All gardeners have their crosses to bear, often in the form of the wild creatures with whom we share our acreage. We do what we can to eliminate or exclude them, or we learn how to live with them. Here are a few of the creatures with whom I’ve made some semblance of peace:
There is one pest who still raises my ire every time I see it, though. 
I introduce to you my nemesis, Mr. Wood Chuck. No one frustrates me as much as he!
Given the topography of our property, it is no surprise that I feel overrun by these creatures. Heck, if I were a woodchuck (or ground-hog, or whistle pig), I’d look at all of these boulders and think, “Wow, luxury apartments! And how kind of the landlord to plant stuff for us, too!”
In my nine years of gardening in this yard, I’ve had to learn what the woodchucks don’t eat. Here, then, based solely upon my personal experience, is my list of:
Woodchuck Resistant Plants
Annual Flowers: ageratum, alyssum, begonias(wax), cleome, dianthus, dusty miller, geraniums, globe amaranth (gomphrena), lantana, marigolds, nicotiana, portulaca, salvia, vinca
Bulbs: allium, daffodils, hyacinths, muscari (grape hyacinths)
Perennials: anemone, astilbe, basket of gold alyssum, bee balm (monarda), balloon flower, bleeding heart, butterfly bush (Buddleia), candytuft, coreopsis(only threadleaf varieties), clematis, dianthus, geum, foxglove, irises, Jupiter’s beard, lamb’s ears, roses, Russian sage, salvia (May Night), scabiosa (pincushion flower), sedum
Vegetables and Herbs: basil, chives, lavender, mint, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, jalapeño peppers, rhubarb, tomatoes
Now, for those of you who insist upon inviting the Chucks over for a dinner party, here is a list of:
Plants Woodchucks Have Devoured in My Garden
Annual Flowers: bachelor’s buttons, cosmos, impatiens, morning glories, pansies, petunias, phlox, stock, sunflowers, sweet potato vine, zinnias
Bulbs: crocuses, gladiolas (they don’t bother the bulbs, but eat the flowers!)
Perennials: coral bells (Heuchera), coreopsis (broadleaf varieties), echinacea (coneflower), hollyhocks, hosta, lupine, rudbeckia, yarrow
Vegetables: bell peppers, broccoli, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, melon, parsley, peas, pumpkins, spinach, yellow beans, zucchini
PLEASE NOTE! This list is based only on the experience I have had in my own home garden! There are NO guarantees with these wily pests. Woodchucks’ tastes vary, and sometimes, what they rejected last year becomes a favorite this year! For eight years the woodchucks left my hardy chrysanthemums alone. Then one morning I opened the drapes and found that one had been feasted on the night before. It seems to have been a one time feast, but one can never be certain!
Very happy that we do not have woodchucks to contend with where I live. I will keep your list in mind, however, should we ever be invaded.
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Thanks for the planting suggestions. My neighbor wood chuck loved my Black-eyed Susans..but hasn’t touched my peone, threadleaf coreopsis, cleome or stella doro day lily…yet..He also doesn’t seem to find onethera particularly tasty..or yarrow either..
my family of woodchucks ate all my salvia even though its on the list of resistant flowers….also all of my daisy plants including leaves but left the stems. and they loves petunias! Someone told me to plant mint between my flowers and they will avoid…I’m going to try it.
Our chuck ate all the parsley, the lower leaves of the dahlias, the Montauk daisies, and every green tomato he good get his paws on. This is WAR!
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Hi Kimberley,
While looking for plants woodchucks DON’T like (not many) I came across your post and I felt your pain. lol
We both live with many of the same critters … deer, groundhogs, bears, etc. Deer used to be my #1 nemesis, but old Chucky took the crown last summer. It used to be I could grow things in flowerpots up on my deck (deer wouldn’t go up the stairs) but stairs were not a problem for Chucky. Oh, my poor headless zinnias, petunias, etc. I have to come up with some other plan of action this coming summer. Anyway, happy gardening.
Jane
They don’t eat hybrid impatiens. They devoured my hibiscus (rose of Sharon). I agree that they seem to leave all day lilies , roses, hydrangea, dicentra, sedum, iris, basil, thyme, herbal sage, oregano, tarragon, sorrel, oenathera, portulaca, marigolds, peonies, perennial geranium, rhubarb and tomatoes. Someone said they ate their green tomatoes. I have planted tomatillos and the groundhog left stubs. But it leaves my regular tomatoes alone.
They have eaten just about everything around my house, including the green tomatoes.
Yes, woodchucks are the enemy! Knock on wood – they’ve left my cones, bee balm and daisies alone, so far. But they’ve eaten about 10 tomato plants & a pepper so far – that’s a first this year. Plus the zinnias and even the marigolds! I’ve given up trying to plant cukes, zukes, beans or lettuce. But I’ve got tons of mint, so I’m going to try transplanting some near my tomatoes today – maybe that will help!!
Every day they expand their palate! They ate virtually everything this year, even my coleus and vinca. Interestingly, although my light green and white hosta are decimated, they seem not to like the dark green leaved hosta – they may be tougher to chew! They particularly feasted on the liatris, rudbekia, and cone flowers. Good luck fighting this scourge. I guess from now on, I’m planting only dark green hosta.
THEY EAT YOUNG TOMATO PLANTS
Not sure what is eating my iris leaves, Stella Doro Daylilly leaves & Hosta leaves. We have vols, groundhog & deer. This winter I watched the sneaky deer at night eating my blue rug juniper ground cover & rhododendron leaves. I gave up on having a veggie garden.
We have one or many that came with our house. We even named him “Clabby”. He mows down all the plants and then thet pop back up a few days later more beautiful and tasty then the last time. Just when my black magic petunias are at there most glorious, he comes and devastates!!! The bright side is that the plants return, he is our tenant and it’s not going to change!! He sparks a lot of family conversations and even likes to watch us through the window, little voyeur he is!
I have found young deer will eat portulaca and other things the adults wont eat.
Thank you, so much for your advice. I was so hoping zinnias wouldn’t be on that list, lol. While I’m truly grateful for the little fellow’s help with the weeds, I sincerely wonder if I haven’t just wasted money on zinnia seeds. He really seems to have taken over our back yard. Cute little guy.
I plant zinnias in the vegetable garden, inside a fence. Good luck!
I enjoyed your post and ideas. Last year, I started the plan of NOT declaring them the enemy and put away my live-catch cage. Well, actually I left it out for a while so that they could be reminded of it (they never got caught in it anyway). I had a talk with them.
I told them that I understood that they needed to eat like all creatures and that they were welcome to graze on the grass – but NOT in the garden. I told them that I was marking the garden for them by setting up sticks with little bells on strings that tinkled if they crossed the path. (I can’t expect them to know what the boundaries are to my garden, can I?)
We got along fairly well, though they seemed unable to resist certain things – unfortunately things that I was trying very hard to cultivate – purple cone flowers and plain milkweed. (I am working on monarch butterfly habitat.) I would go out in my yard and tell them how disappointed I was in them for being disobedient…
We’re off to a rough start this year. I have raised more garden beds and put a little fencing on them – but they reach through the fences and grab what they want. They have even been braving the fox urine granules I’ve been sprinkling to deter them. Time for another talk – and more bells…
So far, they don’t seem interested in the other varieties of milkweed I have – for which I am grateful. They also have bypassed lavender and dill, while grabbing the vegetation right next to them. We shall see…
Yes, my young and ravenous woodchuck, we call them “marmot” in our neck of the woods, has been bypassing a thick border of lavenders to decimate all the sunflower and echinacea plants at the center. Keeping my fingers crossed that he isn’t just saving the lavender for dessert. He began eating the gladioli blooms yesterday and now that bed is festooned with an ugly display of ammonia soaked rags on sticks. No further damage has been done since yesterday but I am not betting on this working to keep him away. My groans of dismay and desperation are deep and can be heard every day in the garden when I encounter new destruction. Can’t wait to see what he does in the vegetable patch this year. Would anyone consider it overkill if I were to acquire a pet tiger?
They took the dill the next day (sigh).
Mary, you are kind to him. I have a baby one that I’ve tried to reason with but to no avail. I even took my broom (soft side) and literally swept him out of my garden. But he loves the petunias. I gave up and transplanted them to a box on my front porch. He doesn’t go there. I don’t think reasoning with them works. Woodchucks think nice people won’t hurt them and they are right. One thing that I’ve found works with cone flowers. Plant them in between rose bushes that have sharp thorns. One time, I saw a woodchuck go through the rose bush to get at the coneflowers; there was a big scuffle and the woodchuck ran outta there! Apparently, the thorns were too much for him. OUch!
I’ve had woodchucks eat: Bee Balm, Pulmonaria (Liverwort), Poppies (leaves) in addition to the usual.
Wish I’d seen this a month ago, but glad I found it now!! We have an extended family of groundhogs in our small village yards. Did you know they have up to 2 litters a year with 4-6 little ones each?!
I put up a 7ft deer fence with a 4ft rabbit/groundhog fence abutted to it and dug down and out a foot. While I had the ditch uncovered, I pulled all the sod and instead planted chives, marigolds and habanero peppers there. So far (this is the 2nd summer) they haven’t even tried to dig under the fence.
I tried hot pepper spray on my gazinnias. They thought it was spicy dressing on a tasty salad. Gone overnight!
Thank you for the list of resistant flowers. So far, I only have marigolds and want to add more. Now I know what to avoid, unless I want to donate $ to the local nursery.
I Wanted to “thin” my monarda couple of years ago, but our whistle pigs decided we didn’t need any, or a few other plants in our garden. Going to try to replant this summer. A local nursery told me I’d have to kill them but I don’t have the heart.
Oh my, they’ve never touched my Monarda! I don’t have what it takes to kill them either. Even if we did, there are SOOOOOO many of them!
If it was legal to shoot within town limits, I’d DO IT. They are out of control, as are the white-tailed deer, but suburban planners seem to protect them at our expense. They put in houses, and then don’t let us rid the yard of these beasts. THEY are protected. How I wish it was legal. It’s not, so I won’t do it. I’m not even allowed to trap them and “relocate” them. I bet he’d find is miserable way back here, even if I could stand to pick up the trap if I caught him in it. It would be heavy, and my imagination says he’d be running in circles inside trying to get out. I’m squeamish and fear he’d get out in transport………….and letting him out, even with tough gloves on skeeves me out! I HATE THEM. Last summer was the tipping point for me – one flower by one, he ate EVERYTHING except for the daylilies and Rose Campion and Bee Balm. He’s, apparently, been eating my tall phlox for a decade, and here I thought it “didn’t make it”. Some came up last year that he left until it bloomed and then ate it. I knew I had not planted any in that spot for 10 years, so now I know he was eating it when it was small. Already saw him doing that this year. 😦
Even though they are not supposed to like them, deer or woodchucks have eaten my monarda, jupiter’s beard, perennial salvia, rudebeckia, new foliage and blooms of roses, echinacea, tomato branches, a bit of rosemary and mint, and even a sampling of the bloom buds of siberian iris, shasta daisies, asters, and astilbe. They gobbled down a newly planted basil and dill plants. Even the candytuft doesn’t bloom well because (I suspect) the bloom buds are getting nibbled off.
It’s a constant fight over the daylily buds and hosta with motion activated sprinklers. And the parsley has been eaten to the ground repeatedly. It’s their absolute favorite.
We have a herd of about 5 deer, and at least 2 woodchucks.
In my gardens the only things they don’t touch are the columbine, balloonflower, nandina, spirea, daffodils, poppy, nandina, ferns, digitalis, heuchera, grape hyacinth, allium, chives, colchicums, impatiens, nicotiana, bleeding heart, brunnera, Russian sage, yarrow, mums, and helleborus, Only things that are quite toxic. Maybe I should plant some monkshood.
Wow, you have hungry critters! My columbine was eaten, and the deer will sample the heuchera, especially the more brightly colored ones. They must be sweeter! Woodchucks do eat my yarrow. Good luck to you!
I must revise the above. They have now learned to eat my heuchera, balloonflower, impatiens, yarrow, and mums.
P.S. coleus ans sweet potato vine also get eaten down to bare stems.
Yes, I’ve had that experience. Once in a great while, someone lumbers onto my porch and eats sweet potato vines out of the pots.
And, yes, they leave the peonies, german iris, rosemary, thyme, and threadleaf coreopsis untouched. And so far they seem to be leaving my geranium “Rozanne” alone. I have to block the top of the stairs to my back porch or they will go up there and eat my veggies which are in planters on the raised porch.
One year I tried to outsmart them and planted cucumbers in boxes up on the raised porch, and sure enough, they climbed the stairs and decimated the cukes!
We have our veggies in planters on the raised cement porch, too. Ater they climbed the porch and ate all the tomato branches that were poking through their cages, we decided to start blocking the top entrance to the porch with trash cans. That did the trick. We’ve succeeded in harvesting lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.
We have apparently attracted a groundhog to our yard by planting morning glory. It began eating the leaves off one solitary vine, then moved on to strip the lower leaves of the vines I had trained up to a deck, and now has apparently figured out how to climb the vine supports up to the deck and is eating all the leaves. Has not touched kale but has eaten ALL the leaves off the black turtle bean plants (not the beans) and also radicchio. Oh, and the asters. S/he likes asters. Aargh. Never had this situation before and don’t want this to be an every year hassle!
Yes, morning glories are a favorite of woodchucks! I grow mine in pots on a porch, and they are mostly safe. Once in a great while, one climbs up to the porch and samples things, but not often. This year is also the first year I’ve seen them eat my asters. If you think you have only one, maybe you can trap it and take it far, far away!
OKAY, gardeners, here’s a good laugh! I’ve had one new adult woodchuck each summer for the past 15 years, but last summer I had two, who had three, and some combo of the three had two more. The offspring filed back their teeth by positioning their cute furry bodies so they could gnaw on the ends of my vertical cedar siding. I tried mothballs, oriental mustard powder as a paste painted on the gnawed areas, and finally flag stone leaning up against the bottom of the cedar siding. So they simply moved to another areas of the siding — under my deck. One day I saw a few of these youngsters, and felt rage choking my throat. Suddenly I ran full tilt at them barking viciously, my face contorted, eyes flaming! They turned and looked at me, their brown eyes bulged to the whites of their eyes, and off they scampered up the hill path and disappeared. They did not appear again all summerI So bone up on your wild barking dog imitation, ladies! Recently an article reported that though woodchucks bravely invade our gardens, they are also shy, easily frightened. Sooooooo, at first sighting of them, bark, bark, bark!
I will definitely try ànything. I, like you have a family devouring just about everything so far but Iris. I want to cry. One day I was at my kitchen window constantly on watch and whenever they entered the yard I ran out clapping and thew stones at our metal shed. They did stay away for about 4 days after that, but they are back. Husband set up a rock speaker in the butterfly garden with rock music coming out of it. I told him they will probably just chew the wire. Your post gave me a chuckle.
I tried barking at squirrels at bird feeders, then found some very loud dog-barking videos on YouTube. More effective, just needed to aim my iPad out of balcony door and they ran fast and far.
Hahahaha!
One other idea. I’m brewing in a 5 gallon bucket a garlic brine made of water and 5-10 garlic bulbs, the bigger bulbs the better. Cover the bucket and let sit all winter in the garage (someplace it won’t freeze). Come spring, it stinks terribly. Wear rubber gloves and old clothes. Ladle the liquid all around the edge of your garden. And around favorite plants growing elsewhere on your property.You won’t smell the stink after a day or two, but rabbits, mice, and some bugs will be deterred. Keep the brew on hand (lid closed!) so you can repeat if necessary. I haven’t yet tried it to repel woodchucks, but I can’t wait to try it this spring!!! I wonder if we could just plant cloves of garlic among our favorite plants…
Do woodchucks or other critters eat turmeric? I’d like to plant some but not if the woodchuck in my yard is going to gobble it up.
I’m sorry I have no practical experience to answer that. My gut reaction would be no, since they leave a lot of herbs alone. Maybe someone who reads this will know better than I.
I don’t think there is anything our groundhogs won’t eat. I discovered they can not only dig UNDER they can climb UP. I had a garden area with a frame completely surrounded it with chicken wire on it. Beans were growing up inside and out the top. Found groundhog dug under surrounding fence, then climbed up this enclosure, sat on top and feasted on the bean leaves. Left the beans, no leaves. Someone said their plants come back after being eaten by ghogs. Not at my house. I have over an acre and can’t use any of it because of the groundhogs. I have to grow things on tables on my deck. Even then the little critters (mice or chipmunks) climb in and dig up the dirt. Last year I couldn’t even grow onions in the ground because some critter at the green tops and left the bulbs lying around.
“ate” the green tops. Someone else posted about the rose thorns bothering the groundhogs. I don’t think this is true (could it have been deer?). I shoot groundhogs with a BB gun and it barely fazes them. I don’t think they care about thorns – they live in among the thorny bushes here.
I want to cry. Used to have a big vegetable garden that was decimated by ground hogs so I planted some on my deck. Well they found their way up here and ate all of my kale and lettuce yesterday . Today they came back and ate my pansies and violets. Left my arugula alone. In my big veggie garden they did not bother my Sage, thyme, lavender, or Basil. I also grew cukes and eggplant last year which they did not bother with. Not so sure this year. This is so sad!!!! Now I can’t even plant flowers on my deck???
Yes, I thought I was safe one year planting things in containers on my upper deck. They climbed the steps and ate the cucumbers! As regards flowers, I’ve never had them eat cleome, marigolds, or vinca. Good luck to you!
So happy for this list as I have a resident groundhog. This morning my may night salvia had a few sprigs laying on the ground like someone took a clippers and cut it off. Something is tasting it. Would chipmunks do that. We have deer also
Thank you ! This was extremely helpful!! I am planning to plant some foxglove, roses, tomatoes, & cucumber. I know in the past groundhogs devoured my sunflowers…so i was concerned about foxglove …now im not 😁.
Just to add to your vegie list …they definitely eat tomatoes!!
Thanks!😊
Thank you for the list. We have a real woodchuck Hilton : a long retaining wall of huge rocks done when the hillside was excavated to build our house at the old cottage site. Being in the middle of forest, lake and cottages, no use of trying to get rid of the woodchucks, neighbouring ones are ready to move in any time. (The babies are so cute, too! I love to watch them.)
My only solution is to find what they don’t eat. This far my list includes: daffodils, iris, astilbe, spirea, abbotswood, daylilies (all kinds), geraniums, marigolds, peonies, yellow evening primrose, rustic rose bushes, yellow sedum, common bugleweed, lady’s mantle, wood anemone, aquilegia, dianthus, fringed bleeding heart, gooseneck loosestrife (invasive itself!), creeping moneywort, periwinkle, thyme (as ground cover), blue fescue grass.
I will be experimenting with heuchera and begonias that are on your list. Among the hostas, I have one dark blue-green giant plant that survives well. Other types are mostly eaten.
I absolutely hate the groundhog that lives in my yard. Besides eating all my flowers, 3 years ago he climbed up my newly-planted prize crabapple tree and chewed it in half. I duct-taped the halves together, and it did great for 3 years until a few weeks ago, when it climbed up it again (to reach a few berries) and decapitated it again. I’ve tried to trap it, but I suspect it’s been in a trap before and no bait has worked.
I have found a few things that it won’t eat. They are butterfly bush, hyssop, thread-leaf coreopsis, astilbe (so far–I’ve only had it a few weeks), allium, and Joe Pye-weed.
Yes, I’ve had good luck with all of those. Funny that they eat the broad leaf coreopsis, but not the thread leaf! Sorry about your crab apple tree!
They ate ALL of my portulaca and used the swimming pool too!! Possums like the pool. I kept coming out and “rescuing” a young “blind” possum, and then I realized he KNEW his way out of the pool and home.
My groundhog must be special. He lives feasting on my rudbeckia, has decimated it every year I’ve seen him around.
I had to finally remove the Rudebeckia from my garden entirely because it was drawing the groundhogs into the garden. They would literally mow it off at least 4 times each summer so that what in years past had been glorious bloom, could no longer bloom at all. So what’s the point in having it? I’ve been planting iris there instead, because they don’t seem to like that.
My hollyhocks, dahlias, and marigolds have been decimated by the groundhogs and possums. I purchased some mole max and plan on trying that to keep it away but mostly I’m just planting things they detest. My geraniums, persian shield, coleus, caladium, begonias, celosia, clematis, creeping thyme, elephant ears, dusty miller, aloe, lemon coral sedum, other succulents, and impatiens, are all doing great. They did try eating a single rose, some of my succulent leaves that I was propagating,and a daylily before thinking better of it, so those are mostly safe. They also ate the impatiens when they were very young plants but now that it’s well established (sprayed with hot pepper spray for a couple weeks) they don’t touch it.
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