I live on a farm in VA and have finally had to give in and allow someone to come shoot these guys. I quite love them, and have huge respect for the grand daddy, who has lived at this farm longer than I have, surviving total bulldozing of the old garden, complete rebuilding of the old farm house (under which he also used to live) and my 2 Border Collies. Besides, they remind me of my beloved Lhasa Apso who has passed away. HOWEVER, I've been living here for 10 years and starting 2 years ago, the GH (who has since created quite an impressive giant condo complex under a pile of old wood from the old razed barn) finally started annihilating my garden. Despite what some people here have posted I can tell you, they are quite smart & have a keen sense of hearing. GHs live in burrows underground (like a cave). It always has more than one entrance/exit. They generally come out early in the morning and at sunset. I have an entire wire cattle fence, along with electric hot wire all along the entire bottom perimeter of my fence to keep my dogs in (who like to constantly dig under and run away whenever they hear thunder, gun shots or just feel like it!). This hot wire is set for the highest level of shock, and will keep a horse or bull away! This is only 1 foot away from the GH woodpile den. My garden is inside this fence and then inside yet another fence, which is also hot wired at the ground level. Yet, the GHs know full well how to go around the fence, burrow under the fence, whatever. All I know is they have started again eating every tomato I have that starts to ripen and will absolutely take every melon we are growing. And they could care less about my Border Collies who know the word "Ground Hog" and will dive and dig at the hole if you say that to them. The GH just goes somewhere in his condo complex and doesn't give a hoot. I should say though that my 2 dogs are 2 goofy lovebugs and routinely take their balls & toys to the cows and any other critter in hopes they will play, and would never hurt any little critter intentionally (unlike most farm dogs.) If they did encounter the GH, they'd probably offer him a tomato. After years of only seeing the old grand daddy GH, last week I saw him showing the ropes to a little one. Last night my farm tenant came over with a high powered rifle and shot the old guy, but also said he saw another giant one (probably the mom) and a smaller one. There is likely a huge family under there. It made me feel guilty and wistfully sad, but at the end of the day, not only would I be fighting a losing battle of the garden, wild animals carry disease, fleas, ticks with Lyme, if cornered they have huge claws & fangs, and the holes they dig can cause someone (or my dogs or cows) to break their leg. If you are going to try a humane trap (which I did), they are extremely smart and you will have a long wait and will have to create the trap to mimic a hollow den or they are not dumb enough to go into a metal contraption - LOL! I agree with the hunters posting above that if you are going to shoot at it, get someone who knows what they are doing and will kill the animal humanely and put him out cleanly. Shooting at him with a BB gun is cruel, as it will not kill him, just cause wounds, suffering and illness. Hope this helps! Now I'm also on the case of the bunnies, voles and whatever is now eating all my blackberries! ARGH! LOL!!!!

Stan, Great you find an heirloom melon you love. Netted Gem is a great tasting green fleshed melon. I had a few good ones but some of the plants were overcome by cucumber mosaic virus, as were some of the Ambrosias. Nonetheless, they were good and early. Other green ones to try are: Jenny Lind, Galia (heirloom and various hybrids such as Vanilla Ice and Passport), its close relative Haogen with softer flesh and banana-pineapple aftertaste, Rocky Ford, and Butterscotch which I could only find in the hybrid "Sweetie" which is both green and orange flesh. They've all done well here in coastal So. CAL. They're all favorites of mine taste-wise as well. The one I haven't been able to grow is Montreal Melon, the recently rediscovered large green heirloom. Charentais, when it's happy, is just as sweet and delicious IMO as anyone of the above. But it's personal preference. I found a vendor at the Farmer's Market locally, and their Charentais isn't as good as the ones I've grown. I think they overwater because the taste is good but not great.

Mantis - Princess Diary survived two of our bad winters, so its proven hardy here. I also love the blooms, and they always open without issue. The Princess multiplies well. It's only about three inches shy of the registered 30 inch scape. Most importantly to me, it is setting seed pods. So, in my opinion, it has all positives. Here's today's earlier photo without the moth. Debra

My most recent good surprise is Pinata. I agonized over and researched getting a rose for a shady spot. Pinata was the only one that said "preferred" shade in the reviews. I saw the blooms at High Country Roses but was not smitten. Too small and not that gorgeous. In the end I got it anyways. The bloom I have is a greenhouse bloom since it was set in the green house but my oh my, it is gorgeous and long lasting. Here is was Sat. Aug. 31. The size was much bigger than I anticipated. More of a smaller large bloom than even a larger medium bloom. Here it is Sun. 9/1/19 Wed. 9/3/19 Yesterday Friday 9/6/19 Then today, a full week after blooming it is losing one petal. Sat. 9/7/19. I love it when a rose ages gracefully. To me the bloom is still gorgeous at the end. And lasting a full week is appealing to me also. I hope it behaves the same when it gets established. We put this rose in without much enthusiasm and much backward and sideways looking for something that I liked better and it turns out I like it quite a bit. So it is a happy surprise.