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Living in a rural area with a natural setting, we encourage wild animals to live and migrate through our property by keeping our forest open and grassy. This photograph is an Abert squirrel visiting one of my bird feeders; notice his long ears.
Some years, we notice a multitude of chipmunks, rabbits, and squirrels. Then a predator such as a coyote, fox or bobcat will move into the neighborhood and drastically reduce the population. During the next few years, the small animal population slowly rebounds. This natural control cycle mostly keeps the small animals from overrunning my gardens. |
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While we thoroughly enjoy seeing the wild animals, I do have one constraint: wild animals can live any where on our property except my vegetable garden. We prefer to discourage animals from entering my garden rather then shoot or poison them. In the next pages, I show how I keep various animals out of my vegetable garden. |
