I like squirrels. They’re cute and fun to watch as they scamper all over the yard. They annoyed me a little bit when they followed me around the yard as I planted beans, digging up the seeds as soon as I had turned my back. When they chewed open several plastic Easter eggs and a toy baseball it was just a minor inconvenience. But eating my radishes out from under me was more than I could take.

A week or so ago I pulled a handful of radishes from the garden right before watering. I rinsed them off and set them on the ground while I watered. I walked across the yard, watered a 10 foot section of pole beans and walked back. In that short time a squirrel had taken a big bite of my lunch. I think the word disgruntled might describe how I felt.

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After lunch I started looking into squirrel control. Here’s the rundown if you want to remove squirrels from your property (either killing or live trapping).

Minnesota DNR Rules Concerning Nuisance Animals

The Minnesota DNR’s website on taking nuisance animals says you can take mink, squirrels, rabbit, hare, raccoon, lynx, bobcat, fox, muskrat, opossum,  beaver and unprotected birds including the English sparrow, starling, and common pigeon if they are causing damage.

If you do take (kill) or trap one of those animals, you need to notify a Conservation Officer within 24 hours. If you are relocating the animal you will need to take them at least 15 miles away to drop them off, or they could come right back.

If you’re in Fridley or elsewhere in Anoka county, your Conservation Officer is Lisa Kruse at 651-430-1189. For Conservation Officers elsewhere in Minnesota please see the DNR phone directory.

The last caveat is that you need to also obey local rules and regulations.

Fridley Ordinances Concerning Trapping Squirrels

For all things animal control related, we’ll now turn to the Fridley City Code, section 101, Animal Control, subsection .02, Wild Animals and Birds. Squirrels are rodents, so this section applies “Nothing in this section, however, shall prevent property owners or their agents from eradicating rodents on their property through the use of traps, poisons or other such lawful means…”.

So if it’s squirrels you’re after, go for it. Just don’t forget to call the DNR afterwards, obey animal cruelty laws as well as gun laws.

Fridley Ordinances Concerning Rabbits and Other Anti-Garden Forces

If you wish to trap a non-rodent nuisance animal (such as rabbits), get ready for some leg work. Fridley requires a permit to take nuisance animals, but no one I spoke to could remember having issued such a permit. The permit requires a letter of indemnification to the city, a site plan, a list of how many animals will be removed and of what kind, how you will dispose of them, ID of the persons taking the animals, method to “secure the property from public intrusion”…

The long list of requirements started to make sense when a police officer I talked to explained that it had been illegal to trap/kill any animals in Fridley until a few years ago when there were too many deer causing problems near the dam. Deer sized traps would possibly be dangerous to people, and people trying to approach a trapped dear really could get seriously hurt.

After talking to the help desk , the department of public works, the department of community development, the help desk and the planning department someone named Julie knew what was going on. (Despite getting passed around, everyone was very friendly. It just took a bit to find who I needed to talk to.) She said that the position that had been in charge of that was gone, and she though that the police were now handling it. Since she wasn’t sure, she took my number and said she or they would be in touch. 20 minutes later I was talking to Police Captain Robert Rewitzer who confirmed that he was the man to talk to.

He explained what I would need to do to get the permit, and that it would go through him. He was also the one who explained that the code was put in place with deer management in mind. Captain Rewitzer said that trapping squirrels is OK but that if a rabbit got caught no one would probably mind, as long as that was not the primary intention.

Between his description of the permit process and his suggestion that no one would mind it sounded like he was implying that if someone had rabbit problems they should just take take care of them without a permit. Of course he wouldn’t actually suggest technically breaking the law, and if someone reported you I’m sure he would have a duty to charge them with a misdemeanor per city code section 101.20.

Action Time?

So, how much of a nuisance and how much damage justifies trapping and killing squirrels or rabbits? Does it matter that I’m raising food for my family, and not just flowers for enjoyment? I did put up a rabbit fence around the main garden, but that doesn’t keep out the squirrels. I’m pretty sure that they’re the main reason my green beans didn’t come up. I saw them back in that corner consistently after I planted. Now though, there aren’t any more seeds for them to dig up in the garden,  but they do continue to make divots in the lawn.

Would you kill a squirrel or rabbit eating your garden?

One of the grape plants (the Valiant) has a couple of bunches of tiny little grapes. They’re about the size of the head of a round headed pin. I wasn’t expecting to get any grapes this year, so if we do, it’ll be a fun surprise.

The neighbor’s rose bush has been slowly creeping through the fence. We have a few shoots that actually come from the dirt on our side , and several shoots that poke on over from his yard. I have been cutting them as they start to open, and they smell TERRIFIC in the house.

I’m not really a flower guy. I’m not anti-flowers, it’s just that if I’m going to care for a plant,  I want to eat it. Having the few flowers around that can fend for themselves is nice though. We’ve got the lilacs and the roses, and a Gerber Daisy in the front yard.  I don’t water them, don’t weed them, and have only pruned the lilacs once, and they somehow manage to thrive. I wish my tomatoes were more like them!

Despite my excitement about gardening, it turns out I’m still a novice. In fact, I killed off most of the rest of our seedling tomato plants. I had been growing them in the basement under lights, and brought them outside to harden off. Unfortunately I left the lid over the plants while I was at worked, and I ended up with a pile of steamed dead tomato plants.

I’m probably going to have to go buy some pre-grown plants at this point and transplant them.

Dead Blueberry Bush

One of our blueberry bushes didn’t take root. The leaves are almost completely dried up, and it’s not looking too good. All the other blueberries are doing great. I’m not sure what’s up with the one plant. It’s right in the middle of the line, and all that soil had been well mixed before planting.

Strawberry Planting

Our strawberries arrived yesterday! I had already weeded the strawberry patch last weekend so we were all set. A previous owner of our house had put in a two foot wide swath of ugly white landscaping rocks along either side of the driveway, and alongside the walkway to the house. We shoveled and picked those rocks out, and put in some good black dirt / composted manure mix, which I think the strawberries should appreciate.

We got 25 Cavendish, 25 Winona and 50 Annapolis, all from Nourse Farms.

One thing led to another yesterday, and we didn’t start planting in earnest till about 9:45. Our great neighbor lent us a halogen work light and an extension cord, so we just kept working. It took till at least 11:30 to get everything done and cleaned up. (ok, so it wasn’t quite midnight burials, but it sounded ominous.)

If you didn’t know (and I didn’t, till yesterday), strawberry plants can be planted from essentially just the root and a tiny (1 inch!) bit of stem. Thinking back, this makes sense now since strawberry instructions tell you to mow them down in the fall.

We spaced the plants about a foot apart going down the driveway, but then we staggered them between either side of the two foot strip. Hopefully that’s a good enough spacing for them. We might have ordered too many.

The strawberries are one of our most anticipated crops. Since we won’t have a fence up around them, I’m sure the bunnies are excited too.

My plants were very happy with the heat. Most of my bean plants popped right up, and my squash and pumpkins are looking good. The tomato plants, which live in the sunniest part of the garden, are kind of sissies and were looking a little bit floppy.  About 30 minutes after a good soaking they had popped right back up.

Here’s my garden helper, Calvin.

Calvin stood at the garden gate saying “Come in garden? Come in, Daddy?”.  So I let him in.

Last time I let him in he trampled some plants, so I asked if he wanted to help with the hose. He was very excited. We watered together for all of 4 seconds before he insisted on doing it all my himself. A moment after I stood up and stepped back, Calvin discovered how much kick a hose has.

One of his hands lost its grip, and the hose shot back spraying him right in the face! This made him stumble backwards and he tripped on the hose.  I managed to get him picked up and get the hose pointed away from him before he panicked too much.

Of course he still wanted to do it himself, but this time he held on tight and did a good job.

Our apple trees are pretty new. We planted them last fall, and they are probably about 5 feet tall now. We aren’t expecting to get any apples for the first 2-3 years (that’s what the Internet and books I have read say) but these couple of former flower blossoms which are thickening up are making me slightly hopeful that we will get some!

Ryan and I were looking at the radishes and planning on when to thin them, when I saw some round little heads poking above the soil. Sure enough, a few of the radishes were quicker than the others and were ready to eat! Ryan was VERY excited to get to eat something from the garden.

Ooh. Those look tasty! I don’t think the boys have ever had radishes. Ryan saw them sitting here and asked…

“Are those radishes cherries?”.  Calvin just wanted to eat whatever the rest of us were going to be eating. The radishes were pretty mild — a little less flavor than I like, but perfect for a 4 and 2 year old’s first taste of radish. Just a hint of heat after you had already chewed and swallowed.

Unfortunately neither of the boys liked them this time around. Of course, expecting cherries and getting radishes WOULD be disappointing.

You can see the drool line still connecting his chewed radish bite to his mouth.

Needless to say, I’m very happy that my garden has grown something. Here’s hoping for a bounteous summer and fall full of things the boys will like!