Look What I Found in my Garden

[Python]

Mimitabby. If you feed them every evening they usually stay. We had a family of hedgehogs at our last house. They often used to come right up to the back door - Mum, Dad hedgehog and a couple of little ones. They can get quite tame. Now I know I've got hedgehogs I'll have to be very careful if I'm using the strimmer. I would be devastated if I caused injury or death to these lovely creatures.

Trek420. I got down flat on my belly with the zoom lens on full to take that pic. Hedgehog disappeared shortly after that but I bet he's back in almost the same place now. I shall avoid that part of the garden when I'm working in it so he has a bit of undergrowth to curl up in.

[mimitabby]

awesome!!!

i never knew! (and once upon a time, my Italian relatives were so hungry they used to EAT them!)

[Wahine]

He/she is sooooooooo cute I just wanna squeeze him.

Ummmmm. On the other hand, maybe not a good idea. He looks kinda prickly.

I love hedgehogs.

[smilingcat]

cute cute cute... Do you have someting like NWF backyard habitat certification (can't remember the exact name)? It's just a feather in your cap so to speak.

I desperately need one to deal with all the snails in my yard.

Thai chilli pepper plant --- gone, nada, see ya.
globe basil --- lasted a day then it was nubs, two days later no sign...
french string beans -- snails said thank you very much.
armanian cucumber --- what was that but still TASTY! they said.

Things that survivied, egg plant cause it was able to grow faster than snails could eat. Same with squash and zucchini.

Tomato plants -- we no like.

And I refuse to use any chemicals on my garden. Kitchen refuse gets composted, and we use carnivorous snails to deal with the regular snails, ladybugs for aphid control.

Smilingcat

[rocknrollgirl]

Now I want want too....hmm...I wonder what my kitty would think...

[Duck on Wheels]

We used to have hedgehogs, until some badgers settled in the neighbors' unkempt mass of raspberries. Now I think the badgers are gone too. Haven't seen them in ages. I wish the hedgehogs would come back, but have little hope.

[snapdragen]

I desperately need one to deal with all the snails in my yard.

Not as cute as a hedgehog, but I used to use a copper barrier to protect my plants from snails.

I put little rings of the copper strip around the base of each pepper plant, and made sure none of the leaves touched the ground. Snails and slugs hate copper.

[7rider]

Cute little Hedgie.
I love the critters that eat the pests.
We've got snakes, toads, and frogs around here, too.

But not all the critters eat the pests. Some of the critters ARE the pests!
Now..if I could just train deer to eat ONLY the weeds, I'd be very happy.

[Aggie_Ama]

Now I know I've got hedgehogs I'll have to be very careful if I'm using the strimmer. I would be devastated if I caused injury or death to these lovely creatures.

WEe have quite a bit of toads that we enjoy because they keep the bugs under control. My neighbors keep trying to run off the free insect control! DH was devasted last night to have backed over one of our little visitors; he was so distraught as he watched it die. He also gets very alarmed that his workers kill snakes and bunnies at work.

[Python]

We get quite a lot of frogs and toads in our garden too. Our cat brought in a frog the other night. I thought it was dead as it was just lying on the floor with it's little hands over it's eyes. I picked it up and it jumped out of my hands. It landed on the floor and promptly covered it's eyes again! I managed to catch it again and put it outside in the garden. It covered it's eyes again. Poor thing must have thought it's end had come. It realised nothing was harming it and hopped off. Probably came from next door neighbour's pond. The same night a saw a large toad. I caught him and put him in a safer location in the garden. I like these animals because they do so much good in the garden. We also get Slow Worms. They're good at eating slugs and garden pests too.

[IFjane]

He also gets very alarmed that his workers kill snakes and bunnies at work.

I don't understand why people do this - and don't think a thing of it, especially snakes. There is a story on CNN.com about a 5 yo child who was killed by a stray bullet, fired by a policeman who was shooting a snake out of a tree! It's a tragedy that the child was killed - but why was he trying to shoot the snake out of the tree in the first place??? Seems simple to me - leave the snake alone and NO ONE GETS HURT.

[Aggie_Ama]

IF Jane- I believe it may be a cultural thing on the snakes. They are not scared of them (which is the reason most people kill them), they just hate them. I am not a fan of snakes, but I let them go about their business. If it were poisonous and trying to harm me, maybe I would do something but most likely I would call some kind of wildlife control.

The bunnies they view as a pest at the nursery but DH prefers to catch and release them; not kill the little guys.

[7rider]

The bunnies they view as a pest at the nursery ...... not kill the little guys.

La, la, la, la, la!!!
I'm not listening!!!!!
Bunnies are for luvin' not harming!

[Duck on Wheels]

We had out-of-season permits for deer and multiple other "pests" back on the farm. Had a gun too. But my Dad could never bring himself to shoot anything. Not even the possums, which were an invasive imported species in California. Nor the turkeys which were not only invasive and non-native, but also edible. He maybe killed a gopher or two, and some flies and mosquitoes, but otherwise he only used catch-and-release traps. Catch'em. Drive off into the woods. Let'em go. Once we think the "pest" may have been a mountain lion. Whatever it was left claw marks at shoulder height on one of the redwood trees. It also took the bait out of the back of a possum-sized trap, pulled the chicken thigh out and left the trap snapped but empty. And it growled rather loudly around the house for a couple of nights, the first of which my ds and the neighbors' son were out in the yard in a tent But still, we never shot anything. We were invading their territory, not they ours.

[chickwhorips]

So what do you use to keep moose away from a garden? Haven't started a garden, but the little trees are more like a stick with one leaf.