Rockii Rocks! What a beauty.
How I wish I had a good answer about the cats. I do run after them and yell at them. That's the best I can do. I'm at the point of setting a Hav-A-Heart trap. Here's the best I could find for a cat repellent: http://www.havahart.com/advice/animal-repelling/repellent-guide Scroll down to see it as the top of the page looks blank when it appears. It still irks me that I should have to pay to either trap or repel cats because someone else is not responsible.
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In my former community the people who lived across the alley would let their cat out for hours. Because my yard had ornamental grasses, the cat would come and hide at the base of the grasses and attack and kill birds. It was heartbreaking seeing their remains. I spoke to my neighbors but they are idiots. Happily, in my former community there were ordinances about unleashed dogs and roaming cats. So I called the police. Who went to their door. And who told them that there was a $25 fine for every occurrence. It stopped.
Another time I was wandering around with a two gallon watering can and I come across a cat. I turned the entire can upside down on it. Never saw it again.
Mind you, I love cats. I grew up with them. I have two. One is sitting in my lap as I type. None of them was ever allowed outdoors, which is why several of them lived past the age of 20. Here is Sophie, who has taken over my seeding mat, but she also shares. How could you endanger such lovely creatures by leaving them outside to the mercy of the elements, while also allowing them to reel such havoc?
How sweet.
In the link I gave above it mentioned cats kill hundreds of thousands of birds each year. I feed birds so it's a dual issue for me.
My other point is that we don't walk our dog on her property so the responsible thing to do would be to keep it inside, as she does with her other cats and did for the first year with the problem cat. She also feeds a feral.
Another issue is that I'm afraid of slipping on the excrement, which the one cat does cover. A broken hip would not be fun for a gardener.
We've bought 52 bags of my favorite mulch, pine needles, in the past 10 days at $9.00 each. The cats seem to enjoy it tremendously but as the one scratches (to cover what it leaves) it is also digging through my lilies, seedlings, young plants and those newly emerging. I am tempted to give her my B & D Lily bill and ask her to pay me for what the cat has done. She incurs no expense allowing the cat to roam while we're left to pick up the bills. Furthermore, she and her husband are well equipped to handle the expense.
Sorry we got so off topic here.
And if her cat has not been altered, it is doing some other irrersponsible things.
Her cat has been neutered but the feral cat certainly isn't.
Ach! Idiot next door has started feeding the raccoons again this year. Found my poor new Spigelia dug up this morning. Must be too close to their path through my garden to climb the fence into neighbor's yard. For the past few years, I have to patrol all of my new plantings to replant them a couple of times before the raccoons leave them alone. What's worse is that the neighbors know DH has invested (and used) a pellet gun and they still continue to feed them. A very sore spot for me. I sympathize with having to clean up after straying animals. The 'coons get into neighbor's garbage and it gets strewn in my front yard. I do pick it up and put it into their fenced back yard. You'd think they'd get the hint by now.
It's going to be frosty here the next couple of nights and I hope the newly-emerged plants can take the cold.
People who think they are doing a good thing by feeding wild animals are simply wrong. It makes the animals dependent on people for food instead of allowing the creatures to follow their natural instincts and hunt for the food they require.
Sorry about the raccoons and the mess they leave with the garbage. I'm especially sorry about the Spigelia since I know how much you wanted it.
Cindy, you can protect your vulnerable newly planted pots by putting heavier flower pots (like terra cotta) upside down on them. I'm going to do that with my sprouted lilies.
I am very sorry about your Spigela.
Oh Cindy, I'm so sorry to hear about your Spigelia!! Yes, these animal issues are a real nuisance, and the people who encourage their wayward behaviours should be ashamed of themselves. The sad part is, it's not the innocent animals' fault, it's the people who should know better, and a lot of the time, the innocent animals are the ones to pay for the human's ignorance. Tsk tsk!
Donna, what lovely pictures of your little feline babies!!
Pirl, thank you for that link to Hav-a-hart. I have tried Critter Ridder in the past with so-so results, but didn't realize that sometimes it can take more than one (or two) applications, so I will buy more and keep up the usage. We sell it at work, along with the Defence for rabbits, so I'll try that as well... since I have had rabbit nesting problems as well. I thought we carried the Deer Scram at work, but I was wrong, we just have the "Scram" for moles and voles. That's ok though, I'll just use the other 2.
Speaking of such things, I think I hear plants calling me! =) Hope y'all have a wonderful day today!
You were completely justified. And you are amongst friends here.
I put my lilies that are in the ground under pots yesterday. It's quite a bit warmer so I took them off and the babies look great.
The varmints dug up the Spigelia again last night. Grrrr. I replanted it and put a heavy terracotta pot over it and then sprinkled cayenne pepper all over it. Needless to say, the poor plant does not look too happy. If it pulls through this time, I'll be surprised. Time to start hunting.
Yes!!!!!!!!
Oh pirl! You are an enabler. And just when I'm feeling guilty about thinking such things. :) I've never minded the occasional raccoon wandering through the yard but when the idiots continue to feed them and try to socialize them (by whistling - I call him the raccoon whisperer) and knowing that it's creating a problem for us that leads to hunting them, I get very angry over their selfishness. Oh - I could go on...
It's a shame people drive us to such lengths by their own actions.
How nice if he were the bird whistler instead. I love watching them feed and their antics of who goes first and who has to wait, who is the bully and those that prefer eating from the ground.
Try freshly ground black pepper from a pepper grinder. Cayenne never worked for me (I'll never forget the squirrel sneezing, its face covered with cayenne, while it continued to eat my lily in a pot between sneezes!) But fresh black pepper repulses them, both in pots and in the ground. It really works for me.
LOL, that must've been a very hungry squirrel!
I had a cat that kept "going" in my flower bed. I read somewhere that if you put in sticks every foot or so, inbetween the plants etc. that the cats didn't like having to negotiate the sticks to dig a hole and "go". Well it worked but I got tired of people asking me "what are all the sticks for?" It's kind of like in Summer when it gets dry here the deer get bold and come in the yard and eat my bushes and plants, so I put fencing circles around their favorites, my husband calls it my plant zoo. Guests ask about the cages too, I tell them it keeps the plants from running away. There is a sprinkler called the "Scarecrow" that does a pretty good job at frightening animals off, it is motion activated. I caught my daughter luring a neighbor child into the area the "Scarecrow" protected one day. LOL, that thing caught me in the head more than once!
Love "keeps the plants from running away"! I do lay down some of that green vinyl wire fencing over hostas to keep the deer away. Yesterday I put a circle of it around their favorite azalea. It looks terrible after their feasting on it over the winter.
I always wondered if the Scarecrow device worked. I always thought it would be fun to spray the idiot dogwalkers who would let their dogs come into my yard and do their business on my lilacs and hydrangeas.
LOL Maybe that's what it was really invented for, but they just market it as a deer deterrent?
I love it!
It's also a pretty good husband deterrent LOL. he knows it's out there . . . somewhere.
I have four of them in various stages of repair. They work pretty good, no one wants to be hit with a high powered stream of water.
Maybe you could get some money with the pictures of the dog walkers being hit from "funniest home videos".
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5D3GKlTkpY
They have videos on You Tube.
This is really cool!
Re: Deer Scram - over the weekend I listened to a podcast of the Dirt Doctor out of TX. Did you know that they make Armadillo Scram as well? Thought that was very interesting.
The "scarecrow" sounds promising and hilarious. Wonder if it'd work on raccoons?
Hmm - black pepper instead of cayenne - I'll have to try that.
Donna, you crack me up!!! You sound JUST like me re: 'those idiot dog walkers', LOL!!!
Dee, thank you for sharing that youtube clip, now I'm thinking I may REALLY have to get one or two of those. I did get some goodies at work yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I got Critter Ridder, VoleScram, and a bag of Espoma Soil Perfector. I figure I should be covered pretty well from several critters with all the junk I bought. =)
Here is to share my 'Purple Smoke' a baptisia in bloom.
Another view;
Lily - how pretty!
I've been out in the garden taking bloom shots today too.
Then my husband went for a garden walk and located something or rather someone just a few feet from our back door, frightened and precarisely perched on the side of the house.
Dee, the un-invited guest does look frightened. Just hope it decided to go elsewhere very soon. lol. Your Lenten Roses are very nice.
Domehomedee, have you seen the "cute little vole" posted recetly?
Mine were never so cute. And they never stood around waiting to be photographed!
I must have missed the vole. I think this little guy is a wood rat, they are native here.
He's at least 9" head to tail, maybe more. We tried a rescue with a large branch but it just freaked him out and he fell.
That was probably for the best as he was obviously feeling trapped and he did scurry off.
Oh wow! Definitely not a vole! 9 inches.
What is it about DG that you guys are producung the cutest little rodents I've ever seen!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks they're cute. I used to have domesticated rats as pets, and loved them! But yep, the wild ones can carry disease, so they need to stay in the wild. I'm glad he got away safely.
My mother taught elementary education, and they had gerbils in the classroom. She brought them home over the summer. We had them in a big cage with their toys, and I loved feeding them wheat bread. Cutest little things you've ever seen.
I wanted to share picture of my lady slippers.
Just starting to bloom.
They're expensive, so I was worried if they'd survive.
But each year they have expanded a little, this year 3 blooming stalks.
Hopefully they're settling in.
#1 glaucidium palmatum. Just it's 2nd year. Blooming happily.
#2 arisaema ringens.
#3 paris, I think quadrifolia, but not sure. There are 4 leaves anyway...
I love the strangeness of the 'flower'.
#1 a non-invasive buttercup, ranunculus Miss Austria
#2 a tiny (compare the size of the geraneum leaf next to it) hypoxis hirsuta
#3 a gentian blooming in my new half sun/half shade 'rock garden'.
It's a cement planter with 1/2 sand/potting soil. My new experiment.
I've never been able to grow these types of gentians before,
so we'll see if they overwinter in my new container.
But it's at least blooming beautifully now.
All lovely, as usual, but that gentian is so wonderful.