This past summer spiders from all corners of New England decided to throw a party in our yard. They were swinging from 2-5 feet long webs that were draped across trellis, bushes, trees and anything that stayed still long enough to be covered. My neighbor’s gardens seemed to remain unscathed. There is no doubt in my mind that our house was targeted.
Beetles, of unprecedented size and verve, were rampant this year. They’re known to be belligerent guests to begin with but I have to say they were particularly stubborn. I assume they formed a pact when they took on the task of taking down an entire row of my roses. At one point my climbing rose simply bent down submissively and surrendered!
We had tomato horn worms the size of my pinky finger-with poop almost as large. Defecation in the bug world is not a graceful matter. When you have animals and insects in your garden, you can usually count on the little critters to leave something unflattering behind.
Every living thing needs shelter and food. You can’t garden without gaining a respect for Mother Nature.
I do not begrudge the cottontails in my yard and we’ve worked out a very civilized system where I happily give a portion of my produce in return for the same respect. I have always found rabbits to be quite reasonable.
This year it was not about the spiders, beetles or the rabbits. It was a little bit about the tomato worm but I found a friend in a certain wasp that took care of that problem for me.
This year we had our hands full with a family of chipmunks. Take it from me-these are not easy creatures to get along with.
I know what you are thinking. Like you, I always thought they were cute and relatively harmless. That’s what they want you to believe. They have a very good public relations persona.
They ate about two dozens of our precious native tomatoes and burrowed in nearly all of our raised beds. What is worse is when I first spotted their hole this past spring I actually worked around it…again, thinking they were cute. Oh but I learned. I vowed never to be so naïve again.
Two rolls of screen fencing, chipmunk-be-gone flakes (with fox urine), hot peppers, garlic, and moth balls and still they kept coming.It is now the tail end of the season; so to speak.
The pocket of my apron has a stench that could clear a man’s sinuses from twenty feet and what do I see as I round the corner to my front yard but two new, very large, chipmunk holes.
I guess nature takes its course, but no matter what anyone tells me; I am absolutely certain that they gathering the troops in there for next year.
