Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Watermelons Courtesy of a Thieving Raccoon!



From my perspective raccoons are vermin that should be “relocated” whenever they darken our back porch. Unfortunately, we have to invite all 9 kitties inside to set the humane trap, as our felines are not savvy enough to avoid getting trapped themselves.

Back to the watermelons~ in the spring of 2011 I decided to experiment with growing produce from seeds rather than buying seedlings planted by a professional.  It may have been an ill -fated attempt to economize or my personal exploration of my agrarian roots. In any event, the only seeds that managed to germinate were the 69- cent watermelon seeds. But the watermelons that grew had extremely thick rinds and little fruit inside. So, we ignored them.

The thieving vermin raccoons, however, pinched the fruits on the vine and apparently had watermelon fights. I found lots of evidence!

This spring, after last year’s debacle, we stuck with our raspberry briars, garlic, and tomatoes.  So, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I wandered out to harvest the garlic and found vines of watermelons running all over the ground and throughout the raised beds we’d left empty. Apparently, the raccoons liberated a number of seeds during their rampages last summer, which has blessed us with a delicious and abundant crop of watermelons just now ready to eat.  So, we owe a  grudging debt of gratitude to these generally unwelcome visitors! 

1 comment:

  1. such a wonderful article shared by you. Thanks for sharing this kind of stuff. Go for Critter Pricker, a tailored made device designed to act as a deterrent tool for raccoons and other nuisance animals. For the more details you have to do just one click raccoon repellents


    ReplyDelete