The Velociraptor and Hitler’s mistress

The velociraptor “shows extraordinary intelligence, even problem-solving. That one... when she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out.”  (From Jurassic Park 1)  Meaning “speedy thief”, velociraptor is my nickname for my granddaughter.  She watches you, working things out.  How are doors opened?  How do I get through every barrier they put up to keep me out of things?  How do I climb like a cat?  A lot of my garden defense strategy is not to keep bugs or animals out, but my granddaughter.

At the Ag Fair in Salem - not intimidated by anything bigger then her

 

She loves to run through piles of dirt, climb into freshly planted raised beds, “pick” the plants I have just planted – after all, she did watch us harvest stuff last year.  Given free range of the garden, a two-year-old can cause a lot of havoc.  So can an evil cat.

I don’t know why my daughter and son-in-law named the stray they befriended last summer after Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun.  Eva is not a nice cat – well, she wasn’t at first.  She hissed at everyone, hates the other cats, will never be fully tamed.  But she was grateful for a winter indoors, where she slept and ate a lot, even mellowing out some.  And then spring came, and she was outdoors all day.  Using the onion bed as her personal digging space.  So I covered that up. 

 My "Onionsaurus"

 

Then she switched over to the cucumber bed.  And I covered that up.  

I have been following that cat around the garden shooing her out of raised beds and creating coverings so she won’t dig in them.   

She has sat in the parsley I raised from seeds and destroyed them.   

She has attacked my catnip (along with a few other cats in the neighborhood) and I have had to protect that from her, since that is a cash crop for me.

I knew the catnip would be an issue this year, so was proactive in protecting it

 

At least this year the catnip has had a chance

Cold weather, rain, bugs; these are not the only dangers to your garden.  As you plan your garden, you have to take into account your pets, the strays that wander through your yard, your children; all those plants have to be protected against these threats.  Which is another reason why row cover rocks!

Still, I would rather face these threats, then 15-20 deer that can come in at night and wipe out a garden.