So what's eating your garden? Reprobates and misfits....

The evidence.....

The culprit....

The remedy?.... something that tastes foul (and, in this case, definitely not fowl!). What's your pest and what's your remedy?

I don't have a canine problem, but I heard hot pepper spray works well.

Who knew Red Hot Poker flowers are so tasty? Cute puppy. What breed is he/she?

He's a westie (west highland white terrier). I'm not sure it tasted all that good. He made quite a face on his second try :-) I'm guessing he was after the nectar. Hummingbirds love this plant.

So I've heard. I just recently received this plant in a trade, and I am really excited about it. I have yet to attract hummers, but we have plenty of birds of prey, which is pretty cool.

"but we have plenty of birds of prey"

Yeah, so do we (sigh). This guy sitting on my back fence is looking for all the little gold finches he just flushed from my feeder. I've even seen one catch and eat a hummingbird.

I love hummers too, but have been also having a problem attracting them.

You guys are putting out feeders, right?

I have lots of colorful flowers in my yard, especially red. I've read that red gets their attention :-)

We've been seeing more rufous. They are really cute. I will say we have not had as many this year and I'm blaming the cold spell. Very strange. Orioles were late arriving, too.

No, I admit I am not putting out hummer feeders. Just not something I wanted to invest in at this time, and also the only hummer I ever attracted came to my very first night blooming jasmine way back in college. It was so unexpected- such a delight. I've heard of many folks who have attracted hummers with just their plantings. I would be delighted by an incidental hummer sighting, but I am just beginning to add layers to this five acres. I want to get into amateur bee keeping, I want more chickens, I want geese and guineas for the yard, I want my vegetable garden back, I want that barred owl I've been hooting to to stick around and make a nest, I want to see that Bald Eagle again we saw hanging around last fall (first pair sighting in 10 years in SoFla- and the male stopped by our house many times), I've adopted my first dog from the pound ever in my life last year and had to install the electric dog fence.... We have regular feeders, which attracts red bellied woodpeckers, cardinals, etc. and even then we really had to make them squirrel proof. Also, rufous doesn't occur here on the East coast, at least that's what I am told. All we get is Ruby throated, as far as I know. I went to the Chiriqui region of Panama a few years ago, and I could'nt walk out the door without seeing a rainbow and a hummingbird. I haven't been to Haiwaii, but I have to say that was paradise for me.

Re: those dogs that see an irresistible target and charge through the electric fence after it.... have you ever wondered if they will mosey on back through that electric charge to return to containment?

I've been watching The Dog Whisperer, of course. And I have my family, neighbors and friends to talk to about this issue. I don't think this dog is the type to charge the electric fence. He's just not aggressive enough, and he's not a dominant personality. We work with him a lot and he's naturally obedient in general. I've never heard of any negative experiences with dogs and electric fences- just a whole lot of really good feedback, which is why I chose to invest in it. The only asterisk I know of is to check the battery in the receiver, which hasn't even come up so far. Otherwise, I've heard of stories of never even turning the fence back on or leaving the dog outside all the time during the workday because one shock was enough. If you have some other experience, I would love to know, and you are welcome to Dmail me. Thank you for your concern Miss Jackie!

"I've never heard of any negative experiences with dogs and electric fences"

I have. And one big problem is keeping the aggressive dog that will charge an electric fence out of your yard and away from your pet. Electric fences will not protect your pet or family from such an intruder.

Here
"Why I Really Hate Electronic Shock (Invisible) Fences"
http://www.positivedogs.com/electronic_fencing.html

Be sure to check out the links, especially comments from dog trainer Lisa G

p.s I do wish you the best with your new family member :-)

My tortoise escaped one day and ate all my elephant ears!!! So inocent looking...so....hungry?

Oh, my! That's terrible! Your poor, deaf elephant! (now I know what turtles eat :-)

hahahhaha! it was the first time I felt like killing a tortoise...

I grew a bunch of asclepias from seed recently to attract Monarch butterflies and to support their dwindling population. Attract them I did, but meanwhile I had planted the populated plants around a ring under the mule palm with my Dombeya. I thought, Oh, I don't think they eat anything but asclepias. I came home to a completely defoliated Dombeya today- Oh my! I'm sure that was the final enstar and couldn't find any cocoons for the storm today, but in the future, those little guys will have to be "redirected."

argh!