A Day in the Garden, Hope and Despair

I've been laid up with an ankle sprain*, so I haven't been paying the closest attention to the details of my garden.

Today I got out to look at the water plantings, and there it was - evidence aplenty that the raccoon whelp had been fishing again.  Tore up the Helvola something terrible.  It's gone from about twenty leaves to TWO. 

That alone is a set back to my happy (hobbling, painfilled) day. The true sadness?  All this time I've been nuturing this plant... it's the one I bought as a teeny tiny seedling at summer's end two winters ago... I've been waiting for it to bloom to verify my identification as a Helvola.

Among the wreckage was a single bud.

Arrrghghghhh!

* Update:  It's not a sprain, it's arthritis.  And it's wandered over to the other ankle now, so it looks like Rhuematoid. 

Ah, yes.  'May I live in interesting times.'  Sigh.

On the bright side, the Helvola is rapidly putting out more leaves, and I see two bloom buds emerging!  Can't wait to see these guys, I really can't.  I'm like a kid at Christmas!

Comments

[Dianne]

Take care of yourself. The garden will be there and you'll have plenty to keep you busy.
I've been spraying tons of Japanese beetles. Bugs bug me too!

[Zoey]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your ankle and the destruction of your plant.

I hope you are feeling better soon!

[Rurality]

Oh dear. Hubby's water lily has recently suffered a similar loss. We're not sure if it's fish (grass carp) or turtles wreaking the havoc.

[Jenn]

Rurality - how deep is the water where his lilies are? It might be raccoons there, too. They LOVE fish and will go to great lengths for a meal.

Otherwise, I suspect it is the fish rather than the turtles. Carp are brutes in the water - even their domesticated versions - goldfish - can cause a ton of damage.

Unless the turtles are tanking through the lilies going after little fish... hmmm. Maybe it is the turtles!

[Judith]

I do despair with you! It's bad enough to have sprained your ankle but to peek in at your water plantings and see destruction...the pits. We had raccoons when we lived in the city too and they are rascals. They better not visit my water garden tonight. A blue heron has been circling mine this week...take care!

[Kathy]

Rheumatoid arthritis? Yikes! That has serious implications, no?

[Jenn]

If it is indeed Rheumatoid, yes.

Right now it is arthritis known in the right ankle and pain in the left.

I may be over-reacting.
I'll keep folks posted.

Right now I am continuing to putter around the garden, and am avoiding digging. (until today, that is, I just got back from my neighborhood nursery with a bunch of new plants.)

[Kathy]

Once an addict, always an addict.

[thebizofknowledge]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. I've lost plants to wildlife, as I'm sure every other gardener has as well. I guess it's the price we pay for the enjoyment of our hobby!

[William]

Sorry to read about your misfortune. Do you have fish in your pond? Or are you just saying that the young racoon was looking for fish. Helvola has such beautiful flowers! It’s such a shame about yours…

Reminds me of having taken my dog for a walk one morning and observing a tall heron in my neighbor’s garden pond, standing erect and still, until it bobbed its head into the water and came up with a goldfish. I was mesmerized and my Golden Retriever sensed this and stood still, as well. The heron repeated this action three times, then spread its majestic wings and flew off.

When I told my neighbor what happened, she was a bit shook up, then decided not to restock the pond with fish. She has a few beautiful Helvolas on the top of the water, they had such nice yellow flowers. But the bird didn’t damage them at all. Despite its large size, it was very gentle with everything, except the fish.

My wife has been talking about putting in a pond in our back yard, but when I told her about the heron’s visit, she had second thoughts. We don’t get too many racoons our way, only the occasional skunk. The dog starts barking and wants to go out and chase it away, but we restrain him. We don’t have that many cans of tomato juice, to wash off the stench!

We live on half an acre just outside of Toronto, Canada. We have a compact garden, but a lot fits into it. Madge takes care of the flowers—she likes to grow Hybrid Tea Roses and Campanulas. My contribution consists of growing the summer and fall salads—cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, scallions, radishes.

This summer we started using 100% organic nutrients made by a Canadian company, Advanced Nutrients. The results have been outstanding. Our vegetables are twice the size they were last year and our flowers are blooming all over the place.

My favorite product of theirs is Mother Earth Blended Organic Super Tea Grow and Bloom, which contains shrimp meal, fish meal, sea kelp, crab meal, canola meal, citric acid, earthworm castings, and alfalfa extract. Sometimes I use it in conjunction with another nutrient, sometimes just by itself.

Madge’s lady friends organized a flower show in June, and Madge won a Blue Ribbon with her prize English Tea Rose, Blue Girl. I had the boss over for dinner a couple of days ago and he was very impressed with my fresh picked salad. So I guess we both received our just reward!

Please don’t despair about the destruction of your Helvola. Figure out what scares racoons away and put it around your pond. Putting bags of bloodmeal around your property (I’m told) scares away the deer. They’ve got sensitive noses, so even small bags of laundry detergent might work. I guess deer don’t appreciate Tide! Try it with the racoons. Who knows?

[Mark1]

I use to work getting raccoons out of chimneys when they would crawl down right above the damper and have their young. It was an amazing job and I got to get pretty familiar with the raccoons.
Yes, they love to eat and they know where to go.
Sorry about your garden.

Cheer,

Mark