Groundhog damage last year. Jerk.

Oh man I am a good two months from planting. Mother's Day is my target every year. A groundhog he's still alive and will be back. A trap or poison or you will be sharing again.

Oh he's definitely alive. I see him skulking about. Thing is, my one neighbor has had groundhogs living under her shed for decades, never bothered any of my plants until last year. This one has a den in the middle of a kudzu field next to my house. Why doesn't he just eat the kudzu? There are ENDLESS quantities of that around. Jerk. My SO wants to shoot it. But another will just take its place. Jerks.

I cannot bring myself to poison critters. Its such a cruel way to die. Even for jerk groundhogs.

Thank you for being kind to animals, Amy. Figures some don't have a kind heart like you.

I watched my dog chase a groundhog who then clinbed a dogwood tree. He was much more nimble than I’d expected.

That ground hog did some damage. I'm sorry. We have pocket gophers here. Can you set a live trap and relocate him.....I would.

I purchased double tiger lilies and Star Gazer lilies....planted them last week before we got the latest snow storm. No food.

I had some bush roses pulled out and geraniums, agapanthus(es?) and alyssum planted. I wanted some year-round color and some plants to attract pollinators. I really would like to add some evergreen hydrangeas, but my garden store doesn't have access to any.

Interested in the evergreen hydrangea idea. Do you mean one of the climbing species? Or is there a shrubby evergreen Hydrangea which I've not come across.

We can plant shrubs and perennials all year round here as the ground doesn't freeze. I've already planted favas which I sowed indoors in February. I'm late sowing lettuce but I'll get round to it at the weekend. Some vegetables, like kale and chard, have been out there all winter and I won't need to sow more until June. I generally plant plants I raise myself because seeds in the ground often get eaten and/or are slow to germinate in cold wet soil.

Too early up here, though the mail-order fruit trees should ship any time now -- I've got the holes for those already dug, did that in the fall. I've cut some cuttings and seedlings going in the house, and outside am puttering around trimming up a few things. On my to-do list this weekend is cutting down the raspberry canes and weeding the vegetable garden. I didn't keep up with the weeds last summer and I now have about 2000 sq ft to weed....I can't even see the blueberry bushes for all the weeds...sigh... Well, at least they'll come up easily from the moist ground so it shouldn't take more than a couple days x a few hours a day.

Last year, I had the worst flower gardening year of my entire "career" of gardening. Some weedy grass decided to go hog wild and smother all of my beds. It was demoralizing. I had the best year, food-wise. Best peaches. Wonderful raspberries. I have begun clearing off the grass. Yep, that demoralized. There is green underneath! I can't believe it. So I will finish yanking the grass and toss some seeds, hoping for the best. My raised bed was far enough away, it's still going. I will plant some strawberries this year. Add some peppers and a tomato. Probably won't grow pumpkin again. It was cute, but I don't really like them outside of pies ;)

Some years I wonder why I bother. Between the deer munching my favorite daylilies and the raccoons, possums and crows munching on the veggies, it’s a wonder we harvest anything. I have a fence with chicken wire around the entire garden but the dang raccoons still find their way in sometimes and of course the crows and birds can still do damage.

I have my seedlings still under a grow light. Mostly tomatoes but i still try to grow a couple of peppers but like Amy I have less and less luck with those every year. I’ll eventually sow some lettuce but I’m late on that too. And I always plant a few squash.

I've got onions and leeks planted outside and my garlic just started to poke out of the soil. I started 12 broccoli and 6 broccolini a couple weeks ago in the basement that are putting out their first true leaves. Peppers were started last Sunday and should start to poke up in a few days. I'll start tomatoes this weekend. Everything else is direct sown.

My asparagus usually starts to sprout in early April and we're really looking forward to that.

I've got a groundhog living under my shed that I hope to get a shot at soon. It just recently came out of hibernation .It was up on my deck the other day but I was in a meeting so he lived to see another day.

Maybe you need to plant a little garden for the Jerk? I love Chunk the groundhog on youtube.

Im starting all my seeds tomorrow, and getting my onion sets in the ground. Most things we cant put in the ground until Mothers Day.

My soil is still holding too much winter wet to spade. We could conceivably have a light frost here as late as May 1, although i do have a cover for my deep tomato planter. I'd like to be growing more of what we eat this year, but it's been so darned busy so far and our deer a real challenge, so we'll see.

I have an organic repellent I have some success with for holding deer at bay but for ornamentals. I cannot imagine it would not leave a taste on fruits or vegetables and while none of it toxic, i'm pretty certain it wouldnt taste good 😊

hahahah as predicted lily!! I told DH this would get to be a debate over how to handle animals in the garden. Note I offered a trap! Not everyone is up for being that close to a wild animal. If you want to take them for a ride go for it but nothing else will save your plants besides removing them one way or another. I personally wouldn't poison due to other animals but I would have DH shoot him. As a lesson in the way of the wild and strongest wins I would suggest some nature shows. The animal kingdom is tons less kind than I!!

We have trapped and relocated many raccoons over the years, except one which we think was rabid and DH put an end to that one.

We have also dispatched many armadillos, which one year ruined all my landscaping (think somewhere around a thousand to undo the damage done over several weeks). That doesnt include the digging they do to the lawn which we don’t even try to fix, but every year they return. They have 4 identical offspring every year so they can overwhelm our area quickly. We are rural so no one cares that we and a few other neighbors are controlling our population of armadillos. Sorry if this offends anyone but if you havent lived with this destruction you wouldn’t understand. In the southern US it’s now become legal to kill feral hogs which are destroying farmland faster than they can be controlled. It’s open season all day every day in most locations.

Outsideplaying - Armadillos are slowing moving into my area near the KC metro. I'm starting to see more and more road killed and I've seen one skulking across my property so far. 10 years or so ago they weren't within at least 50 miles to the south. We see them quite often down at our lake house which is 125 miles to the south. At least they seem rather slow compared to the whistlepigs.

I'm pulling the salad greens this weekend (they are getting ready to bolt) and putting in my tomatoes, peppers, and squash. We used fencing around the winter garden to deter deer but I just got a motion detect water cannon to see if that's effective. I'm finally getting my garden enthusiasm back after retirement. Honestly neglected everything for the past few years and it feels great to get back into the garden.

In the human endeavors where a referral to ethics can be involved (medicine, law, business, relationships), dilemmas about "what's the right thing to do?" or "what is reasonable versus not reasonable" rarely have black and white solutions.

I understand the nuisance and losses pests can cause. I also understand that wild animals need to find food and that sometimes involves unwanted consumption of crops someone has worked hard to grow.

I personally won't kill an animal and try to avoid such circumstances. We don't have a gardening hobby. Large rodents are present in our neighborhood bordering some undeveloped land and for that, I have a pest control service who set protected traps in and around the perimeter (in plastic boxes) and clears them regularly. None are in the house and with the control, the population around the yard will be transient only, no permanent boarders. I have a neighbor who does his own trapping, that's something I would never, ever, ever do.

No guns are in my house. Never have been and never will be.

Last fall, I planted an entire bag of tulip bulbs. I sowed most iin a new garden bed with fresh soil in the backyard and a handful of the remainders in some crummy shallow soil along the driveway. I am disappointed to report that only 5 tulips have shown up in the patch where I diligently prepared the soil and planted the bulbs carefully spacing them and placing at the correct depth. The soil appears to be undisturbed so I do not think critters got the bulbs. Of those 5, 3 have been nibbled to the ground. Along the driveway, the bulbs fared better as it looks like all the bulbs have sprouted. A gardener never knows what the outcome will be. We just hope. Every year is a surprise.

Spring fever here too. Already picked our first batch of spinach (planted last Nov, it overwinters Great). The peas and lettuces are up and the broccoli and cabbage transplants are now in the ground. Today I prepped the rows for future cucumbers, snap beans, and squashes. I bought 2 tomato plants to spoil indoors until the soil warms up to 60F. The pear and plum trees are blooming now too. Here's a few pics....

Wide rows of fall planted spinach....

Plum tree...

Pear tree....

Happy Gardening!