Chipmunk Fence

Bunnies, Chipmunks, or Rats?

Up until now we've been pretty lucky as far as pests go. I've had some personal invasions in Patch Market on my strawberry containers and on the Topsy Turvy but after I moved the containers and wrapped up the Topsy all of that ended. I have had some berries get eaten by the birds but that has been few and far between. Otherwise, we've had a bunny go for the lettuce in Potagar, once, and that's it. Those few times things did go missing we blamed it on rats. There was a storm of rats in this neighborhood last year due to the recently, more, mild winters but we actually haven't seen any rats we just assumed that was the case because they ate every single tomato in the small container garden Mr. S. fashioned last year. Anyway, so we blamed the rats, not the bunnies, because of the bite size but the rats. I was worried we were going to see another swarm of them this year, even though they were killed off by our poison and a few of the neighbors. Yesterday, when I was out put some of the fencing up I saw a tomato, a small cherry one, on the ground with a bite mark in it. I thought, again, a rat and that I needed to hurry up and finish getting the fencing up. I didn't because I ran out and needed to get the rest out of the car but I basically finished today. Anyway, I told Mr. S. about the tomato and he said something that I completely agree with "I haven't really seen even one rat but I've seen a bunch of chipmunks. They have to eat too." He is absolutely correct. I've seen at least 6 or 7 in our area alone and a few running across the street in the neighborhood. The bite marks are so small that it makes sense that they are the thieves not the nonexistent rats. So I made sure to get almost all of the rest of the fencing up to protect against them and hope that we get to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor, literally.  Mr. S. thought that we might not get many pests because we'd been lucky so far but I think I was correct when I said that was because things haven't ripened yet. Now that they're ripening the aroma will attract pests from afar and around. 

Fencing we purchased at home depot for $5 a roll. A good deal and it is not unattractive when up. I used a staple gun to hold it in place on the wooden poles Mr. S. put in but we could have bought metal hook poles that you did into the ground for $3 a piece. Next time we'll know.

The cucumber plant was close to reaching the cement drive so I put a trellis in the container and weave the long stems through the trellis just like I did with the cantaloupe plants. Cucumbers are in the same family so there vines should happily attach to accommodate vertical growth.

Vine of a cantaloupe working its way to attaching to the newly placed trellis and a very young cantaloupe melon forming (the yellow fuzzy globe).