The Unexpected Useful Garden Tool

Have you ever been out in your garden and just knew that something was off? There might be little clues like a missing blossom or a disturbance in the soil or leaves. Sometimes there are bigger clues like little footprints or the most obvious clue is having one of your precious fruit or veggies chewed on or pecked at. When these things happen I get curious as to what happened. What is going on in the garden when I am not looking or sleeping. That is when the theories start flying around our household. Our son is never short on ideas or theories. One of the first things he will always say is that we need to put a watch camera out in the garden or yard.

Well, a few weeks ago the little clues started.  I thought I saw little footprints in the dirt at the garden gate. I brushed off that I saw footprints because we have a lot of wild birds and the soil in that area is constantly being distrubed. I thought I must have been imagining things.

I like to water first thing in the morning before it gets hot and I had recently started new rows of winter squash. The butternut squash was at the stage of beginning to bloom and while watering I was staring at the blossoms and noticed that little squash were beginning to form. It looked like there was going to be a lot of them and I was pretty excited about that. The next morning one of the little squash was gone. Only the stem and blossom was left. The entire middle between the blossom and stem was missing. What the heck happened? At first I figured that it was a bird or something else. I went to the gate area where I thought I saw footprints the day before and there they were. The soil was not smooth but it sure looked like something was walking around in the garden area.

Let me tell you a little about our new garden area so you visualize what is going on. Earlier this year we converted our old horse round pen into a new vegetable garden. We moved the horse panels and changed it from round to square, attached chicken wire to all the panels and buried the chicken wire down several inches. We have lots of wild rabbits and we wanted to keep them out and from digging in. The new area is not covered so something could easily climb or fly in.

After finding the evidence of a missing squash I checked the perimeter and nothing had dug in or attempted to dig in. The squash was fine the morning before and I did not notice anything in the garden throughout the previous day. My conclusion was that it was something that climbed in at night. But what was it?

I smoothed out the dirt next to the gate where I kept thinking I saw footprints and the next morning there was a clear path with the prints. Also, another squash was missing. Just the squash, the blossom was left lying next to the stem.

Well, that started all of our theories. It is a rat. It is a possum. It is a raccoon (my mom and dad were currently dealing with a raccoon in their yard. Their pest problem was a lot worse than a missing squash!) It is a skunk and of course our son chimed in with his usual, “We need a watch cam!”

This time I thought he was right. I wanted to know what the heck we were dealing with because by that time we had a lot of ideas.

So I grabbed my Chromebook and went to Amazon to find out how much a trail camera would cost. I figured they would be too costly for us to give it a try but I was wrong. The one I purchased was a lightning deal, making it affordable and worth a try. It also had night vision. I don’t know if all trail cameras have night vision but I wanted to make sure this one did because I felt strongly our veggie thief was nocturnal. Next, I purchased a SD card for the camera and I was ready to find out who the squash thief was going to be. Thankfully I ordered everything from Amazon because all our supplies arrived the next day.

Once the camera and SD card arrived, Rick got the camera ready by getting the settings updated, adding the batteries and SD card. We were ready.

The first night we followed the directions that the camera should be about 36” off the ground. We attached it to the horse panel facing the direction of the path to where the critter would pass in front of the camera.

We were so excited the next morning to see if we caught the culprit on camera. We did not. The footprints were there so we missed it.

After some thought we figured the camera was too high. The directions were for something bigger, like a deer, we have something way smaller in the garden.

So, the second night we kept the camera in the same location but more like 18” off the ground. We did not have luck that night either.

Third time’s a charm as the saying goes because the third night we did catch the culprit on camera! This time Rick attached the camera to a 5 gallon bucket and placed the bucket at the end of the path so the animal would be walking towards the camera. We also placed a few bricks in the bucket to help prevent it from tipping over.

Guess who we caught! A rat!

Well, now we know what we are dealing with and no more wild tales or thoughts of what it might be.

Earlier this year we had something eat our apricots, now that we have a trail camera we will be setting it up to find out what is going on if that happens again. Since the camera really helped us out on what we were dealing with in the garden, I would say that having a trail camera is a very unexpected but very useful garden tool. I really like Rick’s idea of having the camera on the 5 gallon bucket because it is the perfect height for the animals we will most likely be dealing with and also because it makes the camera extremely mobile and easily placed pretty much anywhere in the yard. Don’t forget to add a couple of bricks or rocks to the bucket to help prevent the bucket from being tipped.

I highly recommend getting a trail camera to have on hand to help solve those mysteries in the garden. My parents have even purchased one and it has helped them identify some unexpected night-time visitors as well.

I hope this product review has given you some ideas to help you in your garden!

Everything You Need For Your Trail Camera:

• WOSPORTS G100 Mini Trail Camera with night vision (paid link)

• SD Card (paid link)

• 4 AA Batteries

Joy Simper has a full time job as a home schooling stay at home mom. She is the one that holds the house and yard together and keeps the kids in line. She enjoys gardening, including seed starting and propagating plants.