Harvesting volunteer ground cherry

Nice, the volunteer in among the zinnias in the SE central bed is producing a nice surprise harvest after I had to tear out all the other plants because they were feeding the rat(s).  No rodents have found this ground cherry plant yet, as evidenced by the undisturbed fruit on the ground.  Yay!

Also I haven't seen any rats in several weeks now.  I think removing their food source (the row of ground cherry plants, plus adding a seed-catcher tray to the birdfeeder), removing their compost bin hideout, plus clearing out junk around the kitchen step did the trick. 

More rat sightings despite removing food and compost bin

Saw the rat a few times, but s/he ran out of the yard when I went out.

Then today noticed a hole dug once again under the kitchen step.

Removed all ground cherries :-((((((((((( (due to rat)

Oh so sad.  Oh my.  There would have been hundreds, even likely thousands of ground cherries to harvest.  But the plants are simply feeding the rat(s) so I just can't keep them.

So now, there is nothing in the yard that interests the rats, save maybe a few tomatoes if they get to them before I do.

Compost bin gone.

Kitchen step blocked off.

Bird feeders anti-drop tray.

So with any luck, the rats will soon move along to some other more hospitable place.

Removed all but one sunflower plant

A sad task.... they were still blooming and stuff.  But I really need to minimize all rat food sources.

Kept the one in the NW corner as I've never seen rats up there and it's so cheerful.

Farewell, compost bin

"Garden Gourmet".  Gave it away, it left today.

No more "odours"s for the neighbourhood.  And no more shelter for rats.

Some day when I get my country place, I will for sure have another compost bin.  Or two.  Or three.

Removed cucumbers (diseased) and several more zucchinis (unproductive / clutter re: rat)

The cucumbers had a great run, huge harvest so I can't complain that the vines have been dying in the past few weeks, looks like some kind of disease (maybe what they had last year?  haven't compared photos).  So I removed them completely today, along with a final harvest of cucumbers.

Removed all 3 of the remaining zucchini plants in the north bed.  None of them had ever produced anything nor looked like they would do anything, plus today I noticed a tunnel where a rat dug near the compost bin, so I did a big clean-up / decluttering of that area.  Maybe SVB sign in one, but not the others though  I didn't look all that closely.

Tray suspended under sunflower seed feeder working on goldfinches' sloppy eating

The goldfinches are so darn messy.  Even though the sunflower seeds are shelled, they seem to be interested in only one bite from each and they toss their rejected portions onto the ground.  So, I now have a clear plastic pot tray thing (nice and big, a few dollars at Ritchie's) hanging under the sunflower seed feeder.  So far so good, it really seems to be catching pretty much everything, and the sparrows come along and happily eat the stuff that falls onto the tray.

Sightings of the rat(s) are much fewer now that the sunflower heads from the mammoths are gone.  The presence of the ground cherries is I'm hoping the only thing keeping them here, plus the shelter they've taken under the kitchen step and in the compost bin.

Finally enough ground cherries for a pie (slow due to rat) -- aphid damage minimal

The aphid thing is gross, but not horrible, minimal impact to the harvest.

The larger impact is the rat who, out of all the things in the garden, seems interested only in ground cherries and sunflower seeds (rather from bird feeder or from sunflower plants themselves).  Oh and s/he also took a bite here and there from a couple of tomatoes that I didn't pick soon enough.

Removed all mammoth sunflower heads :-( (to deter rats)

Alas, so sad.  The mammoth sunflower heads just can't stay -- the rats are a big fan even long before the seeds are anywhere near ripe.  So, removed all the remaining ones today.  

So far I've kept the non-mammoth sunflower heads, will see if the rats make their way onto those ones too or if their stems are too fragile or whatnot.

The goldfinches have the sunflowers at the feeder, plus the remaining non-mammoth heads (for now at least).

Beets ALL harvested -- not the best harvest

Due to finding a tunnel at the step from our furry visitor, harvested all the remaining beets.  Tossed the leaves because I just won't have time to do anything with them given the dog broken leg situation.  The beets themselves were definitely on the small side.  Not the best beet harvest, but then, I'm not the best beet fan either, so it's not really a bad thing.

Bird feeder moved, and harvested/trimmed a bunch of things, due to rat

Moved feeder from west wall to central bed.  Removed climbable plants/sticks near it. Cleaned up etc. too.  

Rat sighting #2

Around 5pm, at the fence line again.

Not seeing any signs of damage in the yard...

Fence line cleaned up in yard, and millet placed up on hanging tray

Hopefully these actions will help dissuade the rat from coming back.  The song sparrows discovered the hanging tray millet, so I won't place food on the table anymore.

Cardinal pair at same time as song sparrows! Arguments! -- and a rat! chipmunk too!

At lunch time (it's a work day) I noticed a female cardinal at the green feeder!  At the same time as 3 song sparrows were eating!  Then a male cardinal came by and ate from the table (from the mixed-seed plate)!  The male then hopped to the ground and foraged there for a while.

Some minor arguments as the song sparrows tried to shoo the cardinals away, but I think they worked it out fairly amicably.

But wow, so cool, 5 birds of 2 species at the same time!

A few minutes later, I had my first sighting of the neighbourhood rat.  Very cute!  But I feel like not something I should encourage.  So, placed my dog's fur at the fence and at a spot of the bed s/he was trying to dig, no idea if that will work.

Also, yesterday started seeing the chipmunk, and earlier today too.  (Actually saw 2 chipmunks at once yesterday)

It's a zoo around here...!