I had another visitor in my basement!

Don't laugh Andy....I don't know how they get in, although I do suspect my sliding screen door. I noticed that my African Violets were knocked over in my light stand in the basement - I went to right them and almost moved the snake instead!!!! Now I know that they are just Garter snakes and are not poisonous, but they scare the bejeezus out of me every time. He was very happy under the lights. Luckily, my neighbor came in and finally got it. I've added extra weather stripping to the bottom of the screen door and I don't keep anything by the door to attract them. I guess it's just the warm stone patio and full sun that attracts them. So silly - such a little thing - I feel so ridiculous.

That would be quite a surprise even for a snake lover!

Anita, I thought I noticed that your bejesus was missing!

Those snakes are part of my covert anti AV army - now you know :(

I lost the bejeezus after the first snake episode awhile back.
Al - I wouldn't put it past you!

My brother made a point - something has changed in my local enviornment. This even goes back to when we were little [My house was our summer home at one point-I moved in full time around 15 years ago]. There used to be tons of little frogs every spring. Now I never even see an adult frog, although I still hear them on warm muggy nights. Growing up, I never saw snakes, let alone in the house! I know they were around, but they stayed out of sight. In the last two years, I've had more snake encounters than I have had my entire life in this house! My parents are coming up in a week for my sister's wedding, so I've put my father on foundation patrol to find and patch any secret passages. Makes him feel needed by his daughter and make his daughter feel happier in her basement.

Do you want to borrow my cat Holly? She catches the little garden snakes that get into my basement. So far she hasn't killed any - just brought them into the kitchen for me to scream in terror over. (When I stop screaming, look around, embarassed, to see if any neighbors noticed my insane act, I scoop them up and let them go outside.) She could do snake patrol for the wedding party. I'd send Wallingford because he has a wild cat ancestor and he plays the piano - so he'd be both security and entertainment -- but after the squirrel in the attic incident when he jumped under the covers for ME to protect HIM - I think Holly is the better choice.

Snake's....I can't stand them. They are fine if they stay in the woods where they belong, not in my flower & veggie gardens. Between my Aunt next door and my house we have 58 acres of land. You would think the snakes have plenty of places to roam with out getting into my gardens! The deer come in the field, the coyotes stay in the woodline (although we can hear them clearly) the rabbits roam the field also, and the hawks and other feathered friends sit in the apple, pear, plum and cherry tree's. Everyone knows his place....except for the blasted snakes! Last summer I encountered one every morning. It got so that I just brought my dog out w/me and told her to "hunt it up" before I would step foot in the garden. She trampled my squash plants pouncing on a unusually large one. It tried to bite her so she bit it and then did the foaming of the mouth thing which frightened me more than her! I wish I knew of a way to repel them...anyone got any idea's?

Pixie, Get a mongoose. (That's what they did in St. Martin's and they ended up with a serious mongoose problem)

Yankee, thank you for the very funny post!

Anita, Do you think the snakes ate the frogs? I bet if you put in that water garden you're thinking of, you will be surprised by the frogs you will find. It always amazes me how they appear out of nowhere.

very possible Dave

I LIKE snakes, I wish I had more around to munch the vermin. I used to pick them up and play with them when I was little. Does anyone else like the poor little wigglers?

pam

I like them - just not on my kitchen floor with a cat standing over them.

Snakes are pretty hardwired into most of us as creepy. Don't know if its the lack of spine, the tongue, or whatever, but there is good reason they are used to symbolize evil, the devil, etc.

come on over Pam..you are more than welcome to come and play with mine. I really don't mind them, when they are in the yard where they are supposed to be.

Pam, Are you a parseltongue?

Harry is..

Oh dear, is that a Harry Potter reference? Not familiar with that one...

pam

DH just explained parseltongue to me...talks to snakes...gotcha...um...sure!! I talk to my plants, my cats, and myself...why not snakes... :)

pam

Anita knew! And Pam's husband!
I'm a big fan of Harry's. The whole household is.

Me too!

Me three! I've read all the books and have all the available movies! I'm drooling for the last book and can't believe that I have to wait for 2007 for the next movie!

I can't believe this will be the last book :(

I know - very sad indeed!

We got garter snakes around the house too..... I almost ran over one with the lawnmower last year. I was just mowing along, when I see this snake shoot out from in front of the mower. Since he decided to go further INTO the yard, rather than the weeds at the edge, I grabbed him behind his head and placed him in the weeds, and he seemed to get the idea, since he sped off into the thickest weeds like he was fired from a slingshot.

Personally I don't have any problem with snakes, except when I come accross one when I'm not expecting it and I haven't had a chance to positively ID it. The funniest snake story I have is from when I was stationed in Japan. I was walking up a hiking trail to the top of Nokogiri Yama (lit: Saw Mountain.... The ridge did strongly resemble the teeth of a saw blade) in Chiba Prefecture, which is 329M (1079.40 Ft) high. I got all the way to the top, and as I stoped at a small restraunt at the Ropeway station, I noticed a sign that said "�R���Ƀ}���V�ɂ��T��������" (Beware of Mamushi on the hiking trail).... Mamushi (lit: Devil bug/worm) are a native Japanese member of the Pit viper family that looks like an eastern timber rattler, only without the rattle.... I'm just glad I didn't run into any of them things! It would have been nice if they put a sign at the BOTTOM of the mountain to warn hikers going up......

very funny - I wonder why there was just the one sign?

Well, I think it was becuase you were SUPPOSED to pay to ride the ropeway (cable car) to the top of the mountain, then you could (if you chose) take the path down, but I managed to find the path on my own...... Of course, now that I know that there are poisonous snakes in the area, I'll just make sure I keep an eye out if I hike there during the summer (Won't have to worry too much this year.... I'm planning on going to Japan during the last week of November).

LOL

one good thing about garden snakes is they seem to eat the tent caterpillars. i wonder if that's why there are so many around...more food.
i have DeKay(sp) snakes in my basement. they are so tiny they don't bother me.live and let live.

I like snakes because they eat vermin which carry disease (i.e. wild mice and rats). I like spiders for the same reason--mosquiotoes are the single biggest disease vector on the planet, and flies aren't too far behind. Plus flies vomit on your food, it's disgusting.

And for some reason, I have never had a fear of creepy crawlies (except giant cockroaches...shiver...), but then I grew up where there were no poisonous snakes and didn't have to worry too much about it.

Dave, in a number of belief systems the snake is associated with good attributes, such as wisdom. There's some thought that Xianity adopted the snake as an evil emblem early on to differentiate it from other religious groups (Mithraism, etc). And BTW snakes do have a backbone...they're reptiles, like lizards and turtles...they've just secondarily lost their legs. (Sorry, I teach zoology, can't resist Pedantic Mode. :) )

Just watch, I'll shuffle off this mortal coil from a snakebite. Ha. :)

pam

Zoology and appearently symbology! (You a Da Vinci Code fan?)

Just seems that I remember something in psychology about the basic negative reaction (unlearned) to snakes. The positive unlearned corollary is a baby. The latter seems to make good sense to the survival of our species but the snake thing surprised me.
I wonder where all those lost snake legs are??

Not really a Da Vinci Code fan (although it was a fun read), I just have all sorts of largely useless junk in my head. :) Good thing I teach, it's the one way to put all that trivia to use. :) Interesting about the unlearned response to snakes...certainly makes sense, from an evolutionary standpoint...as does the response to babies...we're hardwired to respond in a nurturing fashion to anything with a big head, big eyes, and short stature. (e.g. kittens, puppies, E.T....)

I suspect the lost snake legs are in the same place as that one missing sock in every dryer load. I can see the headlines now: Lost Snake Legs Discovered Wearing Mismatched Missing Socks: "So That's Where They've Been All This Time", Scientist Says.

Evidently I need WAY more coffee this morning before I'm fit for the public. :)
pam

Pam, That was hilarious!
Oh yeah, I meant the Da Vinci Code as a page turner, not as a religion.

Apparently there's been a fair bit of backlash to the Da Vinci Code book/movie...I haven't read any of the "backlash" books, not quite sure what all the fuss is about...DVC was fiction, I thought.

Read any other good books lately? :)

Ever on the lookout for snakes with socks,
pam

Shortage of good books for me lately. My two favorite authors have, IMHO, tanked.

Best thing I've read is The Well Tended Perennial Garden.

The best book I've read recently is "Palms Won't Grow Here (and other myths)" by David A. Francko..... Really interesting read. I didn't know that Cast Iron Plants were hardy to Zone 6 until I read it (Monrovia, a NJ commercial grower that supplies about 3/4 of the shrubs sold at local nurseries also listed them as hardy to Z 6). I also used it to compile a list of possible Zone 6 palm tree winners, which was supplemented from internet sources.....

Dave, who are your two favorite tanking authors? (Some of mine have tanked, too.) Is TWTPG by Tracy Disabato-Aust (sp)? I have her TWT Mixed Garden and love it.

I usually go between several different books...although that has lessened somewhat since DS appeared on the scene :) ...right now I'm perusing The Woodland Garden and rereading a bunch of science fiction (pulp, classics, and commentaries) for a class I'm teaching in July.

I've heard about the Palms Won't Grow Here book, sounds interesting, perhaps I shall add it to my ever growing wish list on Amazon. :) Is it specific to NJ?

pam

Two of my favorite authors are/were John Irving and Pat Conroy. Both seem to have run out of ideas and replaced them with a lot of self-indulgent writing. But I loved Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany,, Cider House Rules (Irving) and The Great Santini, Lords of Discipline and Prince of Tides (Conroy)
Yes, Tracy D-S wrote the WTPG.
I heard good things about Palms Won't Grow Here too.

Well, David Francko is the Chair of the Botany dept of the University of Miami's Cincinatti, Ohio campus, and he's been growing different palms and exotic plants there for years..... Right now, my copy is on loan to a local nurseryman, who is also a friend of mine, who is looking for some possible good, cold-hardy crape myrtles and possibly palm trees to offer at his nursery.

Some good Zone 6 palms that I'm going to try are:

Sabal minor 'Mc Curtain', which should be bullet-proof hardy, since the native population (which grows in Zone7) has seen numerous bouts of sub-zero temps over the years, and one grower in Wichita, KS has been growing some for the past 20 years, during which they took an all-time record low of -24F and lived.

Trachycarpus takil (Kuamon Palm), which, although new to cultivation, already appears to be reliably hardy in zone 6b without protection, even when young.

Rhapidophyllum hystrix (Needle Palm), Once established, should be able to survive without protection in zone 6 (during the record cold snap in '89, a clump of needle palms survived -20F, without protection, in Knoxville TN).

I am reading a great book, whether you garden organically or not. It's called Gardening for the Future of the Earth. I have learned more about gardening in the last few days than I have in years! They interviewed several organic farmers and plant experts and then put it all in this book. It's a really interesting and helpful read, discussing gardening in a totally different way.