We think of our garden here as our playground and it is that. It is also home to a lot of wildlife. Sometimes things are relatively quiet. We see deer through the morning mist, watch wild turkeys and their babies, enjoy the visits of the hummingbirds and other birds. I even got glimpse of two of the coyote pups the other day. However the last two nights wild things have been going on in the garden in the moonlight. Plant tags have been pulled out then dropped somewhere else. The tooth marks made on this Rebecca Viola tag are an indication of a nice sharp set of teeth.
Pieces of weed barrier fabric have been ripped off, torn up and scattered about. The cage over the lettuce is all caved in and the shade cover is in tatters. Holes are being dug all over the garden.
When we headed to the back with the garden tractor, we found this long missing item in the path. For those who don't recognize a urinal, and for those who garden in town, I will explain. It is Ed's practice to catch his urine and add it to the compost rather than waste it in the tall grass. He kept this hanging on the top wire on the compost bin in the front garden. It has been many weeks since its disappearance. Ed travels the path to the back often, so it was a big surprise to find this thoroughly chewed, half missing, "chew toy" right in the middle of the path. It had not been there before and was found far from the compost bin, up the hill, down through the meditation spot, and up another hill, more than halfway to the wilderness garden. Useless to us, we left it there. It will be interesting to see if it disappears again.
Back by the wilderness garden corn cobs are strewn about. We don't have any corn planted back there so this corn was carried in from a neighboring field. With the pond nearby in the back, raccoons are another possible nighttime visitor.
Corn shucks were scattered about. Grass clippings were tossed around. Big holes were dug here as well. Our "free range" squash have caught the attention of our wild neighbors. They too have been chewed on.
Clearly this is not our private playground. When darkness falls the wild action begins. Moonlight and midnight in the garden make it a great time to howl!
3 comments:
Wow! I always find another surprising story on your blog. I do not comment to often, but I read all your posts. Amazing nature, and you are so amazing people with your love and care for the nature. Thank you for sharing this wild and beautiful experience with us. Did you find who's the visitor? Could be a dog from the neighbourhood? or what some wild animal?
We of course suspect the coyotes. We have watched them play in the garden before.
Night time is certainly "play time" for a lot of creatures, that's for sure. I sometimes have to be at work at 5AM and last week right downtown a fox was sitting at a corner as if it was waiting to use the cross walk.
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