Gardening With Animals

[TEG Project Manager]

Let’s talk about something many gardeners deal with (and sometimes laugh or cry about): gardening with animals! Whether it’s your curious cat lounging in the flowerbed, chickens scratching up your mulch, or wild visitors like rabbits and squirrels helping themselves to your veggies, animals have a way of turning your garden into their playground.

Have you ever planted something special, only to find paw prints or nibble marks the next day? It happens to the best of us. Gardening with animals is a bit like sharing a kitchen with toddlers - they mean well, but sometimes chaos follows wherever they go.

Some folks actually invite animals into their gardens. Chickens, for example, are wonderful little pest control helpers. They’ll gobble up beetles and grubs faster than you can say “organic gardening.” Ducks are another favorite - they’re gentle on plants and love snails and slugs. Even bees, butterflies, and frogs play their part in keeping your garden healthy and full of life.

Of course, not all animal guests are helpful. Deer, rabbits, and moles can test your patience. So can neighborhood pets who think your freshly turned soil is their personal playground. The trick is finding a balance - protecting your plants while still making room for the wildlife that brings your garden to life.

Maybe you’ve used clever fencing, motion-sensor sprinklers, or natural repellents to keep critters out. Or maybe you’ve learned to work with them instead of against them, designing spaces where animals and plants can coexist peacefully.

So, how about you?

Do you garden with animals - whether they’re pets, farm animals, or friendly wildlife? What’s been your biggest challenge or funniest animal encounter in the garden?

Let’s swap stories, laugh about the chaos, and share a few tricks for making our gardens thrive — even with furry, feathered, or curious company wandering through.

 

[digitS']

For years, and in locations where I did not have livestock, I have appreciated coyotes. Here is one in my garden:



I have felt that coyotes have played an important role in keeping down the rodent population in the rural areas where I have had gardens. Evidence of their visits to the gardens was usually just footprints. However, I credited them with scaring marmots off a large rock pile that had old lumber for them to hide under. Often, I wasn't aware of voles in the tomato patch (seemingly a favorite burrow site) until they were dug up by a coyote. Only one time did the coyotes cause any real damage and that was to a pea trellis. Four posts had been pulled out of the ground after what must have been quite a chase that included crashing into the twine running between the posts. Further evidence was a short distance away where I found a dead cottontail rabbit. Why it hadn't been eaten or carried off, I don't know. Rabbits were always a problem

Dealing with ground squirrels and marmots was fairly successful without the coyote's involvement, at times. Simply driving large rocks into the entrances of their burrows has worked well.

I like song sparrows in the garden. They take up residence nearby, obviously having a nest. They are ground feeders and eat the bugs. I understand that they will feed on seeds and berries but I really haven't grown strawberries and I think that most of their diet while they have nestlings is based on insects.

Steve