Garden Destroying Critters

Garden Destroying Critters

This garden season has been a devastating year due to critter tampering.  Our sweet potatoes have been annihilated and most of my sunflowers have been chomped.  And then a third of the corn was pulled to the ground before I had a chance to net it off.

The main critter culprit was the groundhog.  The corn heist was done by the raccoons.

Below you will see how the raccoons flattened the stalks making it easy to remove the cobs of corn.

If you look closely you will notice the raccoon laughing at us from his high vantage point in the maple tree (see picture below).

Click HERE to read "Baby Corn:  Knowing When To Harvest"

Then my sweet potatoes - one of my favorite veggies.  Both the sunflower destruction and the sweet potato annihilation are equally the most heartbreaking.

I have always had issues with deer jumping the fence to eat the tender sweet potato plants and that's why I have a deer net draped loosely over the plants.  For the past 7 years this netting method has kept all critters away.  Well, this year the groundhogs found their under the netting.  Just look at the flattening of the beautiful vines!!!

The picture below is what a normal lush sweet potato patch looks like (this picture is from last year/2023):

Now look at the 2024 sweet potato vine below - looks like it was mowed.

Click HERE to read "22 Treasures - Sweet Potatoes"

Finally, my beautiful sunflowers.  As you know I have been featuring different sunflower varieties every year for the past 13 years - I have featured 40 plus sunflower varieties so far.

You will notice that the first picture below seems fine.

 Then look at the stripped down sunflower foliage. 

This is the lower part of that first sunflower picture above.  It has a large bit taken out but the sunflower continues to grow towards God's glorious sunlight everyday.

I have had critter issues in the past:

Click HERE to read 

"Garden Critters 2020 - Good, Bad & Ugly"

ENJOY!

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