Awhile back I wrote a blog post titled Keeping the Raccoons Away. The post was about a book launch I attended for a gardening book, PLants for Atlantic Gardens, and was meant to be light-hearted as I joked about my husband’s foolproof method for keeping raccoons out of our grapevine.

Living in a rural area this is a bit of a challenge, as each year we’d try
to pick the ripe grapes before the raccoons scoffed them all off. Most times we lost out, waking some morning to find every last grape gone..

Little did I know, when I wrote that post back then, how much of a problem those pesky raccoons are for so many, and just how many people would turn to the internet for answers, and just how many would stumble across that blog post looking for an answer. (You’ve got to love wordpress for letting you know what words people search on when they find your blog.) Had I known back then the number of people who would be interested in knowing this secret I would have actually posted that answer. But how’s a blogger to know what will generate interest on the internet? So for all of you who come seeking the truth as to how my husband kept the raccoons out of our grapevine it’s really quite simply.

He played music. Yep that’s it. Sounds pretty simple. Nope he didn’t sit out by the grapevine playing quitar at night, heaven forbid. (Believe me the neighbours would have had something to say about that.)

Each night he plugged in his radio, and went off to dreamland.Now since raccoons are not interested in green grapes or country music, you need only serenade them late in the season when the grapes begin to ripen. Anyway that’s it. It worked for us. We were able to happily harvest our grapes last year– ever last one of them.

Next time I’ll think twice before writing a blog post. There’s nothing worse than searching a subject and discover the ramblings of Nova Scotia writer and not what you’re really looking for. 🙂