Beginner Gardening: What plants did you unintentionally kill this year?, 1 by meezersfive

meezersfive wrote:
We didn't have to kill any plants this year, Mother Nature did a fine job by providing us with rain 28 days in May, and then very cool temps throughout June and July,and a drought in August. Surprisingly, the perennials mostly seemed to survive nicely, although the roses didn't put out their usual show, and annuals that I put in when it finally dried up didn't really get off to a good start. Last year we managed to execute a few perennials that apparently took exception to being moved, and a japanese maple which isn't supposed to be hardy in our zone. So, I am feeling relatively guilt free at not having commited any major herbiicide in '04, unless you count the five hanging baskets that I cursed at last week and quit watering.

Confession: I DID heartlessly assasinate about a gross of yellow jackets. And I LIKED it!

I'm on the verge (and hope this doesn't jinx it) of solving the hairball upchucking olympics here. We had two problems, one hair ball spewer and one that simply eats too fast and then gorges on water and redeposits the entire mess...and not on the hardwood floor either. (Evidently you get a better grip for upchucking if you have your four paws on carpeting, clothing, bedding, ,etc.) With the hairball guy, (Hobbes) shown in the picture (and yes, there IS a basket under him, he's overlap challenged) I'm giving him semiweekly doses of Catlax which seems to keep the fur moving through his system and prevents it from forming those ooky yucks. There are similar products and they really help. Even with Science Diet Hairball food, he still had the problem. With the gorger, I simply don't provide water for at least an hour after they eat. Hasn't completely eliminated the problem, but it's reduced in frequency to once a week rather than twice a day. With five siamese running the household, sometimes it takes as long to identify the culprit as to cure the problem.