Do you remember the wide-eyed innocence of waking up early Saturday morning, peering out of your window at the misty, frost-dusted backyard, and seeing a deer nudging through your mom’s flowers? Wildlife is beautiful to behold, but somewhere between middle school and adulthood reality sets in. Just like any other creature, deer, rabbits, and rodents need vegetation to survive. And more and more often, these wild animals nibble their morning meals in your carefully cultivated fall flowerbeds.

Animals in the Garden
What sends rats and rabbits scurrying to your flowerbeds for sustenance? A common culprit is construction. Construction creates noise pollution, generates waste, and destroys the natural habitats of forest-dwelling critters. Cut off from their traditional food sources, deer, rabbits, and other small mammals will root through your Vinings gardens for tasty vegetables and edible flowers like pansies. Visiting animals can cause damage to petals, leaves, roots, and tree bark, among other elements of your landscape. Common garden pests include rabbits, raccoons, mice, moles, deer, squirrels, and possums.

Preventative Measures
Wild animals are difficult to deter, but with enough foresight you can keep your blooms from becoming lunch. Keep all household waste in sealed bags to prevent raccoons from rifling through your garbage, and place bird-feeders out of reach of ground animals. Install fences to discourage critters from rooting through your yard; wood or stone fences can accentuate the beauty of your garden design. Incorporate pest-repelling plants into next year’s flowerbeds to limit your animal infestations in the future.

When it comes to your autumn gardens, flora and fauna just won’t coexist. For landscape repair, fence installations, and information on other ways to protect your flowerbeds from wildlife, call Bloom’n Gardens Landscapes.