What a gardening season so far! After a cold, virtually snowless winter, March arrived and the weather remained colder than normal. April was chilly and good for planting and pruning, and after a cool beginning of May, warm weather set in and I was thrilled when the roses began to bloom mid-month. Thus began the longest first flush I think I have ever experienced. But, with all that beautiful foliage, the garden foes war began.

Cwazy Wabbits!

Out of the underbrush, the rabbits arrived. I have had trouble with rabbits ever since we moved to Suffield. These are bigger than cottontails, and I suspect they are foreign rabbits from Massachusetts slipping in across the border. They stand on their hind legs and bite the canes at a 45-degree angle and drop them to the ground. On a rainy Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, I looked out the back door and watched a big rabbit gobble down half of a ‘Bride’s Dream’ rosebush! This was accompanied by much yelling and protestation on my part, and I came down the back steps to my ammunition-rock pile. As I chucked a rock at the offender, praying please-oh-please! Of course, I missed. That rabbit just stayed where he was until I was almost upon him. I swear they think they are invisible.

On another morning, there were two of them in the garden. My black cat, Ross, is a mighty hunter and he came down the steps with me. I pointed to the rabbits and said, ‘Go get ‘em Ross!’ He took off like black lightning, the rabbits ran in opposite directions, and Ross got confused. He just looked back at me with a ‘what the heck?’ expression on his face. That was when I brought out the big guns.
When we lived in Windsor and I had trouble with critters, I used Liquid Fence. In Suffield, that product does nothing for rabbits. Thankfully, we haven’t had any deer here yet (knock on wood), but I needed to find another product. I found a company down in the Carolinas called ‘Imustgarden.com.’ They make all kinds of repellants and I sent away for their rabbit repellant. Guess what? It works! Only problem is that it’s hard to get it to work when it rains every day for three weeks in July!

Voracious Voles

Last year in the spring, while I was in the midst of first pruning, I got to my ‘Fitzhugh’s Diamond’ miniflora rose. I touched the plant and it fell over. Upon inspection, I discovered the shank of the plant had been chewed to a pencil point and the roots were completely gone. This is what voles do. They are hateful little monsters that will devastate the garden. I declared war and went looking for a solution.

On the advice of a friend, I got on Amazon and found a device called ‘Underground Exterminator.’ If you’ve had trouble with voles, it is worth looking up this product because all the reviews are hilarious! I spent the $25 and sent for it. It works very simply. You fit it to an exhaust pipe (Bob uses his tractor stack) and then attach an old hose to it. Bob drives the tractor over to any holes in the ground we find, puts the hose down the hole, and runs the tractor for 15 minutes. The carbon monoxide turns these critters into fertilizer underground. It is very satisfying, there is no mess, and Bob has perfected his Vincent Price laugh. Never again will you have to face these garden foes!

Japanese Beetles

I used to really hate English Sparrows. They murder cavity-nesting birds like House Wrens, Chickadees, Titmice, and beautiful Bluebirds. However, they are now my Avian Air Force Brigade. I have been watching them for the past few years, beginning in my gardens in Windsor. When the Japanese Beetles begin to emerge, these sparrows get together in small flocks and dart among the roses in the gardens. They will land on a branch, stick their beaks into a bloom, and proceed to crunch up the beetles with relish! This is a learned behavior; previously, in all my 40+ years of growing roses, I never observed anything that would eat these bugs. Once in a while, a side branch will break when a bird lands on it, but it’s well worth that small amount of damage when the blooms are protected by these new garden allies!

Chipmunks

Lastly, a few words on chipmunks (aka the ultimate garden foe). Yeah, yeah, I know they’re cute, but they cause a lot of damage. Our last year in Windsor we were overrun with them, and it was all my fault. We used to feed the birds all year because I wanted the summer birds at the feeder, too, so I could watch them out my pantry window. We noticed an inordinate number of holes in the yard in that summer of 2017, and piles of soil dumped all over the place. Chippies are not family-oriented. Each hole will house just one chipmunk. As they dig, they stuff their cheek pouches with soil and dump it out in a pile. They keep this up until their underground villa is finished. The mounds of soil they leave around the gardens are legendary. Of course, they were thrilled that we fed the birds all summer because they all love those black oil sunflower seeds.

Day of Reckoning

One day, while I was in my pantry starting supper and watching the birds, I noticed that there were a lot of fledgling House Finches on the ground peeping and flipping their wings for their parents to bring them seeds. I then observed a chipmunk come up behind a baby bird, grab it, and proceed to bite it on the back of the neck. The bird’s neck went limp and here’s where the horror story begins: the chipmunk proceeded to eat the baby bird’s head off! What???? I was horrified! What was this, some chipmunk from hell??? I went outside to look, and under the front shrubs were lots of headless bird bodies.

I looked it up, and sure enough, that’s what chippies do. Squirrels, too. Chipmunks and squirrels are arboreal, and going from tree to tree, they rob bird nests of eggs, baby birds, and adults, too, when they can catch them. These days, I am very happy when my hunting kitties bring home chipmunks. I tell them they are very good kitties and look the other way when they have them for lunch! And, as Bob says, the only chipmunk worth anything is the one that sings! (ALVINNNNNNN!!!)