Gardening: snake habitat?

Self-tutoring about yard ecology: the tutor mentions a nice discovery.

The following is according to my understanding.

I’m not a very skilled gardener, but I believe, God willing, I’m improving. I’d say that, unless one has instincts for it, one simply needs to spend a lot of time doing it in order to really understand it. A reason for this is that a big part of gardening – and caretaking in general – seems to be observation.

I’ve mentioned, for example in my post from August 31, 2024, that I always like to see garter snakes in the yard. Yet, for some years I didn’t see many. I’ve wondered: have they deserted the yard, or did they just get more furtive?

Today, making a new pumpkin hill, I realized I’d have to do something intentional to keep the new sprouts from being eaten. I find that, with pumpkin plants especially, such tends to happen: they get consumed, overnight, shortly after they reach above ground. I cleared the area to bare soil, built the hill, then planted five pumpkin seeds in it. Next, hoping to keep spoilers away, I covered the hill with a layer of sand. I reasoned that anything with a soft, moist body would not want to venture across the sand. Hopefully that will keep the pumpkin plants safe when they come up.

I went away to get the watering can. A few minutes later, when I returned, a garter snake was at the pumpkin hill! I’d say it was a northwestern gartersnake, given its red dorsal stripe and side yellow stripe. Otherwise, it was brown. I likely wouldn’t have noticed it, had it not started to move. It didn’t hurry away, though; rather, it ambled back among the dandelions and spent daffodil plants. I could still follow its movement through the weeds as I watered.

It’s a bright, sunny, warm day. Have I, by creating the pumpkin hill, set up a sunning spot for a snake? Well, let’s hope so. Who knows – perhaps that snake will guard the pumpkin sprouts from whoever will want to eat them.

Source:

Fisher, C., Joynt, A., Brooks, R.J. (2007). Reptiles and Amphibians of Canada. Lone Pine Publishing.