A few animals in the garden might not be great for your plants, but they will give you some fun stories! 

It’s nearly impossible to grow flowers or vegetables without ending up with a few animals in the garden. That can be super helpful at times, like when the birds snack on the slugs eating through your salad greens. 

But some animals in the garden can be, shall we say, not so great. That’s what Bob McCray learned when his new puppy discovered the “flattened irises, mangled peonies, and crushed marigolds.” Let’s be honest, puppies might be the cutest thing ever, but you still don’t want them barreling through your flowers. 

While Bob’s puppy was as cute as can be as it lay sleeping in the midst of the daisies, writer Emily Edwards had a very different adventure with animals in the garden. In her case, the animals weren’t cute at all. 

Emily found that a horde of Japanese Beetles was greedily feasting on the “newly opened leaves” of her grapes when she decided she had the perfect solution to get rid of them. 

Unfortunately, the solution didn’t work quite as well as Emily would have hoped. But thanks to her experience, neither you nor I need to suffer through the same mistake. Take a look at How (Not) to Get Rid of Beetles in the Garden. You’ll learn a thing or two about ridding your garden of beetles, and you’ll get a good laugh through Emily’s animated storytelling. 

What about rabbits? They’re awfully cute, but also destructive. (You didn’t really want those strawberries, did you?) Usually, rabbits run away when you head to the garden, but writer Beth Surdut found out that sometimes, rabbits can be “very” friendly. When she goes to a neighbor’s garden to dig up unwanted plants to sell at her garden club’s fundraiser, hilarity ensues. Read Gardening Critters Gone Wild to find out just how friendly this rabbit was.

Get more stories about animals in the garden below

Feel free to stay a while and enjoy all the stories about animals in the garden we have to share below. And be sure to check out our Animals in the Garden Sampler while you’re here, which features a hand-picked selection of our favorite stories from this category.