Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Dealing with Ravenous Critters and PestsPart #5, 2 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Hwy! Doesn't anyone else have to deal with "ravenous Critters"?

Here's the latest from my neck of the woods....

My neighbor, Olga, is in Spain for 3 months. She won,t be back until September.

In the meantime--I am tending her sparsely planted beds, most of which I take
care of anyway....
Before she left for Spain, she planted a pile of Gladiolus in two different beds.
One is semi-elevated as it starts level and then climbs higher--as it is on an incline.
The other is in a definitely raised bed. No critters seem to bother this one.

The Glads are all in bloom now (she will never see these in bloom), and some critter,
is simply chewing the stems in half so that all the bloom stems are broken and down on the ground.
They are NOT eaten--just chewed off. Some of the leaf tips on the plant are chewed
and ragged looking--and maybe eaten.

I don't think it is the adolescent rabbit that we all have seen. It would never reach the middle
of a Gladiolus's stem to chew it in half. Me thinks it must be a Groundhog?????
I have not seen one yet--but they do exist--perhaps in my neighbors' gardens?
WHO else would do this?????

Thanks for any and all your thoughts. Gita

Here's the scenario.....and the way the bed is situated...level to the right--a bit raise to the left.