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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

As many gardeners know, the better the soil one creates, the more  
attractive to certain pests. In my case, moles and armadillos. To  
thwart the moles I am conducting an experiment--putting all of my  
urine onto the sod area at the top of the nearly perfect kitchen  
garden directly out from the kitchen window. The results of that  
experiment are as yet unknown but appear promising.

Next up are the armadillos. Thanks to Texans who protected them--grr-- 
and Midwest warming, they have overpopulated their southern habitat  
and have moved north. When I came here thirty years ago no one had  
ever seen one in the county. They are now one of the common roadkills,  
joining turtles, coons, possums, skunks and squirrels. Insufficient  
numbers are killed by cars and they have overrun woods, pastures,  
lawns and gardens.

When Dax was alive he and Benny would run them down and Dax would one- 
crunch them--over forty-five in a two-month period. Benny is now  
twelve and spends most of every night resting for the hard day  
following, which consists mostly of resting in a cool place. Yes, I  
need a couple of pups.

After replanting the devastated kitchen garden several times I bought  
two-foot fence and a bunch of three-foot metal posts and installed the  
fence on all parts other than the raised stone wall in the front. They  
pushed under the fence. I replanted and installed pins of scrap wood  
and nails, driving the bottom of the fence into the ground. They found  
a weak place. I replanted. I then spent the better part of a day  
loading, hauling and placing rocks--too heavy for them to move with  
their hoglike thick neck muscles--at the outside bottom of the fence.

Three mornings now without having to replant the garden. Unless they  
learn how to climb or fly I think it is good. Now I have only to  
occasionally straighten up the grass clippings that serve as a mulch  
to keep weeds down out from the rocks; they still make their nightly  
rounds and hope springs eternal.

Thinking I have now created a garden fortress, I stepped out yesterday  
afternoon to see a rabbit leap down from the wall and run away. He had  
spotted the waning lettuce and couldn't resist. Sigh.

I'm thinking maybe a welded-wire roofed cage with quarter-inch  
hardware cloth affixed on the interior and with two-foot deep concrete  
footings and a padlocked entry gate.