Slugs, woodchucks, and other gardening conundrums

A brazen woodchuck went across the front of the house this afternoon, undoubtedly heading toward the beans, as I was reading on the couch (looking out).  Woody, our Golden is totally uninterested, of course, but I managed to rouse my gardening companion to help chase the woodchuck back into the forested ravine behind our house.

I'm annoyed at the herbivory (that this one) has done on my beans this summer.  While we were away, there's definite evidence of leaves and vines snipped (only the beans, at the point -- parsley and greens were earlier in the summer).

These are raised beds in the FRONT of our small house in the mountains, but it's definitely in an urban area, and really, woodchucks?  by the driveway?

Raised beds in May, 2010 (they're a jungle at the moment); click to see and read more about them

My other current gripe is slugs on the tomatoes.  OK, after last year, I'm glad to have abundant tomatoes, even if my variety is limited to Cherokee Purple, Indigo Rose, Better Boy and Sweet Million, with a couple of San Marzano struggling along. Hmm.  This is nothing to complain about.

But, as the big Cherokee Purple and Black Krim start ripening (the San Marzanos, too), the slugs appear and start burrowing out holes.  Yuck.  Time to harvest!

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My Story Part II

Here is the rest of my story;

Like I had said before, I had just taken over the garden across the street and was just starting to call it home, when out of the blue, the cute, adorable, little chipmunks that I use pretend I was when I was younger, had turned ravenous and mean. First they struck at my cucumbers, eventually taking down every cucumber that I had planted except 2 of them. I believe that year I had gotten 2 cucumbers of the eight that I had planted, and at that they were not the best either. I viciously went to war with them, not being sure of what I could do, and a little bit sad that they had to be so cute! Although I fought the fight, I didn't know anything on how to stop them from eating all of my cucumbers and without hurting them. Eventually my only option was to leave them alone and to live with them, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't sprinkle some HOT CAYENNE PEPPER around my plants...*evil side is coming out*!

Alas, chipmunks were not the only critter that has come to menace my garden! Along with the little chipmunks there were the HUGE slugs...ewe! These slugs were the largest slugs that I had ever seen, They were at least 4 or 5 inches long and they were ferocious! These were easy to solve though since my neighbor had bought a book for me that talked non stop about ways to get rid of slugs! One of the way that they said to get rid of slugs was to put copper wire around the base of the victimized plants, the copper wire causes a electrical shock when the soft bodied slugs come across it! They dislike it enough that they stayed away form my plants and all went to the person across form me!

With all stories there seems to be a tragic ending somewhere; about 2 years ago my neighbor had put her house up for sale, so I had to plow down my garden and sow grass seed down. On the flip side, there is a happy ending, I was able to convert my back yard to a garden wonder land of my own!

So now you all know my story and how I started on my journey in gardening. I would love to hear your story as well. Can't wait to see how all of you started you gardening journey!

~Zach~

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