Friends Netta and Brian moved to our village of Rensselaerville this past May. Shortly after moving, Netta planted a large pot of geraniums and set it on the steps of the entrance to the house.
The pot was riotous with blooms just before friends from Philly were due to arrive for a short visit. But when Netta glanced out a window to admire her flowers, she discovered that the geraniums had been stripped of blooms. Instead, stretched out on the step, was a fat, rather smug looking groundhog.
I offered her a recipe for a spray deterrent that I use to keep the deer from eating my daylilies. So Netta sprayed her plants and once again, geraniums bloomed happily.
And just before another set of guests arrived… Well, let’s just say the groundhog enjoyed lunch that day.
Our creative work is like those geraniums. We work and nurture our creative projects, admiring how well they are doing, how beautiful they are and then, suddenly…
Chomp!
Some fat, smug groundhog comes along and makes a meal out of your work.
“What is that supposed to be? The sky is blue, you dope. How long has it been since you looked outside?”
“Hey, can you stop that? You’ve been playing that same piece over and over and it isn’t sounding any better.”
“What are you writing now? Why bother? You know it will never be published.”
And the fat, smug groundhog waddles off, trailing bits of blossoms in its wake.
I grew up in and still live in the country. Groundhogs are part of life in the country. Sometimes they are fun to watch, but most of the time… They’re really frustratin’ varmints.
So what are your options?
- Shoot ’em or poison ’em. Probably not your first choice, especially if your groundhog walks on two legs.
- Shrug and let ’em have at it. Well, I suppose that works if you are like those sand-painting monks who, after hours of meticulous work creating beauty, destroy it. For them, it is a meditation and lesson on impermanence. But that probably isn’t your aim after hours of work or practice. That’s more a lesson in frustration. So no…
- Use a deterrent. If you live in the country with deer, groundhogs and other varmints, you know the necessity of a good deterrent. Deter means to “discourage (someone) from doing something, typically by instilling doubt or fear of the consequences.” Or to prevent one from doing something. One good deterrent is a fence—or a closed door. But often, you can use a homemade blend of ingredients like eggs, dish soap and cayenne pepper in water to keep the varmints from your beauteous blooms. The thing is you need to remember to use it and keep using it. Netta neglected to reapply the deterrent after her first success with it and the groundhog dined on fresh geranium blossoms (a groundhog delicacy). No, one application, one closed door, one polite request usually won’t discourage those groundhogs from decimating your creative blooms.
Sigh! Groundhogs are a menace to the things we create and grow. Many don’t mean to be. It’s just in their nature.
So you need to be assertive and aggressive with your deterrents.
Because even if you love your groundhogs, think that they are cute, funny, adorable…
That doesn’t give them the right to eat your flowers.
2 Responses
I love all your posts, but this one was especially wonderful. Those of us who’ve seen “Groundhog Day” about Punxsatawney Phil who provides weather forecasts already have the image of an over-fed, big-toothed smarty pants who thinks it knows more than humans. Your description of “fat” and “smug” painted this so well that it was easy to see it waddle in, create chaos, confusion and self-doubt, and waddle back out, feeling satisfied that there are human bodies in its wake. Too bad we can’t use a spray to deter humans from their snarky, defeating comments (boy, could I have used that during my corporate years). So one barrier against verbal assaults would be to build our own walls of defense without becoming defensive.
Also, if you have a deterrent against deer eating flowers and roses (they decimate my mother’s garden), I’d love to know as nothing, including that icky bone concoction, has worked. Thanks as always for your excellent posts!
Mary Jo, it’s that waddling smugness that gets you every time, isn’t it. Maybe nauseating perfume spray would do, or burning incense. 😉 Thank you for reading and responding.