Groundhogs Don’t Actually Skip Your Tomatoes: The 3 Crops They Hit First (and 12 They Truly Leave Alone)
Penn State says groundhogs won’t skip your tomatoes. Here’s what they hit first in your garden — and the 12 plants they truly leave alone.
If something is mowing down your vegetable bed overnight and leaving clean-cut stems behind, the popular advice to “just protect the tomatoes” is wrong. Groundhogs (also called woodchucks) go after beans, peas, and clover first because those plants are packed with the protein they need to rebuild fat reserves — but three university extensions agree they don’t stop there, and tomatoes are one of the most common total losses gardeners report.
I’ve watched a groundhog work through a full row of bush beans in under fifteen minutes, stripping leaves and pods down to bare stems and leaving the row looking mowed. That speed is the tell — rabbits and deer nibble, groundhogs clear-cut.
The 3 Crops Groundhogs Hit First
Beans, peas, and clover top every university extension list of groundhog food preferences, and the reason is nutritional, not random. Groundhogs emerge from hibernation in early spring having lost up to a third of their body weight, and legumes are the fastest way to rebuild it.
- Beans — Penn State Extension lists soybeans and garden beans as a top preferred food, and groundhogs will eat both the foliage and the young, tender pods [1].
- Peas — Consistently named across Rutgers, Penn State, and UConn extension sources as a preferred crop, peas offer the same protein-carbohydrate combination as beans in an even more tender package [1][2][3].
- Clover — Rutgers NJAES notes that clover is a particular spring favorite because it delivers protein exactly when a groundhog needs it most: right after hibernation and again heading into the February–March mating season. If clover is thick along your garden’s edge, it’s often the reason a groundhog started foraging there in the first place — the vegetable bed is just the next stop.
All three are legumes. That’s not a coincidence — legumes fix nitrogen and carry more protein per bite than almost anything else growing in a home garden, which is exactly what a groundhog’s body is built to prioritize twice a year.
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When Damage Peaks Through the Growing Season
Groundhog pressure on a garden isn’t constant — it tracks the animal’s own calendar. Damage typically starts in March or April, right as clover and other early greens emerge and groundhogs come out of hibernation lean and protein-hungry. That’s the window where a garden edge thick with clover acts as bait, drawing an animal toward beds it would otherwise pass by.
By late May and June, beans and peas are up and tender, and this is when vegetable-bed damage is heaviest — a groundhog that’s found a reliable food source will return daily, often at the same time each morning or afternoon. Through July and August, as tomatoes ripen and squash and corn fill out, damage shifts toward those crops, which is exactly the period the “groundhogs skip tomatoes” myth gets tested and fails. By September and October, feeding intensifies again as the animal packs on fat for hibernation, before dropping to zero once it dens up for the winter — usually by early November across most of the eastern and midwestern U.S.
Knowing where you are in that calendar changes the response: a fence going up in March is prevention, but a fence going up in July after a groundhog already has a feeding routine established in your beans is closer to eviction, and may need to be paired with trapping rather than fencing alone.
No, Groundhogs Don’t Skip Tomatoes
A lot of garden blogs repeat the claim that groundhogs “don’t like” tomatoes, presumably because ripe tomatoes are softer and more perishable than a bean pod. The extension record says the opposite. Penn State Extension states plainly that homeowners may lose their entire tomato patch to woodchucks, and Cornell Cooperative Extension separately describes groundhogs as “especially fond of tomatoes” [1][4]. Rutgers NJAES lists tomatoes alongside corn, squash, and peas as crops taken directly from backyard gardens [2].
What’s likely happening with the myth: groundhogs go for beans and peas first because they’re available earlier in the season and require less effort to strip, while tomatoes ripen later and get hit once the plant is already fruiting — by which point the damage looks less like the daily grazing on beans and more like a single destructive raid, one bite taken out of every ripening fruit on the vine. That pattern reads as “occasional” rather than “preferred,” but it isn’t avoidance. If you’re relying on a fence around a vegetable bed to protect a mixed planting of beans, peas, and tomatoes, don’t skip a corner because “they leave the tomatoes alone” — a properly built vegetable-garden fence that also keeps out deer and squirrels needs to enclose the whole bed, not just the beans.
12 Plants Groundhogs Almost Never Touch
The plants groundhogs consistently avoid fall into two groups: genuinely unpalatable or toxic plants, and strongly aromatic ones. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s groundhog-resistant list is the most complete source for this, and it lines up with what gardeners in high-pressure areas report season after season [4]. Neither category is absolute — a hungry groundhog with nothing else nearby will sample almost anything once — but planted as a border or interspersed through a vegetable bed, these are the choices least likely to get touched first.
Vegetables and herbs
- Onions — sulfur compounds make the bulb unpalatable to most browsing mammals
- Garlic — same sulfur-compound defense as onions, in a more concentrated form
- Potatoes — the foliage contains solanine, a natural plant toxin
- Rhubarb — the leaves contain oxalic acid at concentrations high enough to have poisoned livestock historically; this is a genuine toxicity, not folklore [7]
- Fennel — the strong anise scent is a consistent deterrent on the Cornell list [4]
- Hot peppers — capsaicin is a heat compound most mammals actively avoid, though hedge here — a hungry groundhog with no other food source may still take an occasional bite
- Mint — the pungent oils that make mint spread so aggressively also make it one of the few herbs groundhogs reliably skip
Flowers and ornamentals
- Lavender — aromatic oils deter browsing
- Daffodils — toxic bulbs and foliage
- Catmint (Nepeta) — same aromatic-oil defense as culinary mint
- Yarrow — bitter, feathery foliage
- Ornamental grasses — texture rather than taste is the deterrent here
Several of these overlap with flowers and foliage plants rabbits won’t eat, since aromatic oils and bitter compounds discourage both animals — though the two lists aren’t identical, so don’t assume a rabbit-resistant bed is automatically groundhog-proof.
Is It a Groundhog, a Rabbit, or a Deer?
The single biggest tell is the height and cleanliness of the damage: deer tear ragged edges up to 6 feet off the ground because they have no upper incisors, while rabbits and groundhogs both leave clean 45-degree cuts — the difference is how much of the plant disappears and what’s happening at ground level nearby.
| Signal | Groundhog | Rabbit | Deer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut pattern | Clean cut, whole plant often stripped to bare stem | Clean 45° cut, tips and lower growth only | Ragged, torn edges |
| Height of damage | Ground level, occasionally into low shrubs | Under 2–3 ft, higher on snow drifts in winter | Ground level to 6 ft |
| Burrow or den sign | 10–12 in. diameter hole with a large excavated soil mound | No burrow; shallow surface nest if any | No burrow; hoofprints and bedded-down grass instead |
| Droppings | Larger, irregular pellets, often near the burrow | Small round pellets scattered widely | Larger oval pellet clusters |
| Timing | Daytime, most active morning and late afternoon; absent Nov–Feb (hibernating) | Dawn/dusk, active year-round | Dawn/dusk, active year-round |
That burrow hole is the fastest confirmation: a fist-sized opening with a real pile of excavated dirt beside it is a groundhog, not a rabbit warren or a mole’s shallow surface ridge — moles tunnel just under the surface and leave raised ridges of soil rather than an open hole, so if what you’re seeing is a ridge instead of a hole, you’re dealing with a different animal and a different fix entirely.
Deer damage is easy to rule out with the ragged-edge test: the University of Maryland Extension notes deer have no upper incisors and must tear or jerk vegetation loose, which is why the torn, jagged edges look nothing like a groundhog’s or rabbit’s clean cut [5]. Rabbit damage, by contrast, stays low and rarely strips an entire plant the way a groundhog does — a rabbit nibbles a lettuce head down; a groundhog can flatten the whole row [6].
The Fence Height and Burial Depth That Actually Stops a Groundhog
A groundhog fence has to defeat two separate skills — climbing and digging — and most garden fences fail because they only address one. Extension guidance from Penn State, Rutgers, and UConn converges on the same buildable spec: at least 3 to 4 feet of fence above ground, with the top 12 to 15 inches left unattached or bent outward so a climbing groundhog’s weight pulls the fence down instead of giving it a foothold, plus the bottom 10 to 12 inches buried, bent outward into an L-shape underground to block tunneling [1][2][3].
- Above-ground height: 3–4 ft minimum
- Top treatment: top 12–15 in. bent outward at roughly a 45° angle (or left unattached to fence posts) so climbers can’t get a rigid grip
- Burial depth: 10–12 in. straight down
- Underground L-bend: bottom 6–12 in. bent horizontally outward, away from the garden, to stop digging under the vertical section
- Material: 2-inch woven wire mesh or heavy poultry wire — the mesh has to be small enough that a groundhog can’t squeeze through, not just climb over
- Optional electric add-on: a single strand 4–5 in. off the ground, offset 4–5 in. outside the fence line, deters both climbing and digging attempts before they start
Raised-bed gardeners need to adapt this: a fence anchored only to the bed frame with no buried section is easy to dig under, since a raised bed’s loose fill soil is often easier to tunnel through than compacted ground. If you’re building around a raised bed rather than an in-ground row, extend the buried L-bend under the bed’s own foot line, not just around its visible edges.
When Fencing Isn’t Enough
If a groundhog has already established a burrow on or near your property, fencing alone often isn’t enough — it keeps a new animal out but does nothing about one already denned in. Penn State Extension recommends live-trapping with fresh produce as bait, pre-baiting the trap unset for several days so the animal treats it as a normal feeding stop before the trap is actually set [1]. This is the point where a single garden invasion becomes a repeat-offender situation: a groundhog that’s successfully fed from your beans once will keep returning to the same spot, fence or no fence, until the den itself is dealt with. Check state wildlife regulations before trapping and relocating — many states require groundhogs to be released on the same property or euthanized rather than moved elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do groundhogs eat tomato plants?
Yes. Penn State Extension and Cornell Cooperative Extension both document groundhogs as heavy tomato feeders, capable of destroying an entire tomato patch — the popular claim that they avoid tomatoes isn’t supported by extension data [1][4].
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→ View My Garden CalendarWhat smells do groundhogs dislike?
Strongly aromatic plants like mint, lavender, and fennel are consistently listed among plants groundhogs avoid, likely due to the same pungent oils that repel other browsing mammals [4]. Commercial repellents using similar principles (predator urine, garlic-based sprays) show mixed results and typically need reapplication after rain.
Are groundhogs active at night?
No. Groundhogs are diurnal, most active in the early morning and late afternoon, and they hibernate roughly November through February — so any overnight garden damage during that window points to a different animal, most likely deer or rabbits [1][2].
How deep do groundhogs dig their burrows?
Groundhog burrow systems typically run several feet deep with multiple entrances, which is why a fence has to be buried at least 10-12 inches rather than simply sitting on top of the soil [2][3].
Will a groundhog come back to the same garden every year?
Often, yes — a den site near a reliable food source tends to get reused or handed off to the next generation denning in the same burrow system, which is why a one-season fence that gets taken down over winter frequently sees the same pressure return the following spring [2].
Sources
- Penn State Extension. Woodchucks. Penn State University
- Rutgers NJAES. E361: Ecology and Management of the Groundhog (Marmota monax). Rutgers Cooperative Extension
- UConn Home & Garden Education Center. Woodchuck Damage and Control. University of Connecticut
- Cornell Cooperative Extension, Columbia & Greene Counties. Groundhog Resistant Plants
- University of Maryland Extension. Deer Damage
- Wildlife Illinois. Rabbit Garden Damage. University of Illinois Extension partner program
- Ohio State University. Rhubarb Toxicity
