Groundhogs and Rabbits -This Means War

We have been waging war against one or more groundhogs in our back yard, and possibly a rabbit. And they are winning.

Up to now, groundhogs have stuck to some old reliable favorites, eating any kind of brassica we try to grow (i.e. flowering cabbage/kale), parsley, cucumbers, peas.  We wage a constant war of we fence, they get in, we fence, they get in.

This year, we tried putting pots of parsley and flowering cabbage up a couple of feet.  It worked for a while.

Last night we came home to find my petunias, the "sky blue" petunias that I bought from Burpees that turned out to be lilac, defoliated.  And the plants up high, they were all defoliated too.  I'm wondering now if we are fighting rabbits and groundhogs.

Something chewed through our fence.  As in "chewed".  It's a plastic fence. So much for that.

They are after our Jacobs Ladder, our brunneria.  They were eaten too.  We've put Remay cloth over them, hoping it will discourage whatever it is.

So, what's left?  Well, so far, the same petunias that I planted in the front yard haven't been (knock on wood) touched.  I also have some in a hanging basket, so I will still have some.

So our survivors include:  day lillies.

Astilbe (with a stray day lilly tht ended up in the shade.

And, in our front yard, the white marigold that was pounded into submission during our hailstorm earlier this year, is finally blooming.  It looks like a dwarf plant but somehow I don't think it is.

I have other pictures to share of survivors, which I hopefully will post next week.  I'll also be taking some pictures tomorrow for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - if anything is left when I come home from work.

It's really getting discouraging.  As we age, there is less energy to go around (and seemingly less time, too.)  The one good thing is - it gives me something to write about.  Sigh....