Yardening July 2015

LOL :)

OK...OK......geez! This is how the "Yardening" word was born.
I think coleup was responsible for it???

Odd as it may sound--I re-read all my posts to correct mistakes.
I have a fairly small keyboard and big hands.
I double-hit a lot and when I am using 'a'--I tend to hit the "shift"
and everything types in capitals. Then I look up and have to delete
all that and start over...It is a pain in the @ss.

I cannot type without looking at the keyboard--so i don't see what I am typing.
Thanks to spell-check--it comes out correct.

G.

I have the bad habit of assuming everything I write is perfect and don't check what I've written...LOL

Me too... I can usually "feel" when I've made a typo but it's not poolfroof.

Yeah definitely not fool proof on my end either.

I see what you did there ;-P

;)

RoFL

Wooooooo.... ask and ye shall receiveth ! It's raining yard on my hard right now !

Yeah it's raining at work too. Hopefully we get a nice soaking at home.

Looks like you're getting more up there today than most of us will, Jeff.

Winner winner....chicken dinner! I'm at .56 and counting. There is a gauge within a mile of my house that I can view live on Weather Underground.

We got a tremendous downpour here.

We had one nice downpour followed by some nice, steady, soaking rain. YAY !!

It started pouring here too--like a serious storm....Seems to have let up a bit
now-but the thunder is all around. Me thinks this is NOT the end of it....

And--I was hoping I could mow the lawn today...... G. ☻

We thankfully got some of that lovely rain down here too, yay!! Of course, I'm sure I caused it; I went out to water a bunch of stuff on the 3-tier benches out front and RIGHT after I was done it started. Figures.. ;)

Must have been you and Ric. He spent a good hour or more out there watering the whole garden not a 1/2 hr later it rained. 1.2 inches.

I helped too! I watered some garden areas this morning and we got a half inch of rain afterwards. We needed it though; the ground is still pretty dry. I haven't had to water the yawn yet this year, though.

CAM, Seqouia, Sally and anyone else who is so inclined, keep those typos coming; they're very punny!

Muddy, that boast pored me, that part about watering your yawn. I was so pored, I nearly fell asleep.

ha ha ha!!!! Yawns do make one want to die of boredom, don't they?

Lol...should we be calling you 'Runny' then?

As in run away from my lawn?! Never! I just kill off parts of it when it gets to be too much....like I did yesterday. I didn't feel like weeding an area that's doomed anyway because it's close to my neighbor's Lawn of Weeds, so I smothered it in newspaper and hid the evidence with mulch instead.

Oh Runny... err... I mean Muddy, I love how you think! < =D I have an area near my neighbor where I have the same issues.. I will try the 'hide it under newspaper and mulch' trick too, thank you! :)

We're all a bunch of helpful little bees, aren't we? Now we know what to do when we all need rain - a group-water! < =)

My recently planted vining roses are taking off like gang busters. But somebody chewed off a couple stems on one of them last night. I found one of the stems laying on the ground. They have very small thorns on them, not sure why a critter would want to chew on them. I've seen a baby rabbit in my yard lately, so there's a big rabbit somewhere. Might be time for a Have-a-Heart trap.

Good luck catching them when they still have all your delicious plants to eat. My best time for catching them is the end of February or very beginning of March. Rabbits don't give a rip about thorns either. The happily eat the stems of my Pyracantha, which has decent thorns. They also eat my Sophora davidii with pleasure and that has tiny thorns. I've even had them eat the first year growth on my William Penn barberry once. Last season they ate the needles on my Blue Atlas cedar. I've come to the conclusion they have steel noses, lips, and innards. There's no other explanation....

Pryacantha ?? Yikes, I wouldn't take a bit out of one of those stems for all the tea in China. LOL

Thanks, I had a hungry rabbit at a previous home and caught him before he did much damage. I won't hold me breath on this one. Maybe I'll research their favorite food and plant some of that to try and keep them away from my roses.

I am usually able to catch them with apples but this spring I used pears with success.

We have tons of bunnies but very little damage from them. I think it is the clover in our grass that keeps them happy. I am not a big fan of the clover in the grass but that is one thing that I do like about it.

Yeah, I'm waiting for cooler weather to spray the grass and kill the clover the previous owners didn't take with them. LOL But I think I will leave a patch of it available for then and hope they graze on it more than my flowers. Someone's been eating at my Shasta Daisies too. I doubt it's the skunk, probably the rabbits. It's like trying to garden in a zoo.

Haha...garden in a zoo. I don't think I've ever had my shastas eaten.

I didn't at my last house either, Jeff... and I had a ton of them, would have been a bunny All You Can Eat buffet if they liked them. So not sure who has been nibbling at them at my new house. Oh well, they're still blooming so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Our property is actually a designated Wildlife Area and we have the sign to prove it. LOL
That just means that I went on line and filled out a questionnaire and paid $$ to get a sign. Mostly that we have food both provided and growing plants, water source and habitat (trees and shrubs of different sizes). Provided specifiably for animals, birds and insects. So I can't complain too much about what comes and lives here. About the only thing that has proven destructive beyond what I will live with are the Groundhogs and if they would just hang out in the pasture and leave my flower beds alone they would be fine, too. Yellow jackets and hornets are not welcome either but other less aggressive bees and wasps are welcome.

Not sure which I would dislike more on my property, ground hogs or skunks. Groundhogs are very productive but accidently surprising one won't have the same result.

Jeff--

Not sure if this is valid--but if you sprayed hot pepper sauce water all over your plants--
I thought rabbits would not come and eat them. Does not hurt the plants--I believe...

I have witnessed how rabbits will chew a whole stem off at the bottom
just so it can get to the leaves.
They did this to so many of my neighbor's Gladiolas one year as well as oriental DL's.

In my bed--I saw the destruction of many stems of my NE Aster a couple years ago.
Many stems chewed off at the base...not much to eat there--so maybe they just
do it to see if anything is edible. Then abandon all the damaged stems.
G.

That probably is true G but you would have to reapply after every rain.

I think that hot pepper sauce would make the plants really nice and tasty!

Holly, every time I see a picture that you share, I have warm fond memories of the plant swap and what a gorgeous peaceful haven your home is! Aaaahhhhh... deep sigh of peace. =)

Haha...there you go Gita, you put that hot pepper solution on your plants to keep the rabbits away and then you'd find Speedie out there eating them instead...

Jeff.... LOL !

Nom nom nom! =)

This animal repellent might keep rabbits from attacking your plants: http://www.havahart.com/critter-ridder-animal-repellent-with-nitroplus-32-oz Home Depot stocks it.

Rabbits are only a rare nuisance in my yard (I only see a bunny every 2-3 years), but I have other pests to contend with so I recently started using this spray. It's easy to spray large areas because you can hook it up to your hose, or you could buy a small spray bottle or granules. So far I'm happy with it! It makes the lawn smell like a pleasant combination of cloves and mint, too : - )

This message was edited Jul 31, 2015 6:46 PM

Quite a warm day but not humid. Nice evening!