I forgot to mention, if you do decide to use a trap, don't leave it open overnight. Groundhogs are out early in the morning and late in the afternoon/evening, so I would set my alarm for 6am, go out and open the trap, then close it before dark. I learned the hard way that you will catch things you don't want to catch if you leave the trap open overnight. I got a skunk the first night I put the trap out. Luckily, I had a brave friend who wasn't afraid to open the door to let the skunk out. The trap was quite small (I thought at the time it was something small eating my garden), so the skunk was crammed into the trap and couldn't lift it's tail. I then got good advice here to just leave the trap open during the day. I also got a bigger trap when I saw the groundhog in my garden! He wasn't fitting in the little trap.

I also have groundhogs living under my chicken house and shed. So far they have not caused a lot of trouble. I did plant some green pole beans to grow on the chicken fence on one side and they ate those to the ground as soon as they came up, but nothing else much. They haven't found our veggie garden. It's on the other side of the property so I hope it's safe from the groundhogs. I'm doubtful about the racoons, though. The only thing in my flower garden that they eat are the weeds and are welcome to them. I thought maybe they would prevent something more dangerous to the chickens from taking up residence there, like a weasle, mink, skunk, fox, etc. etc. so I have left them alone. My dogs sure are interested in them, though! Will a couple of big cats keep groundhogs away? These are huge groundhogs! Will the cats bother the chickens and chicks and eggs? I have considered getting a couple of big guard cats, if they will happily co-exist with the chickens, chicks and eggs, which are in a covered run but I would like to let them out to free range, occasionally. I have also considered getting a big free ranging dog but need to do some containment fencing first. Will a big dog wreck the veggie garden chasing away racoons? (I do have a couple of indoor "guard" shi tzus lol!)

I have a mystery. Came back from an extended visit in AZ and found my cauliflower like this. Some holes but mostly just chomped. But the bullet and used 7 on the plants, erected what I thought was a good fence, and this morning more was gone. Any ideas?

How large an area and what type of brush hog? Tractor drawn might be a bit heavy, but what's to lose? A mower on steroids type of brush hog shouldn't be an issue at all, or you could use a weed whacker with a blade. The I'd give the whole area a good thick layer of mulch which the bulbs should come up through without issue. This summer when the bulb foliage is dying back, start mowing and keep it mowed as short as possible. If you maintain the mowing and the mulch and perhaps do a bit of hand weeding or judicious use of glyphosate, you may well get it enough under control to plant a desired groundcover such as some of the more rigorous daylilies that will shade/crowd out many of the weeds.