Those Rascally Rabbits and Groundhogs

Two of our three garden beds have been flourishing this season, but the only non-raised bed in our lot has been the victim of some pest activity. We had originally planned on growing some green bean bushes along the edges and some cucumbers right up the middle of the bed. In the photo above you might
be able to see that the bean bush has been gnawed on before it can even take off growing. At the time this photo was taken the cucumbers had yet to be completely gnawed away, but it was clear the garden was becoming a lost cause. Rather than continuing our futile exercise, we determined that it was necessary to replant the garden completely, and construct a little fencing in the meantime to keep out those pesky rabbits and groundhogs

This time around we are simply growing some beans and surrounding them with some fencing and chicken wire as a means to keep those rabbits out. We assembled the fence very simply after putting in the posts with a 10 lb. sledgehammer. In order to create the door seen above at the corner we bent some of the snipped fencing to make hooks to latch onto the last fence post. Any spots where the fencing did not meet the ground we simply packed some of the soil that we had edged right up against the fence.

We planted the beans along the outside of the bed. This way we have a walkway down the center the bed so that we can collect the goods and pull out the weeds. Within a few days of sunshine and a good dose of watering or two we were blessed to see some of our little bean friends pop out of the earth. We were also pleased to notice that our young beans were untouched by the pests that had been getting to them earlier.

Stay tuned in the near future for some more details on a different kind of pest that we have been dealing with for a second year in a row: Aphids.