I surprised this young critter on my morning walk out in the garden.
Much too late, to my dismay, for it had munched quite a bit of the vines.
I set out a trap, hoping to be able to catch this hungry pest and to relocate it.........but I should have known.................it was way too smart for that............
So I thought about Gertrude........whom I had written about in my last post............
what would she have done............??
I now introduce you to
Gertrude..........the garden guard!!
Isn't she lovely??
I raised some large gourds a couple years back that I am creating different things with................
they are great for a scarecrow's head!
don't you think?
I dressed her in my old garden work clothes, placed a decorative flower on her..........
and now she's ready to help me ..........
by guarding my garden and scaring off any munching creature that happens to enter.
So far she has done a great job..........
young zucchini are growing well...........
and cantaloupe are swelling in the shade of the large leaf vines...........
as well as my pumpkins.
I just love garden blooms........this is perfect to capture in embroidery...........
don't you think??
Usually by now, I have quite a few zinnia blooms to show you,
however, I decided to plant late this year. The harsh Texas weather and climate are challenging during planting season.............it seems that when I hold off and plant a little later, flowers sprout better and hold their blooms better. This is beginning of the zinnia gardens in the photo above. So far, it looks like they will do well this year.
Now I'm off to work some stitches..........leaving Gertrude keeping watch over the grounds.
(yes, that is Sophie, lying on the ground, waiting for me..........she thought Gertrude was real and it took her a few days to quit barking at her)
How about you?
Do you have problems with garden critters?
Rabbits, insects, or birds perhaps?
What methods do you take in controlling these pests?
Do you make a scarecrow each year??
I would love to hear!
13 comments:
I am really counting on seeing lots of zinnias and pumpkins in your posts. I have critters too here in town, robins, rabbits, squirrels, and fat groundhogs but so far, so good. My raspberries and strawberries didn't produce anything anyway, first year ever. I love your garden lady, Gertrude. I think I will try some gourds next year.
Beautiful pictures and your garden guardian is adorable! You may have just inspired me to construct one of my own. Rabbits play, munch & cavort in my pumpkin patch daily. They love sweet potato vines too...
Gertrude is a great idea! until Peter Rabbit becomes acquainted with her :) Grasshoppers are a real problem here this summer, stripping everything in sight. I'm often thinking of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, "On the banks of Plum Creek" when grasshoppers flew in dark clouds over their fields. Last year we had a problem with racoons.
Here our biggest problem is the white butterfly, eggs that turn to caterpillars that so like leaves and brocolli, the spinach and silverbeet seem untouched. The one rabbit has so much grass he doesn't go onto the vege beds. May Gertrude scare him away.Cheers from Jean
She is just awesome;)
Lovely pictures, Kathleen. Everything looks like it is growing pretty well. I hope your zinnias turn out well. They are so pretty.
Good luck! Can you believe we have bunches of those in town and they eat our petunias!Hope Gertrude does the job!
Debbie
Hi Kathleen! Your little critter is cute, but I know it's a menace. The coyotes were always getting our watermelons and this year, with Gypsy, they have left them alone! We had martins this year, too, and they actually kept the crows away from the tomatoes! But the grasshoppers are murder on everything else! I love Gertrude - that's a mighty big head she's got!
Deer; does, bucks and fawns who eat all the low growing things. Herds of them go through regularly, so I plant lavenders, rosemary and lots of different salvias. Now if i made a scarecrow in the shape of a lion?
I don't make one and I want to , you have definatley inspired me~
xx
julie
I love Gertrude already. So perfectly at home in the garden : )
Of course my uncontrollable pests would be the ones that eat the cabbage and broccoli every year. The controllable ones are my two male guineas who find there way in and are shown the way out with a broomstick.
I think Gertrude Jekyll would be pleased to know you named your scarecrow after her! :-) I'm sorry you lost some of your plants! I just planted a few pumpkins and am excited about that! My okra are finally coming up. The tomato plants grow very slowly but look healthy. I lost my lavender to the heat, and will have to replant. There are a very few little carrot and dill seedlings out there--so fragile!
I love your garden. The vines and flowers and vegetables are so pretty. I also like Gertrude. She's a cute scarecrow. Good thing she's doing her job well and scaring off the critters. That one little rabbit is cute, but could really eat a lot of plants. We put out tin plates, a scarecrow, and solar-powered animal devices to chase the animals away. They are doing a good job keeping the critters out of our garden. Those animals sure are smart and love to eat your garden. We have deer, rabbits, coons, groundhogs, that like to sample our vegetable garden.
Gertrude looks lovely in her new dudes, Kathleen. We have a very small garden compared to other years, but even when the garden was large (3 to 5 beds) we never had critters munching on things. Our destruction was from insects that ravaged the corn stalks and squash and zucchini. We have spotted bunnies in our yard and there is a large forested area near our house, but no critters have come ot munch the veggies.
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