Friday, August 5, 2022

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes...

First a housekeeping note. If you came here wondering if I'd stopped blogging, because you stopped receiving emails alerting you to new posts, well...I have not stopped, I post every Mon, Wed, and Fri. Google threatened to stop sending those emails last year, and it looks like they finally made good on it. I've not set up a new notification system, I'm thinking on what to do. In the meantime rest assured that if you come here—www.thedangergarden.com—there will be three new posts each week. Now to today's post...

I hadn't been in the back garden all day and since we were leaving for the afternoon I walked out to quickly survey things. It was another extremely hot day and I didn't want to miss a plant in distress...


Everything looked good, but as I turned back towards the shade pavilion, I noticed a squirrel on the chair to the left. Cute.

Then I watched him jump to the back of the chair and quickly up into the mental container with the huge rhipsalis in it, just behind the chair. He did it so smoothly, so confidently, that he'd obviously done it before.

He then disappeared from sight. The rhipsalis is in a terracotta pot tucked into the metal container, there must be just enough open room between the terracotta and the metal for a squirrel to fit. When I water generously, the water runs from the terracotta and pools in the bottom of metal. I figured he was after water and wondered how he knew it was in there...

I then watched a little squirrel paw reach up and grab ahold of one of the rhipsalis stems. It disappeared from view, but then the base began violently shaking. The little furry-tailed jerk was eating the rhipsalis! He didn't jump up there for water, he jumped up there for a plant buffet!

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

27 comments:

  1. Ya gotta love it — in a horrified kind of way!

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    1. Yes indeed. It was crafty and I was impressed. Thankfully I think the plant is big and healthy enough to withstand a lot of squirrel nibbling.

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  2. Ho-ho-ho!!!! I laughed my head off. I have problems like that with squirrels. After replanting a planter hung on the fence twice only to have the plant devoured by squirrels, I gave up...And then, lo, a weed self-seeding into the planter. I didn't know what the weed was, but it was green. I was pleased so I began watering it. After a few days, the squirrels ate it too. Yes, they ARE jerks!!!!

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  3. They've more clever than we give them credit for being. It's not just coyotes that are wily. I wonder how he learned that Rhipsalis is tasty?

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    1. Yes, it's certainly not a plant they would run into here in Portland in many gardens. The stems must be pretty succulent though.

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  4. They are too clever.

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    1. I suppose it does take a bit of brain power to remember where you bury all those nuts.

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  5. I don't like grey squirrels. I find them to be pests.

    I used to put bird feed out in my back garden, but the blinking grey squirrels would attack the feeders and scare off the song birds. They are bird feeders not squirrel feeders!

    I like red squirrels a lot though. The unfortunate thing is that they only live in certain parts of the UK. I have seen them a couple of times when I was mountain biking at Glentress, down in the Borders.

    I would be more than happy to share my garden with red squirrels :)

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    1. We've got a neighbor with a hanging bird feeder and the squirrels display their acrobatic skills getting at the seed.

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  6. Squirrels may take over the country eventually. They figure out how to get things done! Your pavillion is lovely.

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  7. The rhipsalis looks so good though... not like it's been munched on at all.
    chavli

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  8. I found you! (using Feedly app.)
    I will check my own rhipsalis out on deck now! Funny visual of that little turkey.

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    1. I've heard good things about Feedly, I use Netvibes. Glad you found me!

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  9. A plant buffet...yum! We have tons of squirrels here with all the giant Oaks and Hickories in the backyard. Sometimes they mess things up a big, but the Hickory nuts seem to keep them sated. I have more trouble with rabbits eating things. Ugh.

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  10. Been fighting drought/climate change, vine weevils, moles, squirrels, crows, blue jays, rabbits, raccoons up here on phinney ridge in Seattle. Using daily applications of super hot cayenne pepper and protecting any young/new plants/plantings with chicken wire. Some days I get so discouraged. Helps to know others struggling with same issues. Some days I just want to give up, but I can’t. My addiction to gardening has a very firm hold on me!

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    1. So many things! We gardeners are resilient!

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  11. We constantly find damage that they have done. Hate them!

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    1. I generally kind of enjoy them, they're much better than raccoons.

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  12. Oof, don't get me started on rodents... 😑 They don't even eat most things, I've literally watched them destroy things for fun. Apparently they need things to chew on because they're too long in the tooth and your plants might be just the chew toy they're looking for!

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    1. "Apparently they need things to chew on because they're too long in the tooth"... ha! Thanks for the laugh.

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  13. Gotta admire the acrobatics involved in getting up there. Our own little nemesis right not is a porcupine. After a very long night of waking us up (and trying to catch him) as he 'talked' to himself, on our third foray we finally managed to corner him under our back stairs. Used some wire to create a cage/barrier to contain him until morning but the little bugger still managed to get out. Grrr! Seems like every year there is always something trying to wreak havoc.

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    1. A porcupine! Yikes. That sounds tricky.

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  14. Caught in the act! I've had my suspicions about squirrels nibbling on my succulents. I always blamed rats. Maybe it's both?

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