On The Previous Topic Of Groundhogs

We had contrasting opinions of this segment of my last issue as you will see from these emails I received:

#1 - "Donna, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your newsletter, A Touch of Nature. I absolutely loved this one and found the story about the groundhogs delightful. I also discovered Nature's Sunshine through you and I feel so much better! Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful, natural things in your life!" Lori

#2 - "Your article about groundhogs. I do not consider these animals cuties and neither would you if they lived in your yard and dug under your sheds and porch and destroyed your garden and plants. These animals are a pest and I hate them. They have even come on our deck and took the plastic off our chairs, I guess to help build thier nest. They are very difficult to get rid of and against the law to kill in Indiana and in the mean time they are continually multiplying. You can catch them in a cage and remove them and 2 days later either they are back or others have come. They may be cute to you as long as they are bothering someone else but see how cute you think they are when they invade your property." Kathy

These critters are not cuties to everybody as one of the subscribers pointed out. I can understand how cuteness wanes when your hard work is being rewarded only by damage from wildlife. We've got major problems in our own community with deer and squirrels and have had to make a lot of changes to the way we garden.

Not planting the things that they eat has taken a lot of time and labor with trial and error, and it has meant we can't have every plant we would like to grow. The choice had to be made whether we wanted to garden for wildlife or garden for us. We've found gardening for wildlife has brought more joy than we could ever have imagined and the loss of not being able to grow many things we wanted to turned out to be no loss at all compared to the entertainment that we get from the wildlife.

Here's an article that may give you some ideas on finding a balance:
Gardens and Wildlife: Making Everybody Happy

For anybody else with groundhog problems, maybe this article will be of some assistance: Getting Groundhogs Out of Gardens