Okay, I was warned. Ducks like green things. Ducks like young plants. Ducks have big feet and like to lay right on top of stuff. Do they care that you spent hours digging, mulching, planting, weeding, weeding, weeding and maybe even more weeding? (And why don’t they eat weeds, by they way? They’re green. They’re available to be eaten all over my yard. But nooooooo.)
The girls have been living outside full-time for about a week now and there have been more than a few casualties in the just-planted department. Those cute volunteer pumpkins from last Halloween? Gone. The whole crop of dill put in for the black swallowtails? Nada. Last Thursday, Pamela and I spent an hour poking sunflower seeds into the edges of the spiral.* Before I realized, the plants had put up their first leaves and, zap, some Bird or Other Creature, had at them already. And the thing that always kills you with wild animals is: They don’t even eat it! They yank it up, toss it aside or take a nibble and leave the rest. Do they care that you might have actually wanted that seedling to grow into a giant happiness-giving sunflower?!!!!! ** Apparently not.
Spot the hidden plant killers.
I am preparing to cover the baby sunflowers with leftover plastic poultry netting right now. That is, if I can elbow my way in between the ducks, the rabbits and now, heaven help me, the robins. Had no idea all these animals loved sprouts. It’s like living in Venice Beach all over again. *Sigh*
Who, us?
Honeysuckle victim.
Poor baby sunflower!
A couple of acres of repurposed poultry netting should do the trick. Or not.
*It’s supposed to be a Sunflower Maze, like a corn maze but without the corn. And maybe now without the sunflowers!
**When I first posted the maze photo, people were like “what the duck is that thing?” Unfortunately, it is not an alien landing site (good guess, though!) or a nod to pre-civilized didactic tribal thingamabobbery (another guess, not so good.) It’s just a place for Pamela and her friends to play. They figured it out right away….
Copyright 2012, Lori Fontanes
What the Ducks! 