Garden Update: Groundhog Wars edition

Nick has been diligently caring for our garden and it's been so fun to watch it grow. We've gotten to eat a few more things out of it, mainly spinach and some herbs, which makes it more rewarding.

Here's a photo of it from last week. You can see how much everything has grown.
Now try to imagine that the zucchini (on the left) has grown so that the leaves are twice as big. We even have a few little squashes on their way.

We get very excited when things start developing and we watch them grow, patiently awaiting the day we get to pick and eat them. I think the thing that I was most excited about in our garden was the romaine blend that we planted. Is that weird? That I was looking forward to lettuce?

Anyhow, those hopes were dashed when Pablo, our very own groundhog, struck:
One of those nubs used to be an almost-ready head of romaine.

Pablo also likes green bean leaves, but not the green beans themselves:
This groundhog has chewed on my parsley, eaten a good chunk of our cilantro, and ate all of our broccoli.

It lives under our shed:

And this photo shows the trek it must make across the yard to the garden:

We've read up on how to get rid of groundhogs, and none of the options are pleasant. I think we're going to have to suck it up and buy a Havahart trap, then drive to a far-off wooded area and drop it off. I read recently that you have to take groundhogs far, because they have extremely good memories of their homes and would return to the same spot if they were dropped off within a two mile radius.

Groundhog proofing the garden isn't really an option. You have to build a chicken wire fence around it that also goes a foot deep into the ground. After digging a foot into the ground, you have to put it in an L shape for another several inches. That's a lot of work.

I prefer the humane route, but there is also the risk that some other creature will take up residence under our shed if we get rid of Pablo.

At least all of our beasts aren't bad. Some are even really cute:
They always wish they could come garden with us, but we won't let them.

We'll see where this saga takes us. The romaine has started growing back a bit, so hopefully I'll have the last laugh.