By Jennie
I live in a city. My experiences with “nature” are few and far between. But since I’ve gotten into gardening, I have, by necessity, become familiar with the “fauna” part of “flora and fauna” (can snails be classified as “fauna”, I wonder?). Most of the time I’m dealing with smallish creatures of the buggy and crawlie variety – worms, spiders, ants, terrifying unidentified things with many, many legs. But I am aware that larger animals lurk – most of them of the rodent family. I saw a possum on the fence once, late at night. It was hideously ugly, and seemed to think that if it didn’t move, I wouldn’t see it, in spite of the fact that it was sitting there on top of the fence, plain as day. Freaky.
I am mostly quite happy that these members of the animal kingdom are in no more hurry to encounter me than I am to meet them. They didn’t bother me, and I didn’t bother them. But this past fall, I got it into my head to expand my horizons and plant some vegetables. I got some cabbages, some peppers, some basil, some spring onions. At first, things seemed to be going swimmingly. Oh sure, the basil got trampled/dug up within a few days, but that may well have been the cats, honestly.
Then I started to notice little nibbles out of the cabbages (which were otherwise flourishing – I still get a thrill of surprise at seeing something I’ve planted actually grow). No biggie, I thought. Probably a few snails. Icky (I really don’t like snails), but it wasn’t like they could decimate plants as large and lush as these. Well, maybe it wasn’t snails, because before I knew it, several of the plants were gobbled up. Okay, lesson learned – I guess I need to get some sort of netting thing if I want to be the intrepid vegetable grower, living off the land (with frequent trips to Safeway, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s).
I actually had an even more annoying encounter with the destructive and inconsiderate pigginess of local rodents earlier last year. Early in the summer, I noticed that one of the trees in our front yard appeared to be producing some sort of fruit, something this tree had never done before. I pulled one of the fruits down to examine it, but couldn’t figure out what it was – smallish, a bit oblong, light green. Internet research suggested it might actually be a nut. When my aunt was over one day, she identified it as a walnut.
A walnut! I had a walnut tree! Oh happy day – I could make all sorts of things with the healthy, nutritous walnuts my beautiful tree was soon to yield. I was quite excited.
I only noticed in passing one day a cute little squirrel on one of the branches, nibbling delicately on one of my not-yet-mature walnuts. Oh, hi, cute little squirrel, I thought. You looks so cute with that little walnut in your front paws. Then I went on my merry way, and didn’t give the squirrel or the tree a thought for several weeks. One day, I was outside and looked up, checking on the progress of my soon-to-be harvested walnut windfall.
There was not one darn walnut left on the entire tree. Anywhere. Those squirrels had stolen every last one. Bastards!
Sigh. So, no homegrown walnuts for me – it’s back to the store-bought variety. I may still be able to rescue a cabbage or two from the patch. And I’ve gotten one of those Topsy-Turvy things that allow you to grow tomatoes upside-down – it’s hanging off off my upstairs deck. Let’s see any animal get its paws on that!
How about you? Any encounters with ravenous nature stealing your hard-earned fruits and veggies?
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Comments
6 Responses to Those Darn Varmints!
It’s always a bit of surprise when we realize that “we” aren’t the only living creatures, around isn’t? Yeah, I am a city girl too.
Sorry to root against you, but I am glad Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel and all the little squirrelies got a hearty meal.
As you mentioned, there is always the supermarket for your nut needs and you won’t even have to shell them – something a city girl like you probably isn’t used to!
I am nervous about this. My little one wants to have a garden this spring and summer. So far we have planned an Herb garden and some flowers- also the pumpkin plant her teacher sent home. We have demonic squirrels in the back yard. I know they will eat our basil!
Not even one Walnut??? That’s very disappointing…….. Let me know if you find a varmint cure!
We too have a squirrel problem. I understand that they have to eat but I have a problem with where they choose to live. We live in a townhouse and have a neighbor who does not repair her house in a timely manner. In the winter, squirrels climb through her eves and over the firewall and live between our roof and ceiling. All night you can hear them running around. Last year, we spent a couple of thousand dollars to repair where they were coming thru on our side but the neighbor does not see this as a problem. So this year they were back. Oh, did I mention that she has squirrels living in the eves of her front porch and puts food out for them!!!!!!!! So I feel your pain.
Rhonda, that’s awful. They can be so destructive. I will never forget sitting in a friend’s upstairs apt. and saw a line of squirrels (lots of them) going across a wire, through a tree and into an attic. It was obviously “home sweet home” to them. I can’t imagine how they chew as a group.
Jennie, I appreciate your experiences. When I was in the city, I grabbed every bit of nature I could. We fed the squirrels, the birds, we had our little gardens. My father was the same way. Throughout my childhood and I guess into my 30′s, my father and whoever else wanted to go, would go and harvest walnuts from the big county park. We’d hike out in the woods and find a loaded tree. My dad would climb and shake, we’d pick them up and take them home. It was always a good time. My mom used them in cakes and saved them for holiday cooking. Lol, I can see why you wouldn’t know what it was you picked up. The green hull stains and I hulled a lot of the walnuts when I was young. btw, I hate the taste of walnuts. Especially, black walnuts.
You have me yearning to get out there and plant. I didn’t start any seeds this year. I can’t wait to get some things in the ground.
Yikes, Rhonda! I think squirrels are cute, in moderation, when they aren’t eating my walnuts, but it would creep me out to hear them scurrying overhead.
Yeah, Lily, I am really enjoying seeing things start to bloom. It gives you such a hopeful feeling!
Sam, you might want to look for some sort of enclosure or cover for your herb garden. I would think your pumpkins would be safe from squirrels, even demonic ones, but who knows?
I feel really sorry for people who have to deal with deer. They are so big and can really do a number on anything that’s growing.
My parents have three very large established walnut trees in their back yard and their are always plenty of walnuts for everyone, including the squirrels. They give their walnuts away most years to whoever wants to pick them up.
I have two dogs who are always very annoyed with the squirrels and are very pleased with themselves when they can catch one and bring me a present. One year, Keno brought one in the house to show me her prize and when I yelled out her name she dropped it. The squirrel took off running and climbed up our Malibu rock fire place and was clinging to the top. I had to call a neighbor to come and help me get it down and take it back outside. It was pretty comical to watch us catch this creature. I was so afraid at the time that I would lose site of it and it would get away and hide underneath my bed, only to come out at night and attack me. I had nightmares for a week.