Goldfinches in the garden

The bright yellow flash of male goldfinches this time of year alerts me to their presence. Lately, a pair of goldfinches has been eating Liatris,
Rudbeckia, and purple coneflower seeds in the front meadow. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the male hanging on the spiky Liatris -- they're skittish enough that it's hard to sneak up on them.

The woodchuck(s) must be hungry. They're now starting to eat almost green tomatoes! Or maybe this is a hungry cardinal... woodchucks are most likely.

Squash flowers and woodchucks

Aside from hoping for rain, it's a quiet time in the garden, except for gathering tomatoes and weeding. There'd been no sign of woodchucks in the satellite garden for awhile, so I hopefully transplanted a few of the trombocino squash seedlings that were growing in the main garden last weekend. It was an overcast day, so they looked good, and I had visions of the vines rambling over the mulch producing squash until fall, like last year. Ha! They were fine the next morning, but by late afternoon, THIS is what they looked like.

I checked out the developing squash on the large vine in the main garden, and felt better.

Coffee grounds & woodchucks

I spread coffee grounds around the munched trombocino squash and violetta beans where the woodchucks have been partying recently.

Maybe the coffee smell will be a deterrent. It's a great soil amendent, in any case. Woodchucks seem to have very distinct foraging preferences -- curcurbits, tomatillos, kale, and beans are greatly preferred. Potatoes and tomatoes have barely been nibbled, except for a few flowers. The red mulberry was defoliated early, too -- another favorite.

What's surprising is that we've never had woodchucks in our garden before and our neighborhood is not particularly good habitat either. But we've spotted two out foraging, who scuttled back towards the brushpile. Hhrmph.

My natural gardening tendencies are challenged by herbivores like the woodchucks! At least they haven't been in the main vegetable garden, only the 'satellite' garden down the hill.