Poor Mr. MacGregor

Me, filling in a hole made by a ground squirrel.

The girls and I have always loved "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter.  We went through a phase several years ago where they had me read it to them several times a week for months on end.  When reading through this story, I always acknowledged that Peter Rabbit's problems were a consequence of his naughtiness and disobedience to his mother, but I also felt badly for him when he came home sick at the end of the story.  That sentiment has come to a screeching halt!  Now I feel that I must commiserate with Mr. MacGregor who is constantly plagued by the pests sneaking into his garden and stealing his vegetables.  I even understand how Mrs. MacGregor was able to happily cook up Peter Rabbit's father in a pie for dinner.

Lilah, hunting a pocket gopher.

This year, with limited time and many other household projects to accomplish after having bought our house out in the country, my hubby and I decided to take a chance, experiment, and plant small garden plots with vegetables right in the ground.  That was about 3 - 4 months ago.  We keep attempting to comfort ourselves that this is a learning year and that it is okay if half of our plants are falling by the wayside, but I have already determined that NEVER AGAIN will a plant a vegetable garden that is not in a raised bed lined on the bottom with 1/2" chicken wire (fenced, too, of course).  The first persistent pest that we encountered were the ground squirrels that like to come along and just lop off the top of a plant, or sneak in to put teeth marks in a cucumber (thereby ruining its perfection).  Then, we noticed that the rabbits were populating our yard and eating off the tops of entire vegetable seedlings, such as broccoli and brussel sprouts.  In fact, rabbits also at two rose bushes of mine as well, and only 1 has managed to recover now that all my rose bushes are encircled with rabbit fencing.  Finally, when all seemed to finally be looking up and the plants were growing into beautiful, medium sized vegetable plants, along came the worst of the 3 pests - the pocket gopher.  On several occasions, my hubby and I literally sat there and watched a tomato or cucumber plant begin to wiggle and then be pulled down a hole in to the ground by and unseen gopher (followed by many strong emotions on my part, including the feeling of being incensed at these little, annoying animals invading my garden plot).  I have attempted to combat them with Ex-Lax and gopher traps, to no avail.  Hence, my determination to only plant in raised beds in the future.  Yesterday, the second of my 3 cantaloupe plants was eaten and today, yet another tomato plant was limp and dead upon my arrival to water the garden.  I will continue to water my remaining plants and glean the little produce I can from them, but I certainly am not getting my hopes up for a grand harvest this year.

Mourning the loss of a recently destroyed squash plant.

So, I will live and learn and remember to have more sympathy for Mr. MacGregor the next time the girls and I read "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" together.