THE CHILDRENS HOUR WITH LEATHERFACE - The Raccoon Mob

Hi boys and girls it's the Children's Hour with your favorite hack, Leatherface! Brunch? Did someone say brunch? Well yes there is a brunch today in fact, we'll be serving eggs Benedict. Should cause quite a ruckus at the Vatican but you can't make an omelet without...well never mind.

Today we will be discussing the raccoon - procyon lotor to science and those who like to show off - one of the tougher adversaries to deal with when trying to grow vegetables in the home garden, at least when that vegetable is sweet corn.

Raccoon depredations can be completely avoided simply by not growing corn, or fruit such as strawberries inside the garden enclosure. While raccoons are the consummate omnivore they are not terribly interested in our tomatoes, onions and broccoli in the raw state. Just cook them up and toss the leftovers in the garbage tho, and magically they become fascinating to the little beady eyed burglars. They will happily redecorate your lawn with the contents of the garbage can.

The fence, of course, is totally useless if there is something the raccoon is interested in, ie. sweet corn or fruit, inside. He, she or most probably, they, can climb anything you can build. An electrified fence is really your only option if you wish to grow corn or berries and raccoons are established in the area. These work very well indeed, raccoons have extremely sensitive paws and hate to be shocked.

Live trapping can work very well if you are facing a single male raccoon or a female who you are certain is not nursing cubs. Re-locate the captured varmint a looong ways off, or like Arnold, they'll be back. Be careful when you do so, you are probably breaking any number of laws.

There is no animal we know of that cares less about commercially prepared deterrent or repellent scents, or for pepper concoctions mixed in the home. You are wasting time and money.    

Except for the occasional lone male, or female between litters raccoons generally come in bunches, called "nurseries". This may consist of as many as eight raccoons as a healthy, well fed female can produce as many as seven viable offspring.

The raccoon method of corn chompery is of the type to guarantee maximum damage. Raccoons like to climb the stalk, sway it to and fro until it cracks under the weight of their fat little bellies and then eat a little bit of each ear before pulling down the next stalk and sampling that one as well. A half dozen raccoons can easily demolish 40, even 50 stalks in one corn fest and even if a little is left over they will be back the following night and so on, until they can scarcely waddle away, they are so full of your tender Silver Queen.




Don't feed them they will NEVER leave if you do!

 Those are your somewhat limited options, remove the raccoon(s) electrify your fencing or don't grow sweet corn or fruit and your other vegetables will be fine.



  

That about wraps up this episode of the Children's Hour. As always, thanks for stopping by!

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR WITH LEATHERFACE - Mrs. Deer

Hi there boys and girls it's your favorite cut up and babysitter, Leatherface! It's a really nice spring day today, not too early for a barbecue and so I got a few packages of ground Ron out of the freezer last night. It's burgers for lunch kids!

But today I'm here to talk about that sweet grazing ungulate, Mrs. Deer, and all her herd mates and the adorable deer children, and all the unbridled havoc they can commit in the garden.



Mrs Deer

Look at that sweet face! Such a face! Guileless, gentle, wholesome and...HEY WAIT A SECOND THAT FACE IS FULL OF MY COLLARDS! PASS THE WINCHESTER, FARM GIRL!

No no no! This is overreacting. You cannot possibly blow away every deer that invades the chard patch. And why would you want to, - except for that distressing habit they have of spreading tics and with them, Lyme Disease. Mrs. Deer is nearly as easy to control as Mrs. Bunny, and with no violence at all required. (Unless you like venison with your collards, of course)

Build a fence! This is always part of the answer, you cannot have a vegetable garden in a rural environment without a fence. And for Mrs. Deer, as with Mrs. Bunny, chicken wire is adequate.
Three feet, however, is not. You want a minimum of eight feet for deer, and it is far, far better to go with 10 feet.

Hey, there is benefit as well. Fencing makes terrific trellis material. Your beans and cukes will be deeply appreciative of the tall trellis.
If the wire is tautly strung and the fence is well maintained, this will keep Mrs. Deer on the outside looking in with no need for electrifying the fence. But fail to build it, and trust me, they will come, dinner napkins in place. In that case, you may have a somewhat less edifying view of Mrs. Deer.

By the way, it seems the people producing predator urine products are not pleased that we never recommend them. Well, if they definitely worked, 100% of the time, we would, but they do not. Even if they were effective, rain washes the scent away and weakens any deterrent value that they may have. Gardeners are at fault, failing to keep the deterrent fresh. And eventually the hungry critters do figure it out. It may smell like T-Rex whiz around the eggplant, but there isn't a Rex in site. And kiss the corn goodbye.



GUILTY AS HELL

That's it for now! As always, thank you for sitting in on The Children's Hour!

THE CHILDRENS HOUR WITH LEATHERFACE - Knowing the enemy

Hi boys and girls and welcome back to the Children's Hour with your favorite cut-up, Leatherface. Well I finally found out why that durn old chain saw wouldn't run, there was an ear ring jammed in the turning mechanism again! I wonder how the heck that keeps happening, I guess it's just one of life's little mysteries...

Another of life's mysteries is how to get a bumper crop of vegetables out of the gardens we've worked in so hard when so many of mother natures critters are bound and determined to get to them first. Here is the first contender from our rogues gallery of furry - and occasionally feathered - adversaries, and a tip or two on how to deal with their ilk.

Mrs. Bunny

What is cuter than a bunny? Not many things are; they are innocuous creatures for the most

part, a welcome sign of spring,

a pleasant sight on the lawn in the morning and evening. But in the garden, well perhaps not as welcome. The stereotype of Bugs Bunny with a carrot in his paw is not far from the truth, Rabbits love carrot tops and Mrs. Bunny and her adorable brood can saw an entire carrot patch level with the ground in just a few unguarded hours.


They also like the foliage of many other garden plants, cucumber and squash vines and their leaves being right on the top of the list along with all varieties of greens.

Fortunately, and unlike most of the marauders on the list, it is not terribly difficult to deal with

bunnies. A 3' tall 1 inch poultry wire fence will defeat them. They can dig underneath but rarely will, and setting the baseboards at the bottom of the fence even a few inches into the ground will discourage even the most enterprising carrot lover. 

Ignore the various sprays, scents, live traps etc. that are available, you will need a fence anyway, and a well maintained fence will keep a sorrowful Mrs. Bunny on the outside, looking in.

Yes Kids, rabbits are one of the few garden pests that we can happily co-exist with, because they are so easy to deflect. But be sure to stop back for the next edition of The Children's Hour when we encounter a totally different kind of adversary in the form of Chuck the Destructor...

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Before you go why not visit with Amycita, who gives us some of the soundest gardening advice that I can remember: http://www.firefliesandtunacans.blogspot.com/2011/03/never-impale-your-foot-on-garden-rake.html, or with Mandy at Mandy's Pages, a breath of fresh air for all of us who write or aspire to do so: http://www.mandys-pages.com/