Protect plants from wildlife

Q. I have dealt with the deer and groundhogs the last few years. What should I do about the groundhogs? They ate everything I planted. I replanted three times. Can you help me?

Jean from Hubbard

A. Oh, wildlife! We love to watch them, but we hate to watch them eat our gardens.

In the vegetable garden, there are many options to reduce wildlife damage. Companies sell everything from repellent to traps. You can try lots of these. Some will work, some will not. In general, nothing will work unless you change it up every couple of days or keep up with the same spray after it gets washed off leaves or dissipates. Wildlife are not stupid, they will adjust to your scare tactics just like they have adjusted to living in suburban and urban neighborhoods.

In urban and suburban areas, you need to plant things the wildlife don’t like, or resort to fencing. The gardeners who have used some type of fencing are the happiest with their choice. I see fencing — exclusion — as the only near-foolproof way of keeping wildlife out of the vegetable garden.

When it comes to groundhogs, the fence should be a minimum of 3 feet tall. But there should be an extra 12 inches of fence left lying on the ground away from the garden. This flat piece can be buried slightly, or just pinned to the ground to allow the grass to grow through the mesh. This will keep the groundhog (and other wildlife) from getting under the fence.

Some of the best information regarding reducing damage from groundhogs can be found on a Penn State fact sheet, here: http://go.osu.edu/groundhog. Please understand that some Pennsylvania details do not apply to Ohio, though.

In the case of deer, some repellents can be effective if you keep at it consistently. But if you have more than just a deer “here and there,” the deer become used to you and the repellent. Fencing can help. If permissible, a peanut- butter electric fence can be used to deter deer. Angled fences work, due to poor depth perception of deer. http://go.osu.edu/deercontrol.

When I was in southern Ohio, we had a group of master gardener volunteers who worked on yet another list of plants deer loved to eat and plants deer seldom ate. The list is posted at: http://www.gardeningindeercountry.com.

Eric Barrett is OSU Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources in Mahoning County. Call the office hot line at 330-533-5538 to submit your questions. Clinic hours vary this time of year due to the winter season.