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There are few things more frustrating than to find the planting beds in your garden that you spent days preparing massacred by groundhogs. Birds, raccoons, bugs and woodchucks, are known to wreak havoc in lawns and yards, but there is no wild animal that is a bigger nuisance than a ground hog. Quick and energetic, these mangy, burrowing rodents have a voracious appetite and a nose for mischief. Ground hogs love lush pastures and meadows, but gardens are an absolute favorite of these furry animals. They love burrowing through soft green lawns and freshly tilled soil.

If you have a vegetable patch in your garden where you grow carrots, broccoli, lettuce, peas, squash and such vegetables, then you need to keep your guards up against these mischief makers. A flower garden too can be a treat for ground hogs as they love to snack on sunflowers, daisies, marigolds and other flowers.

Lucky for you, there are ways in which you can insulate your garden against such intruders. Let’s find out how to keep groundhogs out of garden this Groundhog Day.

Most Popular Methods

There are four highly effective ways in which menacing intrusions by groundhogs can be managed. Those are- scaring the creatures away, fencing them out and trapping and releasing.

• Timely and professional grounds maintenance can remedy the groundhog problem for good. Professional landscape maintenance not only results in cosmetic and vegetative improvement, but also helps discourage wild animals from entering the premise. Keeping the grounds clear of woodpiles and bushes that groundhogs and other animals use as covers to enter the garden deter them from finding an easy way in.
• If scaring them away sounds like a doable option for you, then plant wind chimes, bells, pinwheels and such sound-making items at the perimeter of your garden. These animals are shy and therefore scare easily. As long as you can keep the noise going at all hours, they would keep away. The idea is to make sure that at no point should it be quiet and hushed up.
• Fencing is another way to protect your garden from ground hogs. The upside is, it will keep other nuisance makers outside too. But just any fence won’t do. Groundhogs can jump short boundaries. They can also tunnel under. So, you need a fence that stands at least 6 feet above the ground and reaches 12 inches below. Look for chicken wires in the said specifications. Those work best for small gardens and lawns.
• A great, but a slightly challenging technique is catch and release. Rig the perimeters of your garden with live traps, and go to bed. Next morning, you will have caught at least more than a few groundhogs in the traps. The risky side of this method is that it could easily be some other kind of animals caught in the trap. Plus it involves handling the animals for release.

So, if you are not up for it, learn below how you can protect your garden from groundhogs this Groundhog day in natural and safe ways.

Natural Ways To Get Rid of Groundhogs

There are some very effective natural ways of keeping the groundhogs out of your garden. The object of all these methods is to create a smell barrier around the garden. This will make sure that the animals stay away from the marked area.

• Epsom salts are a great repellent. Sprinkle it along the perimeter or pour a pile at the mouths of the burrows, it will make sure that the groundhogs stay away. Make sure to replace it after a rain.
• Castor oil has a specific scent that offends groundhogs. So one way of stopping them from coming into your garden is by pouring castor oil in good quantity in the burrow holes. But the smell being light may not hold them off for too long.
• Kitchen items that have offensive scents to chase groundhogs away are cayenne pepper, garlic and lavender. Using those to make boundaries around the garden works too. Repeat and replace as often as you can to keep the barrier from weakening.

Keep your garden maintained this Groundhog Day with Galena Lawn Care to keep the pesky intruders away.

The first day of spring started on March 20th, which is traditional for people to start spring cleaning. Everything from getting rid of old clothes, giving your home a thorough cleaning inside and out; and caring for your lawn. However, lawn care is one priority throughout the year. Still, the spring and summer months are crucial for your garden’s health because warmer temperatures and lawn neglection can use your lawn to look abandoned and untidy. The pattern you mow your lawn determines the attractiveness of your lawn.

Remove debris

Before you crank up your lawn mower, clean up your yard. Remove branches, leaves, trash, and other loose objects using a rake. Cleaning up is the first thing you do because mowing with debris in the yard could cause injury. Any object lying on the ground is propelled up to 200 miles per hour out of the mower’s discharge chute. Immovable objects, such as pipes, are marked, so you don’t accidentally run over it with your mower.

Mow in the morning

Mow your lawn is in the morning after the dew has dried on grass. The weather is usually pleasant in the mornings, especially during the summer, and most people enjoy mowing the lawn at that time before the brutal heat kicks in. Different people have different advice on how often to mow the lawn. Some suggest a set schedule of once or twice a week, while others are guided by the grass’ height to determine when it’s time to cut the grass.

Use the correct mowing pattern

From outside looking in, using a lawn mower seems easy; you’re merely pushing it around the yard. Though it’s not hard to mow a lawn, there’s a method to it. If you casually walk around with the mower, grass will catch and clog the blades. Mowing the lawn in the same pattern each time may result in the mower wheels eventually forming small ruts in your yard.  Using a lawn mower can be a workout in itself. You’re always moving the mower in a back-and-forth pattern. Changing your pattern prevents the blades from beating the grass in the same direction each time.

Clean up after mowing

After mowing your yard, it’s tempting to leave everything as-is because you’re tired and ready to move on with your day. But spend a couple of minutes sweeping up grass clippings from your driveway and walkway. Instead of disposing of the clippings, place them on your lawn. You may think this is counterproductive since you just cleaned your lawn before mowing. But studies have shown that mulched grass clippings act as fertilizer, breaking down into the soil to provide nutrients.

It’s not hard to mow your lawn, though there’s a technique to doing it. Instead of mowing in a circular pattern, using a back-and-forth motion to ensure you’re cutting the grass evenly. Another suggestion is to use half-lap passes; this means the new pass will overlap the previous pass by half the mower width. The technique will ensure you cut anything missed in the first pass.

Read more: Advantages of mulching