We have a vegetable garden in the backyard of our southeastern Wisconsin house. It’s not large, but we still manage to grow a nice quantity of green peas, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, peppers, basil, and squash, enough to top off several dozen vacuum-sealed mason jars and fill a chest freezer each year.

Nature being what it is, we are not the only critters in the neighborhood that enjoy the bounty of our labors. Last May I mentioned our ever-expanding population of Rabbits! and the efforts needed to keep them from our young and ripening produce. This week we face a new foe…

Groundhogs!

Audubon, John James and John Bachman, Arctomys monax, Maryland Marmot, Woodchuck, Groundhog. Natural size. Old & young, 1845 – 1848. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Public domain.

Yep, it’s Marmota monax (formerly Arctomys monax), also known as the Maryland Marmot, Woodchuck or just plain Groundhog. We’ve seen groundhogs at our house before. A few years ago we had regular visits from a pair of playful adults (quickly dubbed “Steve” and “Allen” for their resemblance to these guys). Then we had a summer with no groundhog visits.

Now it’s 2023 and we have groundhogs again, at least two different visitors in all. One (or more) of them is a typical adult groundhog in size, with a tawny fur coat. The other is…huge. With his great size and dark fur coat, his lumbering gait through the tall grass, and what appeared to be a long, flat tail, we first thought he might be a beaver. Today we got another—longer and closer—look, and our new visitor is definitely a groundhog.

Buffet!

Our backyard “meadow” and our other gardens of herbs, roses, and prairie wildflowers are popular with the local pollinators, birds, and small critters. They’ve become a veritable “buffet” for local wildlife, which is great. At least most of the time.

As far as we can tell, the groundhogs are currently satisfied with the abundance of “fresh greens” in the lawn, and they are welcome to them. And the fencing around the vegetable garden is keeping the rabbits and the groundhogs out—for the moment. Now, if we can only be sure the groundhogs don’t tunnel their way into the tomatoes and green beans as they ripen…

Peppers, tomatoes, green beans and peas in the vegetable garden, mid-June, 2023. Photo credit: Laura Rexroth.

It makes me wonder: how did the Clark family manage to keep the local fauna from eating all the tasty goodies growing in their garden?

Sigh. I thought gardening was supposed to be a “relaxing” pastime…

Darley, Felix Octavius Carr, Artist. Man Sitting on Wheelbarrow Looking at Frog, circa 1870. Photograph of book illustration for My Summer in a Garden, by Charles Dudley Warner. Boston : J.R. Osgood, 1872. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010715574/