fine mesh chicken wire bent inwards at the base & then attaching it to the existing fencing. A lot of sweat equity and salty language, but the efforts did preserve what remained of the garden.
Tracy says
(Little bastards.) 🙂
Beverly, zone 6, eastern PA says
Our dog is our best strategy within our fenced back yard, but we have trapped groundhogs a few times using a large havaheart trap baited with apples or tomatoes. Cage was covered with a towel to lessen stress for the groundhog after capture and transported about 10 miles and released. It is almost too late for relocating because they’ll be fixing a den for winter soon and that would border on cruelty, but if you want to go that route, you could try catching one ASAP so there will still be time to prep for winter.
Traps are sturdy and reusable many, many times. For Skunks, rabbits, groundhogs…..
By allowing the visitor to remain, breeding will follow and future generations will be trained to visit you for sustenance. Oh dear.
Mary in Iowa says
Unless you have a whole tribe of them, I’d give Beverly’s solution serious consideration. I have a trap for raccoons and opossums, and have relocated 3 ‘possums and 11 ‘coons since February, most of them in the past 6 weeks. It would be way less labor intensive than burying wire fencing.
badger gardener says
How awful! I’ve only seen a woodchuck once in my yard when he darted under our deck. I was worried he had taken up residence as we had just live-trapped a raccoon there and woodchucks are known to move into old raccoon dens. Luckily I never saw him again.
If only those woodchucks would stick to chucking wood.
Jane Rutkowski says
Woodchucks usually plague my gardens every summer. And every winter we have a groundhog tenant living under our back deck. This summer has been better than past years. Maybe it’s because our cat, Patch, will often crawl into the woodchuck’s hole under our deck and wait for it to try and come back in. The woodchuck won’t bother even trying with Patch hiding there.
Since I grow a lot of flowers in pots on my back deck, I also tried a new tactic there. I placed a couple of pairs of old, well worn, “aromatic” if you get my drift, sneakers in a few spots along the railings of the deck. I place large flowerpots in front of them to hide them from view. So far so good.
Another Carolyn says
Two minutes after I finished reading this post I looked up and saw a woodchuck (I named her Gertrude, but she could be a Fred) walking across my deck. I kid you not.
Eydie says
When my sunflowers started emerging in early spring the resident woody also emerged. I wasn’t happy and wanted him gone. However when I saw her bring her babies to enjoy my sunflower leaves I couldn’t help myself. I just planted lots more sunflowers and let her enjoy. Mind you I live in a city with a little backyard. I now have s forest of sunflowers where the birds and squirrels enjoy the seeds and the woody the leaves.
PaulaK says
you have our sympathy—they are dastardly creatures. when our pear trees were small and had a ring of fenching around them about 3′ high, the “hog” would climb up the fence, balance his chubby butt on the top of the fence and grab the pears off the trees. He would eat them when still hard, i hope he got a tummyache.
Jane Howe says
Someone suggested one of those liquid fence type deterrents for my unfenced display garden on a school campus. But when I read the label, it was not rated for vegetables. So I called the manufacturer. They said ornamentals only – no food plants. In my case, I decided to be safe rather than sorry and did not use it in a public space.
Marty king says
I had a woodchuck (notice the past tense)! He or she moved on. Now I have a skunk, spied the other night eating leftovers under the bird feeders. Any suggestions about getting this creature to move on?
Jan says
We call them groundhogs and yes 2 of them have climbed my fence to eat just about everything I have in my garden. I saw them climbing so I know it was not a raccoon. I put netting around everything to salvage what I have. First time in 9 years these animals have bothered my garden.
Regina says
The very cute chipmunks are enjoying lots of my bird seed and other plants, but the moles are the most destructive. Have lost lots of old and very beautiful hostas due to their tunneling and eating habits. Have not figured out a way to thwart them. Didn’t have quite a problem when my Dachshund was still alive. The cats do not help much. They also about took over our garden too!!
Ellen says
I’ve had to resort to growing herbs only and buying veggies from the numerous wonderful farmer’s markets close by (at least one within a 20-mile radius every day of the week) plus my CSA, all due to years and years of frustrating attempts at growing and watching our furry friends find ever increasingly cunning ways to devour all my hard work. For some reason, they never touch my herbs! I do have a magnificent array of those though!!!
Chrissie says
They love it here! Big and fat. They will chew through anything. The shed now has a nice hole. The bugger stole a large tarp that was protecting a boat. He dragged this very large tarp underneath the shed and stuffed it there. S/he I believe was building a nest for the winter
retreat. It was nearly impossible to remove the tarp. Needless to say it had to go. These guys are cute but are very,very destructive with gardens, land, and buildings. Had to set a trap, caught it with an apple in the trap, and then took it somewhere else where it could not bother me. By the way, s/he had ticks!!!
Liz Davey says
On the advice of an elderly gardener, I solved my woodchuck problem years ago by putting up an electric fence after finding my beautiful row of beans turned into sticks. It runs off a charger in my garage and I have wires about a foot off the ground and another about 3 inches off the ground. It does not kill but it sure does discourge critters. Otherwise, as I abut a utilities right of way, I would never get to taste anything from the vegetable garden. Though I usually turn it off when I weed, I can easily step over it and if I wear rubber soled shoes I don’t get zapped. The zap startles but really does not cause pain.
chit says
There still something you can do with whatever leaves left behind. They make real good and nutritious and refreshing drink! Boil a bunch of sweet potatoes leaves with some lemon grass! Let it steep for about 15 minutes. Strain and discard leaves. Squeeze some lemon juice and sweetened with honey. Let it get very cold in ref…so good!
Candy says
We have mom, dad and four youngsters. They have used the garden, the entire growing season, to feed the hungry family. Our garden is fenced, but the kids could fit through the wire rectangles. We put chicken wire around the bottom of our wire fence and that helped. We have noticed some places where they are trying to dig under the fence, but have not gotten through, yet. We have 4 x 4’s around the ground to discourage going under the fence. We had to replant the beans, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and melons FOUR times. I will have a late garden and not sure how well the final harvest will be. We humanely trap and release, what we can. We have only been able to relocate two of the young ones to a wonder wooded fence line next to a fallow field.
MaryAnn Quinn says
There seems to be an abundance of Woodies around this summer. I, too, had one. Notice the word ‘had’. That spray from the garden store did not work though I had it in granular form.
I tried a trap with broccoli to no avail. Who wants a few day old picked broccoli when there’s fresh growing in the garden? By the way, I lost half my broccoli plants but the other half are growing leaves again.
Then I decided to try peanut butter in the trap right in the middle of my garden. I caught a coon that night who managed to get the fence door open and sadly the coon died before my son in law could get over to help me release it.
Then I decided to put the trap right where Woody was coming through the fence baited, again, with peanut butter. This time set in the morning, I check the trap at noon. Nothing. I went out again at 3:00 and wow, Woody, ‘sleeping’ in the corner. It didn’t take long being out in the sun to do that woodchuck in. I felt real bad that the raccoon didn’t survive but not about that woodchuck by any means.
What happened next was fascinating. I had a hard time with the weight of the trap holding the woodchuck so I went just beyond my garden and dumped ii the woods next to my driveway.
It took 2 days for the vultures to fly in. They dragged the carcass into the middle of the driveway and then proceeded with their feast. It took them 2 days but they ate every last morsel (bones and feet included) except a few tufts of hair strewn about.
I thought I had another Woody but my broccoli, cucumbers, parsley, and beans are growing again. After your post, Kevin, I’m glad I didn’t have time to plant sweet potato! I bet you have some jewels down under even though they be small. Don’t leave them too long or the chipmunks will borrow under there and devour them.
Belinda says
Ah Kevin,
I’m so sorry. I am still not going to rule out sweet potatoes until I read your final report.
mary ann hanks says
so I was worried about the huge woodchuck last summer…..
then the coyote came into yard……neither have returned
troy says
Heavy artillery! I had the groundhog issue last year and it took a while to eradicate them. It was seriously like caddy shack for a while around here. the were living in my densely pack raspberry patch and also dined heartily on my sweets (and everything else….). The vines did however recover and I still harvested many delicious tubers!
Rosemarie says
Last year we knew that something was eating some of our garden plants, but we never were able to see what exactly was doing it. This year the bold little critters, yes woodchucks, came out in broad daylight and seemed to greet us when we drove onto our property. We went and bought those over the counter repellants, but they were a waste of money. We finally called one of those companies that bring cages, trap them and then remove them from your property. It wasn’t cheap, but after a week, we had caught 5 woodchucks and removed them from our property. We live in the city and have been at the same location since 1956 and never had woodchucks until the last 2 years. You can buy your own cage, but the guy who came was worth every penny we paid him. Sometimes, when we caught one and called him, he would come back that same day to remove him and then set up a new cage the very next morning. Good Luck, but I strongly suggest that you hire someone to remove your unwanted visitor!!!!
Abigail says
I am with Ellen, growing only herbs now and supporting farmer’s markets, instead of continuing the endless cycle of hopeful, optimistic planting, nurturing, and desolation after the gourmand groundhog’s dining destruction.
Monsieur Groundhog still dines chez moi, eating the flower buds off every echinacea and Japanese anemone and must have a taste for spice as I sprinkled each plant with red pepper. I give up and will concentrate on surviving plants.
Bonne chance, Kevin!
Alyce says
Many of you mention plants the critters don’t bother. Can you interplant those among the plants they DO bother, herbs especially? Companion planting is an old strategy. Live traps are worth the effort, and I use that any time of the year The longer it stays, the worse it gets because it multiplies..
.
Mary Murphy says
Hi Kevin: My fenced vegetable garden is surrounded with flexible green wire fencing held in place with green metal stakes. However, one day, we also discovered – to our horror – a baby woodchuck inside feasting on our veggies. When we screamed “Get Out”, he very adeptly scooted underneath the fence. So, to prevent further invasions, I lined the entire inside of the veggie garden fence with “hardware cloth” which is a very strong wire sold in rolls of various heights (ours is 12 inches tall) that you can cut to fit with wire snips. I secured the hardware cloth into the ground with earth staples about 6 inches long. It worked! No more invasions. Hope this works for you. Good Luck! Mary from Tarrytown, NY
Sue Hubley says
I have a woodchuck who lives in a den under my front steps (probably a series of woodchucks rather than just one, because some years I’ve seen babies, some years not. And the critters vary in size from year to year). I tried to discourage it the first couple of years by various methods. None worked. Luckily for me, I’m not a vegetable grower, but the little dears love flower foliage, too.
Over the years, I’ve learned which plants they won’t eat, and that’s what I plant. I’m not one to harm them or even relocate them. Here’s what the Humane Society of the United States says about relocating wild animals:
“Although homeowners mean well, wild animals do not “settle in” quickly to new surroundings, no matter how inviting that habitat may seem to humans. In fact, the odds are heavily stacked against any animal who is dumped in a strange park, woodland, or other natural area.”
The Humane Society’s website gives several reasons not to relocate: mothers and babies may be separated, the relocated animal doesn’t know where to go to find food and shelter, it may end up in another animal’s territory and be attacked, and doesn’t know where to go to escape from predators.
It’s been very frustrating for me to find my plants decimated, and Chuckie still surprises me by gobbling a plant that I thought he hated. But I’ve adapted and actually enjoy the presence of the animal(s) now. And my garden is as beautiful as ever, now that I know what not to plant. I know what I’m saying is NOT striking a chord with others, though!
I don’t tell my neighbors that I’m harboring Chuckie; they wouldn’t understand. If I had my choice, I’d choose NOT to have a chuck under my steps. But I’ve made the choices I can live with.
Martey Costello says
Fine mesh fence buried 12″ or so…. used cat litter in his burrow to encourage him to shop elsewhere, maybe the produce department of the Grand Union. Good luck!
Cheri says
There does seem to be an abundance of theses little devils this year! We have a large lab who takes after them during daytime, but every few nights they slip in to do damage. We put a fastened down tunnel over the bed they seem to love the most( decimated our first crop of spinach,lettuce and kale ) every night without fail. Then they started to munch on our orange fully ripe baby Pam pumpkins, so we took empty gallon pots and put them over all of our remaining pumpkins and additional red Kuri squash,melons and butternut squash. Then they started to munch on our lowest tomatoes that ripened…argh! Kevin, I echo “Merde!”
Donna says
Between the gophers & the deer, I have pretty much given up on growing veggies. I have some tomatoes in a greenhouse, strawberries in hanging planter and basil on my deck… Thought, “Okay, this may work for these few things.” Forgot the two nice clumps of chives that were growing at the the side of the greenhouse… My husband ate them with his weedeater… They’ll be back & hopefully he’ll remember the look on my face for a while! Hope your solution works for you 🙂
Rredbbeard says
Being a Cheap Old Yankee, I started making my own rotten egg mixture years ago,. It’s very simple: one raw egg in 2 liters of water, shaken well daily, and voilà! Surprisingly, this mixture doesn’t off-gas Just a few drops sprinkled about repels most warm-blooded critters. It can be applied to small strips of paper towel and hung in branches or tucked into a wire fence, but it needs to be reapplied every few days, or after a rain. A friend of mine harvested his first blackberries, having kept the deer away, and I no longer have squirrels ransacking my pots outdoors.
Oh…and it only costs 10 cents per batch!
–Rick in CT
Rredbbeard says
I meant to add: if you mix a little ground red pepper into your birdseed, no squirrel/chipmunk, etc. will touch it, and birds can’t taste the pepper.
–Rr
Karen says
We have them too. A few years ago they destroyed our gardens. We thought we had outsmarted them by building a fence with a loose top so they would topple over if they tried to climb it. My husband also buried the fence one foot deep and one foot out so he would not be able to dig under. It actually worked for a couple of years, but just a few days ago I noticed someone was eating my almost ripe tomatoes and it was devastating. I thought we were living harmoniously with the woodchucks as they eat the clover in my yard. But I guess the woodchuck has outsmarted us again. So I grabbed all my green tomatoes and will ripen them as you do to save any future damage.
karen says
Kevin
I came home yesterday to see a bushy tail crawling up my 8 foot posts of my deer fence. Poor young ground dog (makes them seem friendlier to call them that) was caught inside my deer fence and trying desperately to get out. But he was not athletic enough to make it all the way to the top so I assume he is still inside my 2 acre yard. Across from me is a mean dog who would kill him so I told him to chill and enjoy my place! I don’t mind sharing as he needs it to live – I don’t – I can go to the grocery store!! Love you! K
Carol Samsel says
We live in the country on a 3 acre lot that backs to a dense wooded area. I get almost every critter imaginable in the Midwest hat wants to visit have a meal or two in my garden. I feel your pain 🙁
kyle says
We have them too! We usually trap them and relocate. We caught one earlier this season, and we felt triumphant!. Not for long. Number 2 took up residence and he’s more clever than the first one. We’re still trying.
I do keep a list of what he eats and what he doesn’t. I’m talking flowers now. He decimated my various cone flowers. So disheartening looking at sticks.
annie says
a surefire way to get rid of groundhogs is to put 2 cups of gum balls down their hole. They can’t digest them or eliminate them, so they pass away. This is from the old farmers in our area.
It works.
Lisa Grandstaff says
Sad to find our veggies and all our hard work ruined within a matter of hours; worse to have our dreams of fresh food destroyed. Alas, it’s the “price” we pay for having eradicated the predators of these far-too-abundant rodent (and ungulate) invaders. Humans upset the balance; humans pay the price.
Reminds me of a line from Michael Pollan’s book ‘Second Nature:’
>>For though we may be the earth’s gardeners, we are also its weeds. And we won’t get anywhere until we come to terms with this crucial ambiguity about our role– that we are at once the problem and the only possible solution to the problem.<:-)
Mary says
Hi Kevin,
My condolences on the destruction of your crops.
If you are inclined to put in this much work, you could modify your fencing in the future.
Extend the mesh 18 inches below ground and then bend it outward ninety degrees.
Backfill and then plant your veggies.
This seems to thwart the ill mannered creatures.
Good luck!
Jody says
Here’s your solution: Get 4 dogs, a doggie door and electric fence around your yard. We live in a very rural area with tons of deer that go right up to people’s porches and eat even their decorative plants. But I never have a problem. All 4 dogs can be fast asleep at night and all bolt upright at the same instant and tear out the doggie door barking like their tails are on fire. Now if I could just get rid of crickets and hornworms.
Maureen says
Kevin don ‘t give up hope.We had a woodchuck feed on our sweet potatoes one year and we still got a bumper crop. If they don t do well I will share some of ours with you! That is what gardeners do.:)
David says
Our culprit is an armadillo. Digging around for grubs.
adarc says
My property backs up to conservation land so I get all the groundhogs that other people catch and release.
What joy.
Julie Lewis says
I too have woodchucks. They and the dear ate everything growing outside the perimeter of the garden fence. They also have reached over the fence to eat my green beans. So I tried a little experiment and cut some fennel fronds as tall as the green beans and camouflaged the green beans. I put them in front of the green beans so the deer would have to go thru them to get to the green bean leaves. It worked! I’m getting green beans now! The dear and woodchucks don’t like the smell of the fennel and are staying away. Ps, the fennel fronds dry up and turn brown, but are still aromatic and repellant. And the good news is that fennel is a perennial so I’ll get more fronds next year. I got the wrong kind of fennel (wasn’t forming bulbs) so next year I’ll try again with the right kind.
cathy sullens says
oh honey, never say “too many gardens”…
the critters will try to help you solve that problem!
SMILE
sorry, small attempt at critter humor…
hope the sweet potatoes continue to grow for you
and you harvest a bumper crop!
sending a *HUG* from the smoky mtns of east TN…
cathy
Linda A says
They don’t like dogs.
Can you enlist Lily the Beagle to do some ground patrol?
(I had to double-check that I had her name right. I went to your recipe
section under “cheese.” Knew I’d find her there!)
Dawn says
I feel all the pain. We live out in “the country” and have a vast and neverending supply of all kinds of destructive critters. Bunnies are the bain of my existance, they’re really thick this year. We came back from a trip, and my formerly lush and blooming green bush bean plants, in my fenced-in vegetable garden, were reduced to one inch leafless stalks. It only took them a day, according to the neighbor who was watering the garden while we were gone.
dori says
Cayenne works for most of the pests mentioned in this thread. I always put it on corn vs. raccoons and squirrels and rats. We don’t have groundhog in PNW but I remember them from PA. One day my dog killed an entire garbage can full of them, about ten. But he was a lot bigger than Lilly.
Tina says
I am astonished by the thickness of the posts as I whiz by to get to my thin suggestion. Which yer not gonna like. A big-head dog, a second dog, puppy-friend to dainty, lovely, Lilly. Beagles are fierce, actually, agin certain horrible species, but you need the bloodhound-Lab mix that devours GROUNDHAWGS.
Janet Sunderland says
Well, the way I see it, I can either share with wildlife or quit saying I like having a wildlife refuge. This spring, new and energetic honey bees filled my budding redbud and willow trees. I put a fence around my strawberries and tomatoes after I saw squirrels feasting, but alas, the squirrels are adept at jumping onto the fence, walking the tightwire and feasting. The same goes for the hazelnut bushes. I was close to harvesting, not really knowing how early I could harvest hazelnuts in their still green cases, massed on the bushes, and the next day when I went out the nuts were gone. Completely stripped. But here’s the good news, now that they have all the nuts, they aren’t bothering with the tomatoes. I don’t know. I can go to the grocery store. The animals can’t. So I share.
LAVON EBLEN says
A few years ago either a woodchuck or a possum came at the perfect time to sample tomatoes – a bite out of this one and a bite out of that one. Just a safety note: woodchucks can be vicious if cornered. We don’t have a dog but a number of cats, They must help keep the wild things away. Even though I live in the country, I have not had problems now with woodchucks, skunks or possums – just a mole digging in the yard. Folks have shared very interesting experiences and some good advice.
Woody says
This spring I was gifted with a backyard woodchuck, who had his or her way with everything the heart desired, but quite annoyingly Annabelle hydrangeas and echinacea. The animal was not nocturnal, either. I set out a large (for groundhogs) live trap and followed the online instructions for bait, none of which — cantaloupe, leafy greens, peaches, broccoli, green beans, carrots, even hydrangea branches — attracted even so much as a nibble for three or so weeks. By the way, in order to avoid catching skunks (speaking from experience from an earlier brush with the chuck), I shut the trap at sundown and reopened at daybreak. The bait that finally worked, much to the groundhog’s initial delight and ultimate disappointment, was Brussels sprouts. The chuck got a free relocation in a forested region and a hearty farewell from me. Until the next one . . .
joyce says
This is the last year for my garden. We have had woodchucks show up for the last couple of years. Last year I lost everything but my tomatoes. This year I only planed tomatoes… only to find the woodchuck out picking them all one morning last week. I’m done….I think I’ll just get my summer produce from the farmer’s market next year.
Denise T says
So here’s a quick suggestion: LAY chicken wire about 18″ or so around the outside of this garden fence and attach it to the fence in an ‘L’. Mound soil on the fence laying flat (no dig method) OR dig down a bit and do the same but cover it up to make it level with the garden soil. Also maybe lay some brick under gate doors so they can’t dig a little hole to wiggle through. I’m sure you already know this so why am I suggesting the obvious. Whatevs. We have a groundhog that has multiple burrows. The one closest to the house the dogs bark at constantly and after I set a humane trap there the groundhog decided to live in the other burrow further away from the sheds/hen house. It will eat any leaf. I have lots of deer but the groundhog will eat what they won’t. Even rhubarb isn;t safe. Rabbits will eat down a lot of things as well. I hope your spray works though. Good luck.
kangpokpi says
actually, we love the skunks – very shy, gentle, and do a terrific job of keeping the area under the bird feeding station cleaned up. the birds make a terrific mess – the skunks are more than happy to do the housework.
sclindah says
We’ve had the nightmare of beavers getting three of our peach trees, hazelnuts and our Santa Rosa Plum! They come in the wee hours of the morning and we’ve never seen them. We put 2″ wire mesh around our trees and they still climbed up and got some of these! Of course the trees were about ready to start bearing fruit! We may need to put up a fence around our property.
Frani says
I am so sorry about your garden. Merde was the perfect thing to say! While we don’t have woodchucks in our area, we do have armadillos. When they get in your garden it looks like a herd of hogs have been rooting. So add me to your “Misery Loves Company List”.
Lisa b says
One of my years of gardening, the woodchucks bit almost every one of my butternut squash. I was going crazy. Now I can say I have an electronic fence around the entire garden. Try it now woodchucks …
Andrea says
Heartfelt company for your misery, my friend. It’s that time of year when woodland creatures will eat anything. I walked into my rose garden early this week to find deer had left nothing but bare canes and a few scattered leaves on the ground, and not a bud or blossom in sight. Of course, they were loaded with buds for the last big show of the season. I could have sat on my garden bench and bawled like a baby but I’ve done that enough times to know it doesn’t do any good. Liquid Fence works like a charm up until the critters smell fall in the air and will endure that horrible taste/smell. However, instead of monthly spraying, as per the instructions, I have to spray every 3 days. I had been lazy and it was the 4th day. Unlike the name suggests, it is not a perimeter spray. By the time I spray an acre+ of individual plants, my back is screaming for me to get a real fence. I gave up on veggies. No fencing keeps out mice and voles. Maybe moving to the city and having a terrace garden is the answer?
Marianne says
Woodchucks were a problem when we lived in Ohio, not anymore since we are in south Florida. Here it’s the extreme humidity and heat. Garden, what garden?
Jane Dams says
Try a live trap. Worked good for us last year. We trapped 3 big fat dudes. The sweet potato leaves grew back fine. Sweet potatoes were great.
Lynne LaBonte-Ndiaye says
I have tried to grow sweet potatoes several times. The first year they were beautiful and I had more than I could possibly use. But every year thereafter the would be eaten by voles. The plants looked beautiful but when I dug them up there would only be hollow shells of the potatoes-doubly disappointing because they plants looked beautiful. This year I happened to pick up a 4×4′ crate that tiles had been delivered in. It was open on the sides but also had legs that kept it up about 8″ off the ground. My son helped me line it with hardware cloth, then a liner of landscaping cloth to keep the soil in? Filled it with garden soil & compost and planted 9 slips. The dirt is about 2.5′ deep. Now I have a beautiful box full of foliage and I’m hoping for a decent harvest. I used Peurto Rico, which is one of the bush varieties so there are no leaves trailing down the side to tempt any critter. I didn’t even know that anything ate the foliage. I agree with some of the other folks that it’s so late in the season that you probably have tubers already and they’re pretty hardy. They’ll probably grow more foliage. Don’t we just love being gardeners? Every season brings new challenges!
Elaine r says
.My condolences .
We fenced the veggie garden against deer, and no woodchucks in this neck of the woods but we have a continuing battle with pocker gophers who live underground and seldom come up. My foot sunk too far in the potato patch two days ago so we dug for the tunnel and set a trap.Sucess! But who knows how much of the crop it ate!
I have only ever seen one live One in 35 years though we average trapping one or two a year.
Clare Oliva says
Kevin, you have my sympathy regarding your sweet potatoes and the groundhog. I have found groundhogs to be almost worst than deer. At least you can keep the deer out with a tall enough fence. Groundhogs can climb over or dig under any fence and they are persistent and will continue to come back to the same spot if they find something appetizing. And what drives me nuts is that things that deer and rabbit won’t eat are often favorites of groundhogs (ecchinacea comes to mind). From experience, I have found that smelly sprays of any kind are a waste of time — unless you have the time and the energy to spray frequently and after rain. My husband and I have adopted the following strategy to thwart the groundhog and prevent him from eating our veggies and flowers: (1) try to keep him out of the backyard to begin with. We have dug chicken wire into the dirt in an L shape against the fence that surrounds the property to try to prevent digging under the fence. (And we have a 7 foot fence to keep the deer out). Also, in early spring, when we see the entrance to his burrow in the forsythia hedges, we pour a bottle of cheap ammonia into it and then fill the hole with dirt and rocks and pack them down. Sometimes, after doing this, we’ll find a new entrance dug nearby and we just take another bottle of ammonia and do it again. This past spring, we did this four times and eventually, we didn’t see any new entrance holes and we think he “moved on”. And there has been no sign of him or damage from him in the backyard this year. (2) Grow more things that the groundhog doesn’t like to eat (I could give you a long list of flowers and perennials based on experience) (3) Put fully enclosed cages around favorite veggies or flowers that you know he loves to eat. Since phlox are one of my and also the groundhog’s favorite plants, my husband built 3.5 foot tall chicken wire enclosures around them and it keeps the groundhog out (The groundhog likes them best when they are small and this keeps him out until they are big enough to fend for themselves.) My husband also built a 10-foot tall fully enclosed cage with a hinged door on it for my pole beans and we’ve been successful in keeping the groundhog out.
I posted a blog article with pictures a number of years ago to rant about the groundhog that was ravaging our garden at that time. It includes pictures of the cage that was built around the pole beans: http://www.garden-share.com/profiles/blogs/the-terrorist-groundhog-is
Good luck!
Amy says
We had groundhogs/ woodchucks for several years. After trapping and releasing 7 one summer we started looking at other options. We tried various sprays and contemplated a fence. Then we put battery operated pegs in the center of each garden that emit a buzzing sound every few seconds. Since we have started using these we have had no problems (knock on wood). Good luck!
Cheryl says
Here in the foothills of California, we have deer so must fence everything – which I did. Then my beautiful peaches and apples disappeared! I figure it must have been the squirrels!!! Going to try more fencing and netting next year……..
Marjie Geiger says
Kevin, obviously the answer lies with the fence. Although burying your fence deep into the ground, as some have suggested, will stop random woodchuck visits, it’s too late for that unless you want to dismantle the entire fence and begin again.
Try this…buy hardware cloth measuring 1/4 inch gauge x 2 feet at your hardware store. The smallest gauge is 1/4 inch. The smaller the gauge the stronger the wire. Hardware cloth comes in rolls of various lengths. You will need enough footage to go around your garden including the gate area.
You will need straight tin snips to cut the hardware cloth…a pair with straight blades. I use the longer 4 inch blades. You will also need some tough leather work gloves. Handling cut portions of hardware cloth can be lethal to fingers!
Unroll the hardware cloth. Fold it so that 12 or 18 inches lie on the ground outside the fence and 12 or 6 inches go up the fence in and “L” shape. Bury the 12 or 18 inch portion about 2 or 3 inches deep in front of the fence. Cover back over with the same dirt. I would attach the upper portion to the existing fence with 4″ cable ties which are tight, quick, easy and secure. You may want to be creative and use something else. Sometimes I put flat field stone or bricks on the ground outside the fence.
When you come to the gate, cut a piece to fit the width of the gate. Dig out the ground 2 to 3 inches deep and the width of the gate so that you can bury 12 or 18 inches of hardware cloth outside the gate and the remaining 6 or 12 inches inside the gate.
The groundhog will try to dig its way under the fence as usual. All efforts are met and thwarted by the 1/4 inch mesh around the garden. Sometimes they dig holes nearby. Then you can bait a Havahart trap with some lettuce, apples or carrots and rehome them. : )
Beth Giobbe says
A master-gardener friend of mine uses an electrified wire about 8″-10″ off the ground around the outside of the deer fence and chicken wire to deter woodchucks.
brenda says
just think of them as giant rats they multiply fast do what you have to do before they multiply out of control. just letting you know I transfer worms off of plants to my compost pile to munch in case you think I just get rid of critters
linda faatz says
Yes, every year I have wood chucks.. It is very important to anticipate that you will have them and the very first sign that they are out of their hibernation you must take action. They are very hungry then. Set a have-a-heart trap with carrots. I set the trap with both ends proper open with a stick through the wire on both ends. He will go in and eat the carrot. At this point he is getting used to seeing the trap. The next time set the trap for real with another carrot. After you catch him ,and you will ,take him over the river. Caught 4 and have had no more problems all summer long.
Georgette says
Yes Kevin, those evil creatures have devoured several of my plants over the years. I have not been able to get rid of them so I will be watching your posts eagerly awaiting the results of your efforts. This year they seemed enamored with my sunflower leaves, purple cone flowers and bee balm.
Rayna says
So sorry about the woodchucks. Does that animal repellent you mentioned work for voles as well? Many thanks
krista says
well, I had to check out what a woodchuck was, and it’s such an ADORABLE creature 🙂 Maybe plant him his own bed of sweet potato so you can both have one.
Tina says
My sympathies, Kevin. We are a quite rural area so we ‘manage’ our chucks in a more permanent way. If all else fails, I have quite a good ‘chuck recipe that I’ll gladly share.
Julie Sefton says
I saw a little critter in my flower garden one day sitting there watching me as I sat in my clam back chair enjoying the day. Thought it was a chipmunk at first…as it came almost up to me, I saw that it wasn’t. It has black stripes and cream spots both on it. It was squirrel-like and weasel-like also. Can you tell me what it was? And would the peppermint work to keep it out also. I saw it eating the leaves of my flowers. It also chirps somewhat like a bird. The little thing wanted to make up to me!
Dona says
Kevin..Our quite primitive way of dealing with critters which also makes guests laugh, is to place a bucket in the bathroom. When guests ask for directions to the bathroom ask them to please pee in the bucket. We gather urine and pour it around the perimeter of the garden. Done for as long as you see critters around it works very well to discourage them. At the same time you are adding elements to the soil. I also bark at them in a loud manner telling them I will let the dog loose if they don’t move on.
Rose says
Melons into a trap. Works pretty well and then you just have to take the creature across a body of water to let it go. Deer Defeat is pretty great for deer so I sprayed it everywhere, especially once I saw a second one.
Kathleen Killmeyer says
Hi Kevin – Really sorry to hear about your woodchuck problem. They are relentless and in the past the only way we really got rid of them was with woodchuck bombs (just awful what we have to do to save our gardens! Anyway, this year and last we have had the worst racoon problem with our corn. I even planted them inside a fence this year thinking “oh boy, this year I will have lots of corn to put away!”. Ha – what a joke, they go down the rows and take just a bite out of every ear and break down all of the stalks. So I finally came up with a great solution that really seems to be working: go to the dollar store and buy the small boxes of moth balls. Open up the box and the plastic they are wrapped in and place the open boxes 1 each at the ends of every row. The smell is very strong and they seem to hate it! Perhaps this might work for other animals too. Good luck!
Mark says
Chuck the ground hog had hit my garden back in 2011. What a pig. He took a bite of everything green. He took little bites of every green tomatoes. He would not let a bean plant get its growth going and ate my cabbage leaves. Used the City ‘s animal warden to drop off a cage and I feed Chuck some fresh lettuce. Boom, within 24 hours I had him in solitary confinement. Chuck was enrolled in a relocation program and has not been seen again…..
JoAnne says
I hope this isn’t a foreshadowing for my sweet potatoes. I also never grew them before. The vines and flowers are beautiful right now. Can’t wait for the first frost so we can pull them out ( my neighbor who has lived here all her life told me that). However, something got a lot of my corn. I presume it’s a raccoon, since it happens during the night. We didn’t turn on our electric fence this year. Next year it goes on when the veggies ripen.
Joy Brinduse says
Merde is too mild a word for these bothersome creatures. They have eaten more of the produce from our gardens over the years than we have. Too date, my husband has “eliminated” 65 of them over the past 15 years. They keep coming back because the habitat on our property is perfect for them. If they would only stay in the woods!!!
Vicki says
Woodchucks will destroy the foundations of buildings. I have 28 acres and they are welcome to live on 25 of those acres. However, if they venture onto the 3 acres that have my house, outbuildings and gardens, they become dead woodchucks. I used to use a shotgun, but apparently my dog (an Australian Shepherd) has figured out that woody is not welcome on those three acres. He can run down, catch, and make a quick, clean kill with a bite to the neck. If woody makes it to the treeline, he’s home free and the dog will let it go. Usually, if the dog has made a kill, the coyotes come in at night and make off with the carcass.
Bríghid says
Ah, yes, the tenacious-and voracious- Charles du Bois, as he is known in Galena, Illinois!
Sarabeth says
I doubt you will see this since I will be about #96 on your reply list BUT I wanted to share anyway my wonderful discovery of the fertilizer “Milorganite”. Little dark granular fertilizer that works like a charm at repelling deer, rabbits, woodchucks and I “think” snakes (I haven’t seen but 1 since I started using this) while fertilizing simply “everything” in the garden. Works like a charm. he critters smell it but humans do not. Well, when first broadcast I can catch a whiff of fertilizer but after a day I do not smell a thing.
After a fat burping woodchuck was caught with strawberry stains around its little mouth I just had to take action. It literally wiped out my strawberry bed overnight! My 110 foot Hosta walk is no longer the deer’s “salad buffet”. Hope you can find some at your garden center and my potato patch is finally safe!
Ardelle says
Woodchucks have been dining on pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, potatoes….ARGH!! Rabbits, birds, gophers hungry little buggers!! They have become extremely destructive for some reason – perhaps not enough people are raising delectable veggies? This has really been a frustrating season for me as well. We must persevere! My Grandpa always said you had to plant enough for the wildlife as well – so there, he knew what he was talking about.
However, on the bright side; I picked a good amount of lovely purple plums on a ‘stranger’s lovely lawn – with permission of course. I canned quite a few with light syrup and made a luscious conserve as well. Makes terrific gifts for friends and families – the conserve is great on waffles with a dollop of Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.
Joanne says
Kevin, we don’t have a garden, but I let my neighbor use my land for his. One year he found a “cute little” groundhog and asked my son to capture it for him. Woe is he!! The GHs have not stopped attacking his garden. One day he had watermelons for his grandson the next day ALL gone!! They are vicious, ugly ,smelly creatures with long sharp teeth and claws and do much damage in the yard and garden. It’s against the law to transport them elsewhere, and why would you want to give your problem to some other farmer or gardener? They really like romaine lettuce and it works well. One year we caught 3 in less than 24 hours. Only thing is my neighbor took them for a ride to the farmlands east of us. Didn’t take them long to find their way back! There is no poison that kills them. You just have to trap them and do what must be done. They don’t seem to have any natural enemies and are getting more numerous each year.
Jean Wood says
This year has been relatively calm re those pests. Last year, I had seven possums, and three woodchucks. They were all successfully moved on. This year it is the squirrels who can climb, drop, jump and in general, get into the Swiss chard and sunflowers at will. Yikes!
Pam says
I grow flowers and herbs, but no vegetables. We call our woodchucks the “fat bastards.” Yes, I hate them and they are devilishly hard to catch in a trap. Every year they would eat my phlox flowers, although I didn’t at first know what was doing the damage at the time. Then one year I noticed my fully-loaded-with-buds phlox waving and gyrating, although no other plants in the perennial bed were even moving. I sneaked up for a closer look, and discovered a fat bastard on its hind legs happily eating my flower buds. We were never able to trap any until I bought commercial bait from a company called Revenge. Unfortunately, they seem to be out of business, so I would love to know the manufacturer of the bait you bought, especially if it works. My neighbors in Maine often just shoot the woodchucks. Sometimes I wish I had a gun, the knowledge of how to use it, and the courage to do so. Alas, I lack all three.
Judy says
I’ve dealt with those cute little fat guys all of my gardening years. 50 of them. Some years there is a lot of them. Some years not a one. You can’t trap them and what do you do with them after you trap them? It’s cruel to take them some where else. I won’t shoot them. I don’t go to war with any thing trying to live. I don’t hate any wild life. I’ve tried it all. Save your money on that repellent. Nothing works, other than a tight compound, which is a pain and hard to do. Those solar ground vibrations helped a bit. Then one day, years ago, an old mountain man near me, gave me a bunch of shinny whirligigs. Ureaka!! Those ground pigs do not like movement. I spread them around and keep moving them. I see the hogs, like the one eating the leaves off of my apricot tree (call that one tree hog)on the edge of the gardens, but never in them anymore. I also learned everything I could about them. When they breed. How far they range, etc, etc. that helped a great deal. Knowledge is power!
Cathy says
Yes, we have groundhogs too. We live near the intersection of two streams and wooded areas along them. Perfect habitat.
I have given up on planting anything they like.
When we constructed a new deck, we first put down scrap chain link fence pieces over the stone under the deck and anchored the chain link pieces with bent over pieces of rebar. No more digging under our deck.
I use that stinky urine stuff on roses, hosta, daylilies…..to discourage deer, rabbits and hogs. Sometimes it works.
We also installed a motion-sensor sprayer that gets hooked to a hose. You should see the startled look on the propane guy when it catches him off guard. 🙂 Entertainment with our deterrents!
Suzanne Williams says
Kevin, Just started reading your newsletter and have thoroughly enjoyed the recipes and the side comments…as for the woodchuck I have gophers here in Idaho…well I should say my neighbors have gophers—I have three dogs 2 of which will dig out the gophers to find them but they take off and get outside the fence line never to return…my Jack Russell started this “maintenance” for me when I first put in my garden, the gophers came by the droves- hungry little devils– but my JR found “joy” in digging to find them so I gave her that job, so with the motion detecting light that alerts her that something is in the garden, and the other two dogs, the gophers and raccoon stay away from my garden…. good luck, but to rid your garden of that little ‘munchkin’ will take some digging…
Lisa Broderick says
Well, our woodchuck story of several years ago…our resident varmint got into our fenced garden and totally devoured my crop of broccoli. So we set a have-a-heart trap, and lured him in with, you guessed it, broccoli. Once encaged, my husband popped him into the barn until we could relocate him. Well I realized he had done this about 2 days later, and scolded him for starving the poor fellow! No water! No food! So, yes, I went out to the barn and fed the rascal, and yes, I gave him broccoli! (my local farmstand loves this story) So the next night we popped the trap and woodcheck on the back of the Farmall and rode out to the fields at a GREAT distance and let him go. He looked stunned (what, no broccoli, lady?) and finally trundled off. Recently I have put my broccoli in a raised bed, figuring any newcomers or my old buddy might not reach its height….
Carolyn Ellertson says
I read these posts with terror in my heart! I finally have much room for a beautiful garden of my choice (five acres) with flower beds devoid of vegetation, two decks, and endless area albeit soil that is deficient and needs amendments. Determined to raise the kind of garden I had in my old home a state away, I have purchased every seed known to man of both flowers and vegetables I love. I have stacks of filthy rich potting soil to enrich the poor soil; animals for free compost (otherwise known as an endless supply of manure); and many pots for container veggies and flowers. In addition, there is a former pheasant yard which is completely covered by chicken wire. I was ecstatic with my plans. However, although we do not have woodchucks here, we DO have wild bunny rabbits and deer, and who knows what all. Like many others, I’m a wildlife lover, but my eight grandkids like to eat too, so do I make most of the garden in the enclosed former pheasant yard (wire all around including the top) and not try it anywhere else? I will be devastated if I can’t have a ton of beautiful container plants on these decks and bags and bags of veggies to can, freeze, and dehydrate for the family. Today we even bought the boards for the raised beds. In addition to just framing them in an filling them with good soil, should I actually raise them up to a height the rabbits and other as yet unknowns cannot reach? Help!!!
Todd R says
My woodchuck stripped the leaves off my sweet potatoes as if the leaves were ice cream on a popsicle stick.
I built a large trap and baited it with sweet snacks. Caught every sort of varmint, except that damn woodchuck.
Only thing I learned from it is that the woodchucks don’t like pepper plants, because the pepper plants were untouched.
I read that if a woodchuck could assume human form and weigh 175 lbs, it would have the ability to each 15 lbs of greens a day.