OT- Summer Garden pics- part 2
MMP_
Great post! Feel free to email me if you like! Love to keep this conversation going but it was too long so I started a new thread. Thanks for your offer for the bulb, no worries (if you remember) just let me know, we can keep in touch if you'd like a trade.
I'm home for 4 days- trying to lay low. Back using my cane- but finally going for a MRI on Monday! I'm on prednasone and a muscle relaxer.
I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel- we'll know whether I need surgery to repair a tear or may just need injections. Any way this has been going on far too long! (since Feb) I am learning to lean on Him, and just rest, something very hard for me! Working is like a drug for me- and yes, you're right, sometimes we have to get knocked off our horse to refocus. (even if it's because of something WE caused) I'm fine with it all- in my heart, I know it'll help to make me a better person!
On a different note, whereabouts do you live? I've read that the native toads in Fla. were overrun by an imported toad and sadly, the natives were eliminated. That's great that you're trying to stay organic, that will help the beneficials in your gardens. You can encourage toads to live in your gardens by providing toad houses for them to live in during the hottest part of the day. (although I know they do burrow under ground to stay cool) Just take a clay pot turn it upside down, and put a few little rocks on one side to make an entrance way. I also had a beautiful urn that was broken, and it provided just the right home for my toadies!
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I even saw a beautiful garden snake the other day. Hope he eats these darn voles that are wreaking havoc in my gardens. Last year I'd lay a bait of peanut butter mixed with D con and stick it inside their tunnels, far back enough so other pets wouldn't get into it. It worked amazingly well. They'd eat every last bit, then they'd pull the dirt surrounding their entrance into the tunnel to block up their hole and I'm guessing, died. They are back again this year. So I found some rat poison that they really love. They were feasting on my marvelous hostas, eating whole root stocks! I'd wonder why a hosta was wilting, til I gently tug on a plant and it would come right out of the ground! I'm sorry, but I do pull out the big guns (pesticides) as you say, from time to time, but for the most part, I let nature take it's course. The "cats" on my brugs seemed to have stopped their feeding. Probably turned into moths and butterflies by now, because there are new leaves growing with no damage.
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Oh well.Those badly damaged leaves will eventually fall off. I know that all kinds of wasps will search and carry off many types of "cats" and stuff them into their nursery chambers when they lay their eggs. The emerging larvae will then feed on the "cats". So I don't rush out right away anymore to kill everything that isn't right! Doesn't help that I have a butterfly garden with anise, butterfly bush, and other attracting shrubs mixed in with my angels!Duh! :) For the ammonia recipe- it's 1 tablespoon for a gallon of water. Add a squirt of dawn dish liquid, and a bit of oil to make it stick. Spray the undersides and tops of leaves, once a week. It really did work for spider mites. Here's some other photos I took of my gardens.
My shade garden with hostas and gingers
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Garden next to my gh- this is the only one that gets my attention, small enough to manage
I started these Persian Shields from cuttings from last year. They are so drought tolerant!
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This is a photo of my driveway near my brug gardens.
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OhToGrow
kasha77Original Author
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