Out in the garden

I've been putting in a vegetable garden this year. Well, actually it's gardens: one next to the house, one down on the hill, and the usual herb section in front. I'm having visions of spending a lot of time weeding and chasing a cute little bunny away from my beans.

Our yard is fenced in, but I've noticed this little guest squeezing himself under the fence to eat the clover in our lawn. When I walk outside to dump the compost, or turn on the sprinklers, he scurries to the far corner of the yard and exits stage left. "We have to put a fence up, around the beans, corn and beets," I said the other night. Hoping the other gardens are not in his usual munching territory.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

So I've been thinking just how can I fence in a terraced garden? Maybe all I need is a foot of chicken wire at the end of each terrace? Maybe this bunny knows just how mad I'll get if I notice my baby seedlings are no more.

We've had a ground hog problems in the past. Initially when we would spy the ground hog we would have thoughts of, "Oh how cute!", his massive rump wriggling through the grass as he headed for home. But the cuteness died a quick death when I saw that robust critter stand up on his hind legs to munch my flower blossoms. It was war. Have-A-Heart became was the code name for our garden saving operation. Did you know ground hogs can't resist cantaloupe rinds with just a little bit of fruit left on them?

I really don't want to resort to such measures. Mind you all we do is loving relocate our guest to a nice wooded area nearby. But maybe, before things get so drastic, I should post a sign by the fence:

Please don't eat the daisies, columbine, brown-eyed susans, purple conehead, tomatoes, peppers, beans, beets, corn or basil.

Yeah, I could lean it up against our Have-A-Heart.