Affectionately called "Mr. McGregor"

Beatrix Potter has some of my very favorite children's stories.  I absolutely love all of her stories and once in a blue moon I will subject my youngest to listening to those stories.  Again and again.  I used to have a book of hers but somewhere in life it became "misplaced".  That is the story of my life...  I can honestly tell you that we have prayed for lost things to become found more times than I can remember.  Most of them reappear, but there is the occasional item that never shows its face again.  One such item would be that Beatrix Potter book.  I haven't found one that I like to replace it so I am stuck snagging it up at the library.  If you happen to not be familiar with her works and you are around younger children, I highly suggest you mossey on down to your local library and grab all you can!  There's a rush on her works, ya know!

Anyway, now that summer is here and Rodger has been in his garden for a couple months, I have been calling him Mr. McGregor.  He gets all sorts of terms of endearments (and they are all nice ones...) and this one is because he is just like the Mr. McGregor in the stories.  Going to all sorts of lengths to keep critters out of the garden.  You see, we live in a "sort of" country area.  I say "sort of" because Walmart is only 6 minutes from our house.  As such, we get all sorts of critters on our property that want a piece of the pie!  Or in this case, the corn.  The beans.  The watermelon.  The squash.  The tomato's. 

However, we don't have chickens, ducks, dogs and cats for nothing!  The dogs and cats are great mousers/chipmunkers/small critter destroyers, while the chickens plow through the bugs that would prove detrimental to our garden produce.  The ducks?  The were a combo platter of pleasure and purpose.  I would have one of every kind of fowl, but Rodger isn't that keen on too many critters.  So I have to research and present a plan of attack when I want to add something new to the mix!  The ducks were brought in not just because I like them.  Oh no.  That would never do!  When we moved in out here we had enough Japanese beetles to eat down the country side.  I would sit in our front yard area and just watch the grass look like it was alive.  The Japanese beetles were so thick that I was sure the grass was moving.  The bushes were crawling with them.  The trees were chewed down with nary a leaf left.  Our green beans were a delicatessen for those pesky bugs.  Essentially, we were helping them to procreate.  That wasn't going to continue as far as I was concerned.  I knew that Chemlawn was not an option.  I mean, where do you draw the line when you have acres to clean up?  Plus, as much as I love green grass and all (remember, I am my dad's daughter!), I don't think that kind of chemical strength is good for the ground, the water run off, or our own bodies.  If you use some sort of service like that, great.  We just don't.  Plus, when our kids want to get married, there will be an application process that asks that kind of question:  Did you use chemicals on your lawn while growing up?  Did you have parents with allergies?  Were you good at math?  If you answer yes to more than one of these questions then you may get the boot! 

So enter our sweet ducks!  I love our ducks.  I mean, love love love our ducks!  They are so cute to watch, unless you are a man.  Then you probably don't even see them.  But whatever.  They put the smack down on the beetles.  Did you know that beetle grubs (Japanese beetles specifically) are a gourmet treat for the ducks?  I never knew this.  In my quest for looking at natural ways to get rid of the beetles, I read a book about ducks that said they LOVE beetle grubs.  So when Rodger said we could get the chickens I casually mentioned that the ducks would help with the decimation of the beetles.  To which Mr. McGregor answered, "Well, go ahead and get a few."  So we got four.  The mortality rate is a bit high out here...  Two khaki campbells and two pekins.  So they have been demolishing the beetle population on the property for about three years now and we are down to literally a memory of Japanese beetles.

Mr. McGregor did not regret that decision.

Here are the bug-o-nators.  This is what they do all day long - follow each other in a line and demolish all bugs that get in their way. 

Now here is where it gets sticky.  We have a garden that is a "neighborhood" garden.  We use a plot of land owned by another fellow and we have tried, UNSUCCESSFULLY to grow corn there for the last three years.  Every last cob was eaten by some variety of critter.  Coon, Possum, Skunk.  So Mr. McGregor pulled out the big guns.  Poison.  It didn't work.  He enjoys his sleep to much to sit out and wait with a gun.

This year Mr. McGregor put the corn in our garden close to our house.  Oh how I wish I could put a recorded conversation on here.  The urgency with which he speaks to convey the depth of his concern that some critter is going to climb the fence and eat his corn... it's almost a shame you can't hear it.

He even let the dogs stay out one night to "protect" the property and produce.  All to no avail as our dogs bark at the leaves blowing in the wind and they do it right under our bedroom window.  All. Night. Long.  That little trick lasted one whole half hour.  Into the kennel they go.

Here's what's at stake, my friends:




We have tomato's, peppers, corn, bush beans, onions, cilantro, lettuces, watermelon.  There is much here to make a critter fat and happy.  In the years past we have had a simple waist high fence that keeps critters out.  Until the chickens figured out they could jump up and over into the garden.  TOMATO FEST!!!  Rodger already came in the house one day with several tomatoes in hand, asking me if I knew what the ugly marks and holes were on the tomatoes...  No.  Tomato horn worm?  No, says he, it was CHICKENS!!

So the fencing went to a whole new level because if the chickens were getting over, oh LAWSIE!  The coons are going to go over the night before we pick the corn and pig out! 

Here is a picture of what a man will do to protect what is his!  The bigger wood posts were the original fence, but the chicken wire that is on the top part is new this year.  In fact, only a few weeks old.  It is hard to see because of the lighting, but if you look in the middle area you can see what the 'ol engineer brain was milling over in his head before the plan moved into action.

So far his plan has worked and he has a satisfied, smug look on his face.  Especially last night as we ate our very first corn crop from the garden.  We have been eating tomatoes for a few days now and they are very good.  Sophie goes out religiously and checks in on her baby watermelons.

Again, if you live close and want a zucchini or two, zip on over and we'll give you one.  Or two!  We like to share.

I'll let you know if the coons succeed in their quest to take down Mr. McGregor.  They are his Peter Rabbit in life.  I somehow think he got the upper hand this year though.  For which I am glad.

Happily gardening,
Tammy