This morning the temperature rose to the upper 40s (it's supposed to drop rapidly this afternoon), so I got out in the garden to try to finish putting it to bed for the winter. That means chickenwire, and lots of it.
Although I already sprayed the young trees and shrubs with critter repellent last week, a second line of defense is always a good idea. It might not be the most attractive way to do it, but it's generally effective against the rabbits.
I also started to put up the Christmas decorations. It's definitely time to get rid of the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Harvest pumpkins.
This large squirrel (Beggar) was so intent on eviscerating my son's pumpkin that it didn't care that I was working out front. My husband was even able to open the front door to snap the photo. It can have all the pumpkin it needs to fatten up for winter; we don't need them anymore, and it was fun to watch it pigging out. (Of course I'm not thrilled about scraping frozen bits of pumpkin off the front porch.) Welcome to Winter at Squirrelhaven.
8 comments:
And the longer the winter, the more desparate those squirrels get searching for food. It is good to protect what you can. I lost some blueberries to rabbit nibbling... they were just too small and the rabbits were too hungry.
I'd also take snow covered roads any time over ice, or black ice.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
What a nice meal for the furry pig. I hope you are safe and warm now. Sounds like the roads are awful up your way.
You're right about drivers and winter, MMD. They forget to slow down when precipitation starts coming along and building up, and they don't leave adequate room between themselves and other drivers. Then there are the SUV drivers who think they're immortal because they have a 4x4--and don't know how to drive them
I also liked your comment on Garden Rant about native plants, because I share your sentiments. There will be lots of discussion over those three posts, I'm sure.
Carol - the squirrels of Squirrelhaven are very spoiled; my next-door neighbor puts out peanuts for them in the winter. It's those rascally rabbits (& the occasional deer) that are the problem.
Lisa - I like your description of the squirrel as a "furry pig"! In fact, I titled that photo "piggy."
Jodi - SUV's have no better stopping power than regular vehicles (I know, I used to drive 1), but most of their owners don't realize that. I had a great laugh 1 time when SUVs & trucks were having trouble surmounting a large hill on a snowy day. They were following other vehicles too closely & had to hit the brakes. Instead, I hung back & waited til I had a running start with nobody in front of me, then waved at them as I drove by in my little Chevy Cavalier.
I understand the importance of planting natives, but I think mixing in a few exotics doesn't harm anything. I suppose the theory is that the extreme (all natives) must be preached to counteract the other extreme (all exotics & lawn).
Aww cute little guy.
Once when I was a kid we trapped a lead a squirrel into my best friend's bedroom window with a bunch of peanuts. We had planned to make him into a pet.
I don't think I have to write up everything that happened-to let you know what a disaster that was. We're lucky we didn't get bit or have our eyes gouged out.
Man, we were dumb as kids.
Hi, Amaryllisbulbs! Thanks for visiting. I hope I've gotten through to my kids that wild critters don't make good pets. I bet your best friend's mom was ready to ban you from their house. Squirrels are really cute & fun to watch.
Fun pic of the squirrel munching the pumpkin, I didn't know squirrels like that sort of thing.
Here we hardly ever have snow so when we do it's driver beware!!!
Yolanda Elizabet - I didn't know they ate pumpkins either until they started attacking mine about 5 years ago. The squirrels here are very agressive. Where I grew up, we had lots of squirrels, but they never attacked anything. Maybe it was because we had so many oak trees that they didn't need anything else. I hope that's reason, as I just planted 2 oaks trees for them. The weirdest, funniest thing I've ever seen a squirrel eat was a powdered sugar doughnut.
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