What do groundhogs not like?

[Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz]

A groundhog has moved into my garden. I've named him Brinckerhoff because he constructed a large tunnel under the fence.

The season is over so Brinckerhoff can eat what he likes now but I'd like some ideas about what to plant next year. What do groundhogs not like? I'm pretty sure that he's eating my cucumbers and I suspect he is the reason that my strawberry plants never produced and strawberries. I'm not sure if he's eating tomatoes. I've gotten plenty of those but it might be because I have so many tomatoes that there is enough from both him and me.

[Steve]

1. President Bush
2. Punxsutawney Phil and his holier than thou attitude
3. Being labeled a whistlepig
4. Being asked how much wood would a woodchuck chuck...etc
5. Noise, they really are frightened by rattle scarecrows
6. Sprinklers on a motion sensing trigger, got the deer to leave, too

The last two worked for us.

[Aluckyguess]

[George]

We've had groundhogs, rabbits, skunks, and squirrels. None has ever touched our beans, eggplants, and basil. I think only the squirrels have eaten tomatoes and corn. Somebody loves cabbage, kale, parsley, and brocolli. I blame woodchucks, but I can't be sure.

We've had some luck with adding a second fence flat on the ground outside the 'regular' fence, bending the wires together at the juncture, and staking the outer edge to the ground. Only onc year has anyone (a skunk, I think) tunnelled under that. That was a bad year. After they'd 'tasted blood', it was Katy bar the door - it was as if the rest of them learned how to get in. We couldn't keep them out, anyway.

But, this year, our only problem has been squirrels, even though I've seen the woodchuck grazing on clover outside the fence, and some rabbits around in the spring.

We've also trapped them - quite a few woodchucks, some skunks, fewer squirrels. It gets old, and I don't know whether it's helped or not. We still have rodents, for sure.

George