Originally Posted by Sheila_H
We have rabbits, groundhogs, raccoons and skunks that live around us and are always in our yard/garden. Mom suggested I make a trench about 1" down all the way around the garden and put in blood meal, not mixed with anything just straight blood meal and whatever is in it, the critters don't like it. We did it for the first time last year and they left most of the garden alone. I know Lowe's carrys it thats where I bought it from.
I have also used it to keep cats out of my flower beds. I really hate digging in dirt that they've used for kitty litter.
Another thing I do in my herb garden is grow leeks because 'racing worms' love leeks. I don't know what they are called really but they are lime green with black stripes and remind me of race cars. I was told they are the worms that turn into monarch butterfly cocoons, but don't know for sure.
I always leave the part of the salad bowl lettuce that grows to big to be tasty for the rabbits that get into my garden. Any rabbit coming to my garden gets named Sally, and Sally always seems to be happy living in the lettuce and leaving the other stuff alone. What I really hate are the grasshoppers we get when it's very, very hot here. They nibble on each and every veggie or fruit they can get to. Now, I'd be happy to leave a plant just for them, if they honor the system, but grasshoppers have no moral structure. They just take what they want from each veggie and then hop on to the next. When it's really hot and dry here I get a very good glimpse of what the locust plague back in the 'old' days must have been like. And when you walk thru the grass hundreds of grasshoppers go before you. Whenever it's a winter as bad as this one has been, we know, tho, that the insect infestations will be less.