Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #9

Suzy thank you for the info, I tried to go to the site and the link is bringing me to ask jeeves.

Liliy beetles are pretty bad here and I've searched the web for years to see if anyone has found a good organic solution to them. The only one I know of is to sqwaush them, but it doesn't seem to stop them. I did read something recently about putting DE (- diatemacious earth - not sure on spelling) around the base of the plants. I remember it said to do it early, like before they even pop out of the ground (the lilies that is). I can't remember exactly what it is supposed to do, but something with killing wichever stage overwinters in the ground. Which was why it had to be done before they become active. I am planning on trying it this year. I should probably do it soon now.

This message was edited Apr 2, 2008 12:07 PM

Look what I found:

Diatomaceous Earth controls insects by using physical, not chemical, action: It punctures an insect’s exoskeleton and absorbs its body fluids—thus posing no harm to warm-blooded life. Moreover, on any surface, this natural pesticide has a remarkable repellency factor. As long as Diatomaceous Earth is present, insects tend to stay away, making a serious infestation unlikely. The more it is used, the more an environment is created which makes insects feel unwelcome.
For young plants, as little as 2 lbs. per acre may be adequate. For larger plants, 5 lbs. per acre is probably sufficient. It applies best when there is dew or after a light rain. It is a long-lasting, natural, effective powder, impossible for insects to build up resistance against.

Merewdith try this instead

http://www.daffodilusa.org/

They are working on bringing in the natural predator from Europe to fight the Lily Leaf Beetle in the northeast...of course it takes forever because they have to work in small spaces to make sure the natural predator isn't worse than the Lily Leaf Beetle. Some graduate students from Cornell? are heading it up, but I already know it's been in progress for 5 years, so not sure how long it takes to get through graduate school, but surely not 5 years -- maybe one batch of kids started it and others are finishing?

Suzy

Suzy-they are all pretty much the same size-I kinda figured they wouldn't do well in pots, but didn't want to 1st of all leave them out, not planted and 2nd thought they would look nicer giving on pots-that is why I just wanted to get cheap ones that can go with the other giofts I got for them!! But thanks for the other info!! Did U know there are 7 different lilies that have the nicknamke surprise lilies??Found that out when I looked them up...Terese-if ya want some, LMK and I can forward some to ya-like I said, she sent me at elast 2 dozen!!

Yes, that's a good idea -- get them planted (and rooted) in pots, so to speak. I just didn't want you to be disappointed if you thought they would be a pot plant.

Suzy

tcs, you've got plenty of space to plant all of those plants you just may not have the time to do it LOL I couldn't imagine keeping up two places in plants! I started a shade perennial begonia from bluesprial and there are a bunch of seedlings if I have any luck with them I'll save you some for your other place I know you have a lot of shade there and looks like they may go in your entrance way there oh, what zone is that, I'm not sure they will grow there come to think of it, they are only as big as a pin head now :)

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/722/

I'm thinking that it's too cod for these at your other place, I just noticed th zone only goes to 6? But let me know for sure :) You know I don't even think three days of straight sowing woud catch me up, not the way I want to be caught up anyway!

LOL Meredith, I'm the same way I get ready to go somewhere and go to check on my dog tied out before I leave and I always end up getting my hands in the dirt before I get to the car LOL Never fails! And I have a document in word from all of the tips here and just love it and I have to keep records for ansonfan too! So I send him a copy :)

Now Fairy I didn't say those gh were 'big lots, just that they usually have them I haven't seen them this year but I did find two of the three shelf ones at the dollar store but I don't really want the three shelf ones because I can't put plants on the bottom shelves we have so many slugs that they climb to my plants and eat the seedlings so there is one shelf wasted, the shelves I have behind the house has shingles under them to keep the slugs off :) so a three shelf unit wouldn't do me much good, I can only use two shelves. The two new shelves I have in the garage right now in the box that I got at the dollar store has three shelves wish I had noticed that I wouldn't have gotten them but they will come in handy if I don't find anymore this year.

Well they are calling for hard rains AGAIN tonite and more flooding :( One thing is for sure my trees and shrubs ought to do good this year!

Tuink, those beatles sound like some beatles we have here ours go for the clematis and my red cloak if I don't keep them at bay they can clean a plant off in less than two hours I had a pretty little clematis shrub year before last and just loved it went out early one morning to check my plants out and they had already ate it down to the ground! I spray them with alcolhol now and they kills them in their tracks! They like tomato plants too but don't eat those as fast. They are blister beatles.

Thanks for your prayers Wind :) She needs all the help she can get. I always have a gh on my wish list big or small! I grew the maltese cross last year and loved those blooms but they were a little floppy after they come back up this year I'm hoping they don't flop but I wish I had planted more so plant enough that you will have a pretty show, I wanted to grow some more for this year but I have so many other seeds I want to start!

Guess what I saw yesterday lol I was out on the back porch checking my violets out in the gh and I found a coral bean that I tried to germinate last year that I had thrown out there because it wouldn't germinate! LOL It was still a bean looked like I had just gotten it, those are some hard beans LOL

Well I'm outta here watering plants again, you al don't talk so much I'm still not caught up from yesterday LOL

Meredith that Diatomaceous Earth is pretty good stuff it's good for a lot of insects but after a rain you have to apply it again if it rains a lot that year it gets kind of time consuming and expensive this would be a good year for me to use it again if it's not going to rain that much this summer. I just put it in a salt shaker and sprinkle my plants with it, it's good for slugs too around your hosta.

Suzy, I see no reason why you couldn't put the dead rue leaves in your compost I plan on doing that, it's not like they are diseased they are just brown from the winter. I wanted to ask you are the prunella a cool plant cause they don't seem to like the lights should I put those out in the gh?

Ten posts since I sent my last post I'll never keep up with you all today LOL Have a good one!

This message was edited Apr 2, 2008 2:08 PM

LeBug -- I guess i do have a lot of space, since i'm on 2 landscape committees -- plants will be going there too.
In WISC i'm zone4 ... that is where i have shade, and planning on putting all those columbine [plus all the hostas i'm getting.]

I have State property behind my home, and that is where my cottage garden/perennial/wild flower plants are going.

DH and I are heading to Wisc tomorrow, possibly for a few days to check for snow damage .. they got hit hard up there.
If there is still a lot of snow on the roof... we'll have shoveling to do.

aw, those begonias wouldn't be a perennial where you are I was afraid of that :) That's a shame too cause I have a lot of them growing, did you get in fairy's coop she had some NICE plants for there :)

You be careful driving it could still be slick with the snow melting and ice forming!

Just about done watering so now on to planting LOL I went to put some plants in the gh and my dog almost tripped me with his tie, it was under my foot and he took out after the kitty cat lol I already have fractured bones and a calcium deposit in my left foot from my last dog getting the tie around my ankle and chasing after a dog pulled me up in the air and I landed on my back knocked the wind out of me, the xrays didn't show any fractures but now I have calcium deposits and this damp weather we are having makes my foot ake all of the time, these animals are going to be the death of me yet LOL

I've been having power glitches yesterday and today and had a big long response on the Begonia grandis, but it's all gone. They must be hardy to -20 because I have had them for decades. They are the VERY last plant to emerge, usually in mid May-late May. HEAT, they want heat, but are perfectly cold hardy.


Yes, Prunella prefer cool seasons -- very tidy and cute right now, but they are in full and active growth.

I always think I want a cabin or something, but I would hate having to check on it all the time. I just think a string of Holiday Inns is more my real style, even though I am green with jealousy. Mr. Clean wants a cabin in Brown County., Indiana when he retires. What? I want to move to the Northern 1/3 of Florida, Georgia, S, Carolina, something like that....
Suzy

Well my prunella isn't happy, I have a couple that look ok so I'm putting them outside, thanks, I saw a post where a guy in the shade garden thread posted the begonia grandis and was really wanting some seeds but didn't think I would run across some so glad I did now if I just have room in the shade garden for them lol I planted my second tray of midnight beauty orange begonia and only one has come up so far :( I wanted several of those too they looked so pretty in the catalog but doesn't look like I'm going to get anymore that was the last of my seeds.

I'm with you Suzy, when I can I want to move somewhere it's a lot warmer than here! My bones can hardly take this cold damp weather anymore LOL I can only imagine how dad feels!

Lea -- it will be warm enough that there will be no ice, but in our park, they do not plow the roads -- only up to the club house... luckily, we are only 80 steps from the club house, so we are quite accessible in the "off season".

there is still a lot of snow due to all the trees ... i've heard the 'open area' you see ground.
I'll be bringing my camera.

Suzy -- one day, we hope to be snow birds. Keep the place in Wisc [cuz it's really cheap livin' ] and get a place in Fla for Oct to Apr.

and no I didnt get in Fairy Co-Op... i honestly didnt know about it til it was over. I normally don't venture in there ... it'll be the death of my check book.

But if i happen to see a post on some thing that grabs my fancy and i follow the link to the Co-Op forum then ... OH i'm all over it.

That's how I end up in so many coops I see a post that strikes my fancy but then it's not hard to strike my fancy with almost two acres to plant but I did get a lot of nice plants from Fairy I just can't wait to see them bloom and they aren't even here yet LOL

Hey everyone! Had a client meeting this morning, and came home to this :) It's the Supercascade Lilac petunia. I potted up some monster canna tubers a bit ago that I got via a co-op that the Enabler Illoquin turned me on to - they are huge! I picked up a few elephant ears for my sis, she loves those, so I potted those up too, as a surprise for her.

Suzy, I gotta admit I didn't think to look at the thermometer when I fed the dogs at 6:00 - but when I turned them out there was definitely a layer of frost on the lamb's ears, leopard's bane and some other perennials that have started to put out leaves. It's not supposed to get below 29* overnight tonight, so my stuff is back outside in the little greenhouse. After tomorrow night it looks like we should stay in the 40's for a while!! (And yes, rain....)

Lea, I've been meaning to tell you that your friend is in my prayers, but keep forgetting when I get wrapped up in the plants! I hope that she is able to stay out of pain.

I'm so glad to get the info about the Surprise Lilies - cuz they surprised me again this year by coming up in a different place! Now at least I know why!! I'll have to mark them all carefully as that corner is going to get redone this year, and I don't want to hack the hooey out of them when I'm digging things up for transplanting.

Well, the plumber is due in about an hour to fix the kitchen sink - what an annoyance to not have a kitchen sink!! Off to update the Journal :)

Oh, that's really lovely! That one is definitely outperforming both of my other petunia varieties -- more than double the size, and all germinated at the same time. :-)

Thanks Robin for your kind thoughts about Beverly, it's been so long since she hasn't been in pain like at least ten years! She'll appreciate your prayers!

So that's what the lilac petunia looks like I wonder now what the purple one will look like :) And the pink LOL

Ok who does the dishes I bet they were pileing up LOL I hate it when I leave them over night but sometimes I just have to, dad goes to bed so early and I'm usually in the middle of planting something and don't want to stop sometimes you know you have to get that done while you're in the mood or I have to anyway :)

I was looking at the farmer's almanac the other day and the say it's going to storm the weekend of the 26th :( We shall see.

oh, about Specialty Perennials - I can type :)

A "few" daffs?? OK, I must admit to being extremely curious to see Suzy's garden because I spotted all sorts of markers out there during the seed sorting stuff - but I really didn't know what to expect. She's got stuff organized in a way I'd never have thought of, but I'm sure it shows off the, er, few daffs brilliantly! I swear one of these times when I'm over there I'll see seedlings sprouting in her footsteps!!! I promise I will take a pic of one part of her yard so you can see what I'm talking about. The only thing MoBot has on her is acreage....and probably very large greenhouses...

That's LILAC????? Not what I was expecting at all on that Petunia!

Lea, If it's warm enough, the rain won't bother me. Somewhere in the shed is a tent if it would help any...a canopy-style, not camping style.
I sort of HAVE to get down there; there are too many plants here for YOU!

Dryad, You nut! I can hear the howls of laughter and jeering all the way from StL. Yo're on with the typing, though, and congrats on the new client!!

Seedling update: I would say annual Scabiosa can go out early and take a bit of a freeze, so add that to your lists.

Today I went up and down the steps a hundred times carrying flats out to start hardening off, then another 100 times back in as the sun is going down. Ths hardening off prcoess is a bit of "do as I say, not as I do" since most things were out 4-6 hours today, not the hour I was advocating, but I kept checking on them to make sure the sun wasn't too strong, and the temperature wasn't too cold.

I think it was Neal who was advocating the indoor, plug-in fans for stouter seedlings, and you can certainly see the babies waving in the breeze when they are outside. I am a believer!

Outside: Primroses, Snapdragons, Sweet Peas, Bachelor Buttons, Calendula, and Annual Scabiosa if anybody is keeping track. These are things that I sprouted inside and moved outside right away, so no hardening off in case you need to note it. :)) Well, I am cheating on the Sweet Peas because they are in the greenhouse and have been up for about a week.

I have some lilies I should have planted today, and I could have, except I had to be on call in case my mom was able to leave the hospital this afternoon. I couldn't take time to clean up from being a mess, and Lilies are a mess -- ya gotta dig real deep and them add some good stuff to the soil. She is fine, BTW. Her heart rhythm and speed are "not right" and they are adjusting her medicine. She is only in the hospital because she is wearing a heart monitor while they are getting the dosing adjusted. If they can't regulate it, it's pacemaker time, but the woman is 92, so a pacemaker would be just fine and dandy if it becomes necessary.

Oh, when I was in Florida, they had a big section of roses, aaaaah, can you smell them? I went to inhale the fragrance...but it appears the nursery also uses alfalfa meal and it stunk to high heaven! I don't know how they sell a single rose with that stench!

Suzy

LOL - well, it's lilac here - although I do think the camera tends a bit to the bluish side, I've noticed that on some other pics. It really is a darker lilac color than comes across.

Man I must have missed that post that your mom was back in the hospital Suzy, I sure hope she is doing alright... did she have to have her veins cleaned out? Another friend of mine has to have that done real soon.

You have a lot of plants for me Suzy OMG! I'm nt quite sure why I even grow all of these seeds I'll do good to get everything I have in the ground coming in LOL No wonder I have so many plants to overwinter LOL Bring'em on! I love it LOL I have quite a list going for you too :) I've been trying to clean a space out in my garage just incase we need to get in there by the time you all get here I might have a spot about 4' square LOL Really I'm so embarrased about the mess in there I'm really trying LOL We do have two other garages we could get into and they are concrete mine has latice it's more like my summer house lol

Well I'm not getting any panting done today going to have to start now I've been out trimming and getting leaves away from the plants again for the darn rain again tonite, I have all kinds of plants coming up 8^) I'm soo proud! I think I lost a few too though but there will be enough around to replace them I do believe! I can't believe my primrose made it thru all of the water this winter they don't like water and it stands in it everytime it rains! I want to put compost on top of my pots out there but they are so wet I don't want to drown them, what to do....guess I'll just wait until I repot them. I lost a couple of new grasses I think because of the water cause my other ones are coming out I got all of those trimmed today and cut a few hibiscus twigs down.

Suzy, my rue is starting to come out so I went ahead and cut them down to about 6", the little start of it that came up last year is still green and it's only about 6" tall so maybe you should check and see if yours is coming out yet.

Tuink, what about aborea? (sp) I have one plant but it looks dead as a door nail will it come back up from the roots? I really want this plant and we still have some cold weather to go thru yet could I go ahead and WS the seeds I got from you now or should I wait until the freezes are over? I think my next plants I'll plant them against the house seems like they aren't that hardy here anyway but I so wanted to see the variegation on it this year my other one just started showing some when the hard frost got it :( I just don't have that much sun against the house don't even know if it would live there cause it's not full sun only about 5 hrs.

oooh, maybe I'll have blooms on my Lilac Cascade by the time I can put them out. that'll probably be another 5 or 6 weeks.

I had germination in 19 more of my w/s bags today, a good percentage of them annuals. What a nice day it was... reasonably warm and sunny with a good breeze, but not the winds that'll knock you over like we had yesterday.

Well, I figure on the Specialty Perennials deal we can all take a small stake in the biz and do a share of work. Kind of like the ultimate co-op. Then we will split the profit or take it in seeds, of course! If you all agree, I will speak to Harvey about it when I call him again. I'm sure after he hears what I have to say about my order he will be ready to give up the biz for cheap!! LOL

Yes, my wintersowing boxes are really germinating like crazy, too. Some good sunshine out there today too, so I'm excited. I'm also trying to do the hardening off on some of my indoor seedlings, but I've got to set my alarm clock for one hour. It slips by quickly. Thanks for your detailed instructions on this stuff!

Oh, and I went to the doc today about my finger and she said I had 'angry wound' --describing my finger cut--and she almost fainted when I told her I was gardening--I have to go to the hand surgeon in thirty days if it doesn't clear up by then. I'm going to take another close look at the glove co-op page: she scared the - - - - out of me!

I got my delivery of really luscious liatris bulbs from Brent & Becky's today. They are so fat (compared to the ones I bought at Lowe's) so I'm envisioning a great butterfly garden this summer.

I also potted up some (purchased) red geraniums (probably too early/chilly for this but...) in hanging baskets for my early spring "Hummingbird Lure" garden. Hung out my feeder, too, and will put a red ribbon on it. A little early, but we saw our first HBs on April 10 last year.

Illoquin--you are much too modest about your daffs, for sure. I know you have an exquisite display of really interesting ones. Mine are all plain vanilla this year. Not many of my (so called) rare ones came back so far, but I am enjoying the 'pipits' and 'tete a tetes', none the less. I am going to the Daff Show at the Cincy Zoo this year too (I hope).

By the way, I called 'Triple A' and asked them to design a road trip starting about May 1 for me: The Itinerary is: First Stop Le Bug's, then Dryad's, then Illoquin, then on up to Itasca to tcs's and maybe get over to MI to Fairy's, then I'll head home with my trunk loaded with fabulous seedlings and plants! Of course, I can drop off plants/seedlings along the way as needed, too. Sorry, Grampapa, I'll have to stop by your garden on the way to my sister's home in Cooperstown. That may be in June. And I'll hit MD, critter, when I go to my other sister's in Baltimore. Tuink's will have to be at Tulip Time and I'll hit Merediths when I go see my other sister in Maine.

Must go to Big Lots and check on the GH. Thanks for the tip!

Did you all get your cannas from the Horn Canna co-op? I haven't received mine yet and I asked for an early delivery...

Is it too early to plant Sunflowers??! They are so fun.



This message was edited Apr 2, 2008 9:18 PM

Well, if you can't get here for the spring blooms, maybe you can time your trip for oriental lilies (more on their way from Neal's co-op!) and sun-warm tomatoes!

I got a little digging and planting done this afternoon, must go down and check on my seedlings tonight before bed... :-)

Lebug,
I don't know if Arborea comes back from the roots. Sure hope so because mine looks equally dead! I sowed some new ones inside. They did so well that they were banned to the outside where they still do well!

Yesterday a whole box of plug plants arrived that I ordered three months ago and which I had completely forgotten about. AAAARGH, I'm out of space again! More babies will have to be banished to the big, scary outside!

Yikes-tooo much catch-up and not enough time!
Suzy-I had to laugh at your response to our May 30th frost date (we also have some random frosts in June!). Poor us, huh Mer? Did I tell you guys that my greenhouse has been heavily damaged this winter. We're excited about fixing it and it really needed new plastic anyway. None of the wood part of the structure is broken-so that's good. This pic of it was taken last week-the snow is actually packed so hard that it is ice.(needless to say that because of that we still have most of the snow you see in the pic-but we have finally had some melt off) After it broke I was keeping it shoveled off, but then we got a heavy wet snow that froze hard as ice in place. boo hoo! You can see that the footprints go on top of the few feet of snow-that's how hard it is!

More snow has been forecast for the weekend! Please keep your fingers crossed that this is false alarm. This is really so inconvenient!

hey tabasco, don't forget me here in Mt. Laurel on your way to Maine ;)

dryad, I can't believe you have blooms on your petunias already!!!!!! good job...I'm jealous

no snow, but it got really cold here last night...26 deg. I didn't know what to do about the snaps and the viola seedlings, so I took them in last night.

Snow?? Tuink, you're still getting snow?? sigh....

T - come on over!! I make a great cuppa coffee (according to Nora - I've not had the graciousness to invite Illoquin over yet - can you believe that??? massive oversight on my part....) and a good cuppa tea too, and my hot chocolate isn't bad, but I expect we'll be past that. Seriously - Suzy and I live about 4 miles from each other.

With those petunias (I have 7 ready to go full bloom) don't forget that I put some myco. fungi stuff in with them when I transplanted them, and also have fertilized them (weakly) at least three times.

Flower - that is just too much snow. Too bad you can't save it for August!

Suzy, my thermometer this morning read in the low 30's about 7:00, so I think we're gonna be OK, but for all the cloud cover and rain.

Lea, I'll be thinking of you today :) Gotta run down to do some computer stuff for the vet my sis works for, so am about to leave to try to avoid the worst of your weather this afternoon. I'm thinking you may need to reconsider some of your planning and plant some of your yard as a Rain Garden :-P

Hope you all have a great day - I'll check in later tonight.
Robin

Tab-you are welcome to come by!! We have 2 extra bedrooms, so no worries!! Plus we have all kinds of nurseries around and Lake Erie is like 15 mins away!! That would actually be fun to take a road trip and visit & meet everyone in person!! Not sure if you were kidding or not, so if you were, don't make fun of me too hard!!

Lea-I know what you meant, but I about fell over when I read"Well I'm not getting any panting done today". I did not make it to Big Lots to see if they have GH yet, but will let ya know if I find any. I did talk w/ my BIL yesterday about helping me build a 15' trellis and some things that cucs can grow up while lettuce stays cool underneath-don't remember shere I saw them, but we are using either wood or PVC and will have it at about a 35-40* angle and put chicken wire on the top for the cuc vines to climb up. He is also going the help me build the PVC plant rack this next fall so I can get Lisianthus started in Jan. and I am going to do the cat litter heat mat (thought I would try it B4 I spent all kinds of $$ on a reg. heat mat. I also told DH what I want for Bday, ann, & Xams presents this year, so he should be all prepared. He told me to make him a list w/ prices and where to get things and product #ers if it is online-I tell ya, I used to get mad at this type of thing, but if that makes it easier for him then so be it-otherwise I would end up w/ moo moo's and slippers or something!!LOL

Flower-I can't beleive all that snow-HOLY COW!!!

Suzy-didn't know your mom was back in the hospital, hope everything goes OK and she is back home and her new meds work correctly!!

I am excited for these co-op flowers to come in and I love giving things to peeps-makes me fell good to give someone else a smile-so I really hope they all like what I got them!! I thought it was cute!! The surprise lilies are just a small part of it-I did get 88 cent pots @ Wallyworld yesterday and got them all planted up and got mine put outside too!! It was cold wet dirt and still very heavy-had to pick all the worms out to keep em in my soil!! Little guys sure aren't easy to get out of clumps of grass!!;)

Terese-shame on you!! I expect to see you in the Sept 1-it will have APril shipping too and lots of good stuff that I think EVERYONE will be soooo happy with!!

I also have some surprises to put in the co-op boxes too!! What is up with the plumbing down there?? I think it was Lea or Star a bit ago and now Dryad!!

BTW-did you all see Star's classified for columbine??

I need opinions-I am thinking about ordering these-have a $5 off coupon-PLMK
http://www.burpee.com/product/annual+flowers/other+annuals/gerbera+spinner+pink+-+1+plant.do

LeBug, just after you mentioned snakes in your compost too...

check out
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/462/

Tabasco, I am glad you'll be coming here last, it will give me the most time to get my garden up to par! lol :)

Wind-loved the article-I wonder if there is a bunny eating/chasing snake/lizard and a japanese beetle eating one?? I would keep them as pets in a heartbeat!!!

Fairy I was thinking a chipmunk eating- pet snake for my yard lol :)

Tobasco when you go from Lea's to Indianapolis I am about half-way. Come for a visit to my farm. We love company and there will be a few weeds to pull.
Veronica

I'd need a big boa... a really big boa... you should see how big that blasted groundhog has gotten!

Wait -- I missed where Tabasco was offering to pull weeds... Tabasco, friend, buddy, wise & beautiful one... come to Maryland first! :-)

Oh no critter if tabasco gets here first she may be a while pulling my weeds and won't have any time left LOL Come on t, my weeds are awaiting 8^)

Fairy if you just had some garters there they would probably take care of your chipmunk population and they make great pets I've had several in my lifetime, if you kept one as a pet for a while then turned them lose they would hang around your yard and help you out on that problem :) The black snakes would help you out with the rabbits. I had a garter for three years and after I let it go it hung around the garage where it was kept and was probably there until it died. I have a story about trying to scare that snake away if you want to hear it dmail me and I'll tell you lol I don't want to bore anyone with it :) Black snakes wouldn't make a good pet they are too tempermental and get too big for the average person wanting a snake for a pet.

Robin, I think my whole yard is a rain garden in the winter anymore, just wish we had more of this rain in the summer instead of all at once in the winter lol I miss those nice rains in the spring that make your seedlings grow like crazy! But that's when it stops or we have the downpours washing them away!

Thanks wind, I replied to that article hadn't seen it yet :) And wind slip of the fingers lol Glad you got a good laugh LOL

Thanks Tuink, I think I'll go ahead and WS my Arborea and hope for the best :)

Lea-our plan it to throw firecrackers and smoke bombs under the deck where the seem to be living to flush them out, then line the existing fence w/ chicken wire & wire it TOO the existing fence as well so that they can't wiggle it to get in. TO be honest I think if they actuaklly ate my plants, I wouldn't be so peeved-but they don't they just destroy them and leave the pieces right next to it!! My poor Nashiki Willow-I paid xtra for a bigger more developed one and now it has a few little sticks about 10" long and that's it-it was it's 1st winter, but was so pretty in the fall...:(