Some thoughts on Groundhog Day

You say groundhogs, I say woodchucks. Either way, February 2 is their special day.

Groundhogs , also have it away as woodchucks , are wide - eyed furred creatures who can scarf down tender lettuces and beets faster than you’re able to blunder out ( or spell ) “ Punxsutawney ” ? When they are fine nibble grass on the lawn OUTSIDE the garden , they bring a unagitated , nature - in - balance feeling to the vista . But when they break through , or burrow under , your fences , it ’s a garden emergency , for sure .

Once , while walk my dog past my garden , I note that the edges of my ‘ Bright Lights ’ spinach beet were looking a bad ragged . Alarmed , I check the fence perimeter , and sure enough , it had been break by a little tunnel . I did n’t have a spate of meter and want to make the repair as fast as possible , so I took a scrap of fencing , trenched near the opening , and splice it in . after that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , I assure , and the chard was take care worse than before . Uh - oh . I opened the gate , and for sure enough , I had wall the critter IN . There it was , looking pathetically up at me . Just for a minute , I eye a nearby shovelful , but mercifulness persist . I level to the open gate and tell it sternly to allow , which it did .

The Marmota monax ( Marmota monax ) is a burrowing , herbivorous rodent with a wide geographical range . Groundhogs are common in the easterly U.S. , where they typically makes their home in fields adjoining woodland . In fall , they fatten up , then withdraw to their burrows to hole up during the cold month .

An early spring?Exactly how groundhogs got their reputation as atmospheric condition forecasters is indecipherable . Legend has it that on February 2 , if a woodchuck aroused from hibernation see its tincture , there will be six more weeks of wintertime . If not , springiness will come in early on . Last twelvemonth , snowdrift nearly covered my 5 - foot . garden fence for several weeks , and this year , wintertime has just begin . We had a devastating blizzard Halloween weekend , but hardly any snow since then , and it ’s still potential to dig in the garden without much effort . So good luck to the groundhogs class all this out .

The best - known woodchuck prognosticator isPunxsutawney Phil , from a town about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , but there are several others , includingWiarton Willie(Wiarton is about 110 miles northwest of Toronto ) andGeneral Beauregard Leefrom Lilburn , Georgia . If you ’ve had it with the Weather Channel , stop out any of these sites for this year ’s forecast , and plan your horticulture natural action consequently .

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