"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson




Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Attack of the Killer Raccoons on My Raised Beds

Bed # 2
I had planned on working on the herb garden but looks like Mother Nature had something else in store for me today.

Last night raccoons got over the fencing and dug up almost all of my seedlings in two of the raised beds. This is the first time in 7 years that I have had something get in the raised beds; I thought the fence was high enough to keep them out but obviously not this year. I think it must have been the raccoons or maybe oppossums; they are probably looking for grub worms.

I will take this as a positive intervention and hope that if they had not eaten the grub worms that the worms would have destroyed my plants at a later date, which would have been worse than now since it is still plenty early to replant the seeds. I will cover the beds with some chicken wire and hope that they don't bring the entire family and lift it off! I should have time to harvest goodies for the Thanksgiving table if I can keep them out from now on.

My cat Cookie was sitting in the window most of last night looking at something in the dark. I guess we now know what was going on. I think of times like this as little “Cat Movies”. You know how humans might watch a demolition derby; well I guess this is their version. I wonder what was going through her mind when she was watching them…probably laughing inside thinking “boy will Carla be bummed when she sees what they did to her garden!”

Bed # 3
Close-up Bed # 2

6 comments:

  1. Good grief - must have been a whole herd of raccoons...such naughty critters...

    You are a true gardener though - always looking at the positive side.

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  2. Taylorsoutback, I think that outlook comes from age and experience. Since I have really no control over what goes on at night I guess you just accept it and move on. This is probably the only great thing about getting older!

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  3. They came back again last night and dug in the first bed. After much discussion we think it may be a skunk instead of raccoons. But who knows, until I catch them in the act I will not know for sure.

    Thanks for stopping by Rohrerbot. They are clever!

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  4. How unfortunate. Good thing the raccoons raided before you had a nice stand of veggies.

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  5. Isn't it frustrating to have critters tear up your gardens? Happened to me a couple of times. I finally had to cover the whole garden with chicken wire and and use sod staples to anchor the chicken wire in the ground so the animals couldn't pull it off.

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