Garden Battle Revisited

These plants were supposed to be cucumbers, climbing up the black iron trellis.  But alas, the critter is back.  My guess is that it is a woodchuck, though I haven't actually seen it.  It's hard to imagine that it could be the exact same one, because we trapped and transferred that woodchuck ten miles away.  But the hole under the sun room is dug out in exactly the same spot as if the animal remembered from last year and came home.

When I first saw signs in my garden of the plants being eaten, I said, oh well,  I'll just plant flowers, so I went out and bought some marigold-looking flowers. (couldn't find any actual marigolds).  And the next day, the tops of the flowers were gone.  It ate my flowers.

I should just give up on gardening, except for tomatoes.  There don't seem to be any animals that will eat the tomato plants.  At least there is something that I can grow.

For the past few years,  the critter ate off my climatis plant when it first put up shoots from the ground.   In fact, up until this year, I have never even seen any blossoms on that plant.  Perhaps because of the late arrival of the woodchuck  (who after all had to travel ten miles),  the plant got a good headstart and is now producing flowers.

I live in a residential area with lots of houses.  I would not expect for there to be deer, woodchuck, rabbits, etc.    But they are around, and seem to prevail in my garden battle.

On the positive side, we do have a rambling rose bush planted just a year or two ago, which has increased in volume tenfold.

And the trees are growing enough to provide just enough shade to sit under.