Deer and raccoons, rabbits and gophers, moles and chipmunks! They capture your heart when in a book or zoo, but when they invade your garden. Oh! That’s a different story. Yet how can a rabbit resist munching on your crisp lettuce? Or a possum or raccoon stay away from your sweet corn patch? And your berries will always be attractive to a squirrel.
Fending off the various animals that want to enjoy both your flower and vegetable gardens can be both time consuming and frustrating. Learning how to chase them off without poisoning both them and your vegetables remains a crucial part of being a good gardener. As scientists begin to realize the damaging effects of pesticides and other poisons on the human body, the use of toxic methods needs to be carefully considered, and then rejected.
Birds are a bird-watchers delight and somewhere between a mild and major nuisance to the gardeners. They actually do less harm than the four-legged animals. Birds have a number of natural enemies, so you can scare the birds by fooling them into thinking their enemies are around.
A humming line made of very thin nylon will vibrate and hum in even the slightest breeze. It’s inaudible to us, but heard by the birds. This works well with strawberries. Unusual noises can be created with aluminum pie plates loosely tied to stakes or leaving a radio on at night. Installing some blinking lights, hawk-like balloons or kites that mimic larger birds can also be effective. And of course, the two old stand-bys – scarecrows, or a dog or cat – always help out with the bird problem. Because birds and other animals need a source of drinking water, eliminate any standing water near the garden.
Night time is prowl time for the four-legged pests. Each animal has a distinctive footprint and each has its favorite delicacy to munch on. Many of them, such as deer and raccoons, can be eliminated by putting an electric fence or other barrier around the garden. Pocket gophers can be stopped by putting a fence made of hardware cloth two feet below and two feet above the surface of the garden.
A chicken-wire fence works the best for rabbits, but the holes need to be 1″ or smaller. Those young rabbits aren’t very big. To keep the mice from eating your fruit tree’s bark, sink wire mesh or