“I heard it brings bad luck to have sex on Ground Hog Day,” wrote the late George Burns. As a long-time resident of California, one wonders how often he encountered the wretched rodent on 2nd February – or any other date. Marmota monax is common to almost all of Canada except flanking Newfoundland and Vancouver Island plus the Arctic, along with the eastern U.S. Gardeners there may discover that M. monax thrives on a diet of veggies . . . when not hibernating.