Animals tending the garden

Who is gardening in your garden?

This year I planted landrace beans from Going to Seed, and I had a good dozen plants going strong until a young bunny ate leaves off almost all of them (sparing those that were actually touching tomato plants, note to self!)

Bunny left the stalks standing, though, and now those stalks are starting to grow new leaves.  Got me thinking, the bunny probably has little use for the bean pods or seeds, but craves more tender leaves. Is the bunny just pruning my bean plants to meet its own needs? Converting "my garden" to its own garden?



Then I got to thinking about the goldfinches that have been visiting "my" sunflowers, checking to see if seeds are ripe. Thing is, these sunflowers actually grew from bird seed that some wild birds spilled out of the feeder last winter, I just let a few of them grow. So who is growing sunflowers?  Am I?  Or are the birds? Or are we inadvertently collaborating?



So many gardeners and so many gardens overlapping.

I feel you are right about animals tending the garden.

I was watching a show last night where a person brought up the life cycle of "rats" by giving this example of snakes eating rats and mongooses eating the snakes.

Some folks might find these articles interesting and helpful:

Lizards, toads, and snakes are extremely beneficial garden animals and can serve to decrease the harmful insect population. Snakes can also keep an overly robust rodent population down to a dull roar

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/beneficial-garden-animals.htm

there are still animals that prove to be beneficial to plantlife, including your garden. While it’s true that there are plenty of animals that can be a detriment to the development of your perennial vegetable patch, it’s easy to counter this with the right animal friends on your side.

https://www.allaboutgardening.com/animals-help-garden/