In a former post, I mentioned that we have expanded our growing space into another fenced field. With high expectations, the agroecology students planted many young plants that they religiously watered. We then closed the gate, turned the electric fence on and continued on our merry way, sure that our young plants would be healthy and happy in their new home. However, there was one problem that we had hoped to avoid. There were small eyes watching from the edge of the tree line. Once the field was free of humans, the ground hogs came out to check out the smorgasbord that we had planted. Although the fence was electrified, the lowest wire was not low enough to prevent the ground hogs from digging under the fence. One by one our plants were trimmed by ground hogs that enjoyed the fruits of our labor. As the photo of the sweet potato plants show, successive trimmings left our crops with few leaves to photosynthesize and grow.

Once it was clear that ground hogs were going to be regular visitors, we placed several live traps in amongst the beans baited with some delicious cantaloupe. Clearly not knowing what they were missing, the groundhogs turned up their noses at the fruit and continued to snack on our crops.

Following the clearing of some small trees from a prairie, we attempted to discourage the visits by placing wood in their way, but the groundhogs just rolled them back to get to their endless buffet of greens. When we discovered the scenethat you can see in the photograph, we decided to pull out the big guns.

Clearly the only thing that would keep the little guys out was to give them a shocking reminder each time they tried to dig under the fence. We installed a fourth wire just a few inches off the ground that they would not be able to limbo under. That did the trick! Once the plants were allowed to grow undisturbed, we were able to reap a harvest from what was left.

All of our work was worth it as we now look forward to years of abundant harvests from that field. Even now, there are days that I spot a forlorn groundhog sitting up on his hind quarters outside of the fence and gazing wistfully at what used to be an easy meal.