I noticed while I was on my hands and knees a few feet further down the garden that a small patch of iris was really short on dirt around it’s roots. Since I was there, I added som dirt, bringing it up around the edges of the rhizomes. Iris do really well in cool weather, so I thought there might be a bit more growth this fall, as they get ready to settle in for the winter.
I was putting a chrysanthemum in the basket by the front door and looked down at the iris as I passed. I could see the roots again! Apparently, where my iris is planted there is a back door to a chipmunk burrow. It’s too late in the season to move the iris, so every day from now until the chipmunks go into hibernation, I’m going to have to add dirt around these iris.
Doesn’t this have the feel of one of the Looney Tunes cartoons? I can just see one of those characters pouring tons of dirt over the iris and the chipmunks flinging back out again at jet speed! Darned little rodents!