Hello Phillip

I had a garden. I no longer have a garden. Too much work. Too many weeds. Weeds won. 'Nuff said.

But I still have pots. Nice big pots on the deck where I occasionally try to plant tasty things. Things that are so tasty that a groundhog will risk life and limb to climb up onto the deck. He will clamber right over to the pots that are directly outside the back door. He will hoist his hefty haunches right up into the pot and sit right in the middle, munching on my lettuce! Munching it as if he has every right to be there! Little hog!

We've named him Phil Clover DeGroundhog. The neighbors know when he's in the pots when they hear me yelling out "Phillip Clover DeGroundhog!".

He's eaten all the spinach, despite the chicken wire around the pots. He's eaten the pea plants down to the ground. He's eaten every sunflower sprout that dared show its head above the dirt.

He even managed to get his grossly oversized groundhog teeth on my lettuce. My lettuce that is surrounded by iron fence pieces AND chicken wire! Apparently he is not only a groundhog, he is also an acrobat capable of leaping and spinning over the fences and landing deftly smack dab in the center of my lettuce. Goodbye sweet lettuce. Who knew that those ponderous, squinting, waddling creatures were so clever - those lumbering little beasties. So now I'm torn between building some sort of lettuce cage out of 2x4s and wire or just letting him have the damn lettuce. I haven't decided yet which option I prefer.

Here's a picture of him when he was still post-winter slim:

On the plus side, he doesn't seem to like tomato plants. I planted several and so far they are untouched. He also does not like oregano or chives. However he is a big fan of birdseed!

Quack!