Squirrel vs. Arugula Seedlings
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I love the way the sun gleams across our backyard in the morning. Ah, our own backyard, I say to myself with a grin on my face as I listen to the various birds serenading me with their trills and chirps. There are catbirds, mockingbirds, cardinals, and more. I hear the hushed repetitive beeps of a nuthatch I am eager to spot soon.
This morning's scan of the back-of-the-house vista was abruptly interrupted, however, when my eyes fell upon a clump of soil heaped up and spilling over the edges of the pot that contains the arugula seeds I planted a week ago. What the ?!
I rushed out back to find a hole dug deep down into my container garden, the only bit of vegetable garden I have here at the moment. It looks like the work of a squirrel. I have a squirrel conspiring against me already!?
The SuspectMoments later, I saw a plumper-than-usual squirrel sitting on the fence, rather brazenly munching on a nut of some sort. These suburban squirrels are much fatter than the city squirrels, I see, presumably because they have lots of easily accessible ground where they can store up their foodstuffs! Now with all this available yard, the squirrel had to pick the one place where I planted a bit of food for myself: right there in the nice clean, fluffy, purchased soil. Smart squirrel. Disappointed arugula grower.
He looks guilty, doesn't he?
Yes, you!
16 Comments:
In my yard we call them tree rats.
I LOLed when I saw the arrow.
:-) I have to say that he (or she!) is just too darn cute! We haven't had any squirrel problems in our area which of course makes me wish that we had some. But now after seeing this...maybe not such a great thing to wish for!
Oh! Squirrels are the ones that do that? I was blaming my neighborhood cats (some of which are extremely at home in my garden...maybe that's why the squirrels feel the need to explore my back porch).
Nothing says 'welcome to the neighborhood' like an intrusive squirrel, I say!
I feel your pain! I've been battling squirrels for years.
They are pesky but fun to watch! Have you ever seen them on that corncob go round or the Yankee Flipper? That could be entertainment while you are feasting on arugula!
bad squirrel bad. Sorry to hear he got some of your crops.
Oh he's guilty, but oh how cute!!
they can be a pain, but very entertaining!
Cat
LOL!
The picture was great! I have read they like disturbed ground; hence maybe a sheet of hardware cloth or chicken wire over it till the seeds are well up may help. Only, I did this with tulips in pots one fall and forgot about them till spring, when i discovered the tulips had grown up thru the barbeque grate over them! I had a fun time pulling that off, verrry carrefulllly.....
Like Chigiy - we also call them tree rats. They may be cute in a movie, but not when hundreds of nuts buried in containers and garden beds start sprouting trees!
Keep your eyes open, Christa or you'll be living in the middle of a forest ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I have the same problem, except my neighbor has 3 huge black walnut trees in thier yard. It's like a squirrels buffet and they come from miles and bury them everywhere! I feel your pain!
Welcome to suburbia. I fight a constant battle with the little b******s. They dig up every pot in my garden unless I put gravel on the surface. I've discovered that if I leave food out for them they vandalise things less, but it's a never-ending war.
Gggrrrrr! pesky squirrels keep digging up all my precious stuff too. My dog Buddy does a fairly good job at chasing them off, but usually after the crime!
I feel your pain. I've got my squirrels trained so that if I look out the window & see them digging in something, they'll run away if I knock on the window (or come out). Of course I have to catch them at it. Everything I plant has to be covered in chicken wire until the soil firms up again. The little rats even dug up a small redbud tree! I still haven't figured out how to protect my pots & planters from them. I ended up naming my garden "Squirrelhaven" because they think they own it.
And why is it that the squirrels only seem to want to take ONE bite out of a tomato before moving on to the next one? Does the squirrel handbook mandate that they have to ruin all of them?
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