lmao Karyn, I know alot of people hate it cuz it's invasive, but I told DH he could have the back of the yard for his crap, and I really want something hardy and full that will climb high to be at the back of beds to block his crap..an old van he uses as storage..crap! his junk he brings home he thinks he may someday have a need for..crap!! And I need something to cover the shed in the back, I usually use morning glories and moon flowers, but was thinking of using the trumpet vine this year. I don't want ivy cuz I hate how bees n wasps make their homes in it. Aw, poor mystery snails. went to heaven with my poor lil plecos. Yeah those stupid koi are survivors, lol. Mine are getting stupid too. They hide all the time now. I think it has something to do with something trying to get them. The other day mine were coming up to the top right in front of me when I was feeding them. Now they keep hiding. Do you have your calla in the ground? Maybe I should put mine in the ground when they are done blooming. Well, I went out weeding, and found another one of those lil babies..I pulled it. Wasn't a runner, had a tiny lil root system. Watch it be something I threw down seeds for in the fall, lol. But I did leave the other one so we'll see what it is, and if anyone has any guesses and proves to be right..well then..they'll be right, lol. Sorry no prizes :) I have so much coming up, and threw down so many seeds, I'm scared to pull anything.

When I rolled over an old log on the ground and there was a nest of baby garter snakes under there. Loudest scream I think I have ever uttered. The big ones generally don't bother me but that nest....eeeew! When my dachshund slurps up the garden slugs on the sidewalk. Truly gross, she also eats other bugs. My old (deceased) one used to go after bumblebees and eat them and she didn't seem to mind. (That dog was as indestructible as a cockroach though, lived to 16 and a half years old). Seeing my old sugar maples die of verticillium wilt disease and there is seemingly nothing I can do about it. Even worse when I have to pay $300 (actually a reasonable rate around here) a piece to get them taken down.

For me, my biggest problem plants are: Bishops Weed - such nice variegated foliage, but the plant is a monster. It can take over Lily of the Valley and kill it, which I wasn't sure was possible. It is also almost impossible to remove effectively. I've been battling this one for years. And then they sell it at local nurseries for $5 per pot. Unbelievable. Mint - someone planted it in the ground just "for the winter" and we've have trouble getting rid of it. I think we might finally be having some success. I will always want mint, but I'm afraid it will have to stay in a pot from now on. Maple Tree - Oh, I could go on forever about this. Our town plants them on "town" property, right on the edge of the street and then asks us, as property owners, to take care of them. But why Maple Trees? Why not a tree that doesn't send seedling out by the thousands every year? I have little Maple trees growing everywhere. Some start in the middle of my shribs so you can't even see them till they are larger and it is too late to just yank them out. Some people (non-gardening neighbours) decide not to pull them out so we have mid sized Maples springing up all over. Not a good situation. I think if towns insist on planting rows of trees up and down the streets, they should choose a tree that isn't such an aggressive spreader! Dandelions too. Seems no matter how many you remove, there will always be neighbours who don't bother . . . so the seeds blow in anyways! I'm just very happy I never planted Morning Glories in the garden as well. I think the seedlings from that, added to all the others I deal with, would be the end of me!

You are right Jane, there 'should' be a balance. Unfortunately, the South has long been plagued with Fire Ants which are not native to this country (something I learned to enjoy about my short time in northern Michigan was the complete lack of Fire Ants). As such, they create a massive imbalance on their own and they're next to impossible to get rid of completely, we can merely control them. They've been trying everything they can think of to eradicate them, but nothing really works for very long. Fire Ants can actually learn to avoid certain baits, so what might work one summer might not work the next and you have to find a new bait to get them. Lately, thanks to Monsanto and GMO supporters, everyone is looking for 'organic' solutions for everything, including ant problems, but from what I've read, researchers are finding that 'organic' solutions for ant control are 1) quite ineffective and 2) can actually be worse for your yard/soil/plants than the chemical baits. While I'm no expert, far from it, I think that as long as the bait and the ant mounds are outside the drip-line of the citrus trees, things should be fairly safe. There is a biological answer to fire ants, but scientists and biologists are having a hard time to get things figured out how to make it work in the US. There is a parasitic fly, Phoridae, in South America that is the Fire Ant's natural predator in that region and a group of them can quickly decimate ant hills. Last I had read, they had tried using the flies in Texas, but the flies, used to the tropical humid climate of their home, quickly died in Texas's dry heat. But the scientists found that all the fire ant mounds up against the test house, where humidity was a little higher, and been thoroughly neutralized. It seems to me that Florida's high humidity would be prime for testing the flies on our ants, but I haven't read of any such tests in Florida as of yet. Not that I've been looking either. Edit: And the really frustrating part... even if you manage to put a huge dent in the fire ant population in your yard, even if you manage to almost completely remove them, if all your neighbors around you, even the ones across the street, don't do the same, it is only matter of time, a short amount of time, before they come back. This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Mon, Aug 19, 13 at 16:34