Ground Hogs in garden

I have a garden behind my city apartment building in Southern New Jersey. Yesterday I saw the reason for my chewed collard and cabbage leaves - 2 ground hogs. Since this is my first garden, I'm in desperate need of advice on getting rid of these poachers. Please help before my garden is a barren waste land.

Is there a department within the city offices where they remove dangerous prowling / foraging animals, here the city council would send someone with the correct equipment to capture and re-home the animals in a built-up area well away from people or busy city roads / commuters ect.

Look up the phone book for such as the city should remove these animals free of charge, that's what you pay taxes for.

Cant help any further than this suggestion but maybe someone else can come in here to help.
Best of luck.
WeeNel.

If animal control (city or private) cannot help, then you need to find out how they are getting in. Is your garden fenced?

There is fencing that is intended to keep out small animals like rabbits. It has coarse mesh higher up (may help with deer) and finer mesh (more strands) lower down, to discourage animals that are not much more than a foot or so high. Probably works against skunks, raccoons and similar sized animals, as long as there is not another route. Raccoons can climb quite well, so a tree or shrub that straddles the fence would be like a highway to them.

Animals that dig would need further work. A wire mesh would need to be buried under the soil.
Some animals travel mostly on the surface, but will tunnel enough to get under a fence. Laying the mesh flat for several feet outside the fence works for these.
Other animals are dedicated diggers, spending most of their life under the soil. The mesh needs to be buried vertically to whatever depth these animals usually dig. The easiest way to do this is with a trencher, a machine that will dig a trench as deep as you need, several inches to a foot or more. I would not trust just a few inches to keep out most digging animals.

We have ground squirrels and gophers around here, voles and moles are also known. We do not have ground hogs, and rabbits are rare, through native hares might be found in some areas that are near wild hillsides.
For any of these I would trench at least a foot deep, and deeper if the soil is soft that deep. Then install the fencing that is the right mesh for the animal I am trying to exclude. Any of these might willingly walk across the surface to get to a tasty salad.

gch700--

We had a long discussion on all kinds of crirrers and pests in our gardens on this Thread.

The link is for part #5. They are linked to--"we came from...."--so you can read from
part #1 on.
It may help you. Gita

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1318583/