One evening, not long ago, I strolled out to dump some potato peels and other goodies on the enclosed pile when I saw motion in the bin — it was not yet totally closed up. Since our cat had wiggled her way in there once before, I thought it was the cat. I removed the wire-mesh cover, a shadow jumped out, and I gave it a not-quite-light, certainly-not-swift kick. In the dark, it was hard to discern much of anything other than the fact that the shape moved away from our house, toward our neighbors fence. It climbed the fence and turned to look at me. Our bandit was just that: a raccoon. I’d thought to reach my hand into the composter and grab the “cat” by the scruff of the neck; I was certainly glad I didn’t when I realized who our “visitor” was.
We’re going crazy with the compost, though, because we’ve been trying out our green thumbs, only to find them to be a paler green than we’d really like. We planted some melons and squash in a patch in front of the house where I pulled up some diseased boxwoods. Started from seeds, they were smallish, but we didn’t really they were too underdeveloped for planting — especially the squash. Still, almost two weeks later, despite careful watering, sixty percent of the squash is dead and forty percent of the melons. The soil was quality; the seedlings looked healthy — who knows.
The bigger mystery is in the backyard, where we have our raised bed, which houses some onions, radishes, and a few other goodies. We were walking around the house this evening when we saw this:
Something absolutely ravaged our garden. There were seemingly countless deep, narrow holes along the landscaping timbers.
It’s certainly not a dog, for canine-dug holes aren’t so precise.
My bet: the raccoon. Squirrels could be another good bet, but we’re not sure exactly when the raid took place. Any ideas?