Garden Visitor

I bought some asparagus, artichoke, and bare root strawberry plants the other day and placed them in a recycled molasses tub in the little garden until I could get them in the ground.  I was unprepared for planting the asparagus since there is a little more to planting asparagus than simply sticking them into the ground.  A 3-4' wide trench has to be dug,  mounds of enriched soil are made in the middle of the trench for the asparagus roots to dangle down, fertilize and then cover the plants.  Since I've been on the "project," i.e., cutting and chopping agarita from under, inside and outside of the fence, I did not get the trench dug until Sunday afternoon. 

Meanwhile, I found a mess when I walked out to the little garden Friday -- asparagus and artichoke plants were in the middle of the little garden, the plastic bag was in pieces, strawberry plants up ended, a few holes appeared in freshly raked garden rows, a couple of bags of potting soil had holes, and other items were either torn up and/or scattered about.   It was time to put the wildlife camera out to catch the marauding critter.

Here is what the camera caught:

Aha! Maggie is visiting the little garden in search of an intruder, be it warm blooded or insect.  Whether or not she created the other mess is not known, but she becomes a critter of interest.

The camera is positioned too high to catch what she is doing; but to venture a guess, she is digging.

She heard something outside the little garden.  Time to slip out before caught by alpha female.

According to the time stamp, she is back again two-and-a-half hours later.

Something called her attention to make a nighttime visit the little garden.  

I found the entry into the garden partly opened and  must not have fully latched. I'm using a piece of fence to close it and apparently did not hook all the way down, which is not uncommon since it is a pain to unhook.  The real test will come now that I am sure the entry is securely closed.  Will it be Maggie and/or another marauding critter?    The camera will be loaded with the disk and operational this evening.  The camera tells all.   Stay tuned.

Until next time, God bless.