Prick - Whirligig; Whirligig - Prick

Ptichka did her research yesterday on our new yard vermin, the groundhog. In Toronto it is legal to humanely trap groundhogs but it is illegal to release them far away from where they were trapped, which defeats the purpose of trapping and releasing, really. The city will not remove them for you, either. Unless it is dead but killing them is also illegal. Of course. And I don't really want to kill anything.

Groundhogs do not like chilli powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. Talcum powder is another good groundhog-be-gone trick. You sprinkle it on wet leaves, it dries clear, and tastes disgusting. The talcum powder would work for the edamame because we won't be eating the leaves but it wouldn't work so well for the swiss chard. So, we're going to buy a couple of whirligigs from the dollar store. Here's hoping that once those tacky spinning birds are scattered throughout the garden that the groundhog's keen aesthetic sense will keep him away.