Garden Pests: Stress in the Vegetable Garden

YOU’VE PROBABLY SEEN the blue signs from the highway: Welcome to Toronto. These signs, I suspect, aren’t for tourists, but for wildlife on the lookout for a safe environs to do some garden poaching.

RACCOONS
They’re the mischievous marauders of the animal world. Outside of the realm of the vegetable garden, they love bathing in my pond and uprooting the water plants. I’ve stopped worrying about it, but feel bad for my neighbour Joe, whose prized garden they love to roll in before diving into his crystal-clear pool to wash the soil from their fur.

• The problem: I don’t even entertain any notions of growing corn because I know it would be futile. The raccoons would be lined up down the street waiting for me to leave the garden. But the unexpected pilfering that caused a spike in my blood pressure was the melons. My daughter Emma’s watermelons, and my cantaloupes. After nurturing them all summer, we’d eaten only a couple, and were eagerly awaiting the rest. Unfortunately, the raccoons moved in one night and polished them off.

• What I’m trying: Raccoons are smart, so I doubt I can outsmart them. But I’m going to try melons again, and pick them before they’re fully ripe. No doubt they smell good as they approach full ripeness, so I’ll pick them a few days in advance and allow them to ripen safely in the house.

• I’m also hoping I can make it too much work for the raccoons to bother. I’ve put bushel-basket planters beside the fence so that I can grow the melons up my neighbour’s cedar tree. That will make it more work to get the melons (for both me and the raccoons.) Why the bushel baskets full of soil? If you have cedar trees, you’ll know that cedar roots aren’t conducive to gardens.

RABBITS
The kids think they’re cute. One neighbour feeds them carrots. What’s an avid gardener to do? My father-in-law Fred, who grew up in a rural setting and hunted rabbits, describes how his mom used to make a delicious rabbit stew (hasenpfeffer) in a pressure cooker. I think municipal bylaws mean that stew made from Toronto rabbits is out of the question.

• The problem: Peas, sweet peas, broccoli—it wasn’t really a surprise when I lost these to rabbits. But the okra was a surprise. I never imagined that a rabbit would like okra plants.
  
  
• What I’m trying: I built a fence around my main vegetable garden. This is where I grow anything that I think might be eaten by rabbits. The fence works well, although there have been a couple breaches made by rabbit kittens, which can squeeze through small holes.

• The other way to foil rabbits is by growing out of their reach. This year I’m trying peas atop my composter.

SQUIRRELS
There’s no doubt about it: they can be amusing. I remember one enterprising squirrel hanging by one foot from a branch on my neighbour’s choke cherry tree so that it could reach the dangling fruit. Another time, I was sitting in my neighbour’s yard when I heard a thud. Two squirrels had fallen at least 40 feet from the old silver maple tree. Each looked started for a moment, then lumbered off, tail to the ground, in opposite directions, probably as close to embarrassment as a squirrel can get.

• The problem: Aside from being amusing though, I find them infuriating. Like the day I came home from work, planning to pick the first ripe tomato of the season that I’d been watching for a couple days. There it sat atop a fence post, half eaten.

• What I’m trying: I’ve had no luck with repellents. Frankly, I have no recommendations for you.

• But...I do have some good news. You’ll see in the picture that a hawk has taken up residence nearby. And I won’t be disappointed if it develops a taste for tomato-fed squirrels.

• The problem: In the last couple of years the rats have moved into the neighbourhood. Even though I have wire mesh underneath the composter, they tried to chew through the sides. There was no meat, fat, or dairy in there, just the usual fruit and veggie scraps.

• What I’m trying: I’ve concluded that even though my kitchen composter was inaccessible, there are enough rats around that I don’t want a compost bin with an enticing smell. Why temp them onto my property, where they’ll nibble away at other things too?

• I’m still composting lots of leaves, but the kitchen scraps now go to the municipal composting program (although I’m thinking of trying indoor vermicomposting for kitchen scraps.)