Hi RedMaggie!
Those are my kind of cats....they earn their keep! I agree about taking care of business outside though.
I have those little tin can "Hotel California" ant baits on all my windowsills on the back porch and they're working. Absolutely NO MORE sap-spitting oleanders for me!
DON'T EVEN THINK OF BUYING THIS PLANT!
sedrick - I've had a bad week in the animal department :) I have company coming this weekend and I really wanted the flower beds to look nice.
Sedrick, Toni and Red Maggie: you three should be a comedy routine! I really was hysterical to the point of tears.
For ants: spray with plain old vinegar, then spray again.
For voles, moles and any critter than puts it's paws to it's mouth:
get Cayenne pepper (cheap at the big box stores) and it burns their little rotten mouths! One vole was running around (as we watched) chasing his tail - he had bitten off the bottom of a jalapeno pepper.
Sstateham NEEDS A VACATION FAR AWAY FOR A MONTH! Just wildly funny.
Sedrick: you must stay. Buffalo sized flying ants - can't wait to dream about them tonight. Wildly hysterical.
BEST THREAD IN A LONG TIME!
Hi Pirl!
You think the vole put on a show... you should have seen me after I took a big bite out of a "real" jalopeno thinking it was one of my no-heat False Alarm jalopenos! I had hic-cups for an hour! Maybe instead of trying to drown the rodent I'll try a different "neighborly" approach and leave him a nice hot jalopeno "sammich" outside his vole hole. My life is turning into a Wile E. Coyote episode!
It is a great thread, isn't it, Arlene? A lot of my favorite people here, all being witty and silly.
Sylvia, God knows I've got plenty of this geranium to spare, but I don't think it would travel well. I've had some miserable failures with transplants of it. Luckily, it eventually shows up in every spot in the garden, and it's just a matter of pulling it out wherever it's not wanted. It's really easy to pull, thank goodness.
bawahahahah... (note to self - anemones attract dog poop / don't get anemones)
just got back from the exotic land of Peoria. If I didn't know better, I'd of sworn I was back down in Charleston SC or rural GA or something.
I've got a cat but he stays in the house. Period. He's cool but the ones that get out to prowl at night and get up into trees after roosting birds really ticks me off. Makes me give dirty looks to Dusty when I come in.
Welcome back 8ft :) The poop has been removed, and we're just about ready for the party. My department beat their goals for the 1st and 2nd quarters by a mile, so I'm throwing them a party. I prefered a poopless party.
My sweety, Skip, loves the birds that come to his feeders. The neighbor's cat has taken to lurking under the feeder in the shrubs. She got a goldfinch the other day. I like cats, but they really ought to keep better tabs on their pets.
Well, let us know how your party went and if anyone said anything about those droopy daylillies!
lol - will do, levilyla. I never did end up doing anything with them. I've been busy getting everything else ready. I have 7 hours to go, and my to-do list is mostly crossed off. I started cleaning the family room in the basement yesterday and ended up rearranging the whole thing. I decided last night over a margarita that maybe I need to stop being such a perfectionist. The beer is here, food is cooked, house is clean, and we're just down to the odds and ends. I have some weeding and set-up tasks to do today, but other than that we're in good shape.
what? beer there? you forgot to post the address!!
A wise choice indeed: I also always have a margarita when I'm deciding whether I should be a perfectionist.
Well, I am not a perfectionist and I decided that over a Jim Beam on the rocks years ago.
I don't believe in hasty or rock-bound decisions, so I get to have a margarita every time I contemplate this matter.
LOL all :) Funny how a little alcohol and bring you to your sense, but a little more and you lose them again. I have to admit to a quick weeding at the last minute.
We had about 30 people, and I made WAY to much food. Skip's peaches (he grills them) and the bbq beef I made were a huge hit. Everything went off without a hitch. It was hotter than hades, but most everyone got in the pool. The bbq is about gone, but there's plenty of leftovers of everything else.
Our boy (21) and a couple of his freinds helped a lot with the cleaning and set up, and will be back today to help tear down. By the time they set up the tables and the planters, it looked like the grounds of a hotel out back. He has the pool, leftover beer, and food remnants for him and his buddies this afternoon as a reward for his hard work. He was a very happy guy when he went down last night to check on his take. There's a good 1/4 barrel of Rolling Rock left, one of the pork tenderloins, potato salad, beans, and a fridge full of dips and spreads. I have faith that a crowd of strapping young men will finish it all off for me.
Glad it went well...how about a recipe for the grilled peaches.
I have just had the best laugh! Stacy, your list of garden plagues went through my mind like a Chevy Chase movie!"....and the dog pooped in my anemones" ended it so hysterically poetically, like "and a partridge in a pear tree"! I certainly felt your pain though. I love to entertain in the garden and get pretty obsessive about making everything perfect, and that's always when the critters strike.
Toni, I've been battling moles, another little monster from h---! My soil is soft and sandy, so they plow through everything. I heard using castor oil in a hose end sprayer makes them leave, so I'm trying that. I did notice that after applying I saw less activity in the beds and more in the lawn. You're supposed to re-apply after rain and it's been raining a lot, so I'm seeing activity again. At least when they leave the garden my dog usually gets them. I hate what she's doing to the lawn, but she does kill a lot of them. The lawn there is going to be garden next year anyway, so I'll just let Sophia dig it up for me! She knows she's not allowed to dig (or enter) the gardens and stands, stares, and whines when she sees activity in there.
On nicotianas, I'm loving mine(from Toni) and am willing to deal with seedlings for them. They remind me of fireworks exploding above the rest of the flowers and make the garden look like a celebration!
On ants, Terro ant killer works well for sweet loving ants. Boric acid is the active ingrediant, so it's safe for critters and people. Put a drop on a piece of paper where you see them, they take it back to the nest, and it takes out the nest in a day or two.
Sorry-very long winded today. Good luck everybody! Neal.
I'll be back in panic mode in a couple of weeks. I found out this morning that my parents are coming for a visit. My mother is a wonderful lady, but she's a clean freak and a master gardener. I feel a couple of margaritas coming.....
levilyla - The peaches are very easy - leave the skins on, just cut in half and remove the pit. Marinate cut side down for 1/2 hour in olive oil, rosemary (fresh if you have it) and a little black pepper. Grill cut side down on medium heat for a few minutes - just until the flesh gets a little soft and you get a little carmelization. This works just as well with necartines. The trick is to choose fruit that is ripe but not too soft. They're not very sweet - we serve them as a side dish not a dessert. They go great with lamb.
Peaches sound great--thanks for the recipe (from a lurker). Very glad your party went well. I miss the days when our two "boys" (now mid-thirties, married and out of state) were my crew, and we rewarded them in much the same way.
Yes, I agree...mine are now 40 41 and 42! Time does get away...I am going to try those peaches. They sound great.
I love the peaches recipe. What do you use to cook them on? Like, are they on the gril directly or a special plate or something just for the peaches?
I guess I should have mentioned that, pins. You grill them. Skip usually throws them on when he takes the meat off to "rest". They just take a few minutes. They're one of those things that look and taste "gourmet", but are really easy. When he gets really fancy with his lamb dinners, he puts a thin layer of wild rice pilaf over the whole plate, then the meat, and the peach on top. Very pretty and soooo yummy. I'm lucky to have a guy who's such a great cook (I did ask his permission before I shared his recipe)
sounds like a job for roundup