Nancy--In my post I wrote that I had lived in my home for 42 years among a various assortment of wildlife with no problems. I am in a situation right now which could be very dangerous to me, my visitors, and grandchildren as mother animals of most species will protect their young--sometimes voraciously. I have hired a wild-life specialist to capture and relocate this family. I am an educator and since children are naturally interested in animals and need to learn to respect them, I have used many animal speakers and demonstrations as educational tools in the classroom. The main point we always stress is that wild animals are just that. They may look cute, cuddly, needy, hungry, etc. etc., but they and their territory must be respected. And one must be especially careful around mother animals with babies-- i.e. you don't ever put yourself in a dangerous confliction with them. I did this because I had no clue I was in this situation, and it could happen to anyone anywhere. Most of the animals that are roaming our populated territories are not there because they have no where else to go (I live next door to a huge park), but because they have adapted to city life because that is where the "easy" meals are. Hosta-Junkie--a mother raccoon raises a litter alone mostly in tree nests that they build for that purpose. Her litter stays with her the first year of their life at which time they will often relocate in the same vicinity as she. Babka, I feel you are in a situation that would be past the fun stage of viewing wildlife as an interesting past time, and I feel bad for what you are going through as you can never let your guard down and feel safe in your own yard. I didn't mean for this post to be anti-wildlife. I just wanted no one else to have the experience that I had--like I say, be aware and careful even in areas you normally feel very safe in. Mary

At our house, the harvest is hot and heavy right now. We have potatoes and onions curing everywhere, on every flat surface available. Today I'm going to start slicing and chopping onions to freeze for later use in cooking, and then the rest of the first batch of cured onions will go into tubular net bags for storage. The second onion batch needs to cure for at least another week and then they'll get the same treatment. I'm going to send 10 or 20 lbs. of onions and the same amount of potatoes to work with DS on the next day he works, which I think is Thursday, because I've promised his fire station chef a steady supply of fresh veggies. I am picking tomatoes about every other day, and we have more than we can handle at this point, which is a great problem to have. I don't think it will continue to be such a great tomato year for too many more weeks though, because our temperatures are well above the range at which flowers set fruit.) We need a cold spell here. By cold, I mean any weather with highs only in the low 90s and lows in the low 7os. We have enough tomato fruitset that I think we'll be harvesting all we can handle through mid-July but am not sure what we'll get after that. Yesterday we were down in the metroplex shopping for a few hours and we dropped off two Wal-Mart bags of tomatoes for DS's crew at the station which generated a lot of excitement among them, and saved me from having to do any canning yesterday. (I didn't have time.) On Sunday afternoon I put up 8 quart bags of green beans in the freezer, and I'm going outside in just a few minutes to pick beans again. I was hoping it would be nice and cool this morning, but our low temp for the night was 80, so we're starting out kind of warm already and the sun isn't even up yet. Yesterday morning we harvested the early sweet corn, which was the variety 'Early Sunglow'. We got about 75 good ears and a few bad ones that either had been 'sampled' by the raccoons, had poor fertilization because of the heat or something else that resulted in unusable ears. I gave the bad ears (less than a dozen total) to the chickens who were delighted with them, and put the rest in the refrigerator. We ate some fresh last night and will have more today, and I am going to blanch and freeze the rest this afternoon. Some years the raccoons get all the corn, and there's rarely a year in which we beat them to all of it, so I'm very happy with our harvest. I hope we're able to get as many ears from the mid-season corn and the late-season corn, but we'll be fighting both the coons and the corn earworms and European corn borers, so who knows what we'll get from them. Our garden is in the transition stage, where the last of the cool-season crops have just come out (I finally yanked the broccoli and cabbage because they just weren't doing anything at all) and have been replaced with hot-season crops so we'll have something to harvest in July and August. With highs in the upper 90s and lower 100s already and lows in the mid-70s throug low-80s, our weather here feels more like late July and August than June, so I am concerned about the effect of the heat on the garden---but there's nothing we can do about the heat except go with the flow. The bigger issue is the lack of rainfall. There's been no rain here for about 3 weeks our last rainfall was a half-inch on May 24t), and no good chance of rain anytime for us anytime in the foreseeable future. With 100-degree heat and no rainfall, everything here is rapidly drying out and turning brown, and we are starting to see grassfires. I'm already wrestling with the decision about whether to water or how much to water. We did run the soaker hoses to water the soil/foundation area yesterday, and I'm going to run a soaker hose in the garden today to water a couple of beds, but I am not doing a lot of watering. The problem with trying to keep a veggie garden green in this kind of heat is that the garden becomes an oasis that attracts tons of bugs when everything else is browning out, and we have a lot of wildlife (deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, rabbits, etc.) trying to get into the garden every day and every night. It is going to be a long summer. We have a surging spider mite and grasshopper population too, but also have lots of ladybugs so I'm not overly worried about the mites. The hoppers may be a problem, but only time will tell. Dawn

viola, I sympathize entirely :-)) Between my managerial/buying position for a retail garden center AND running my own design business, spring is a tough time to even slow down enough to take a breath. And in my 12 month gardening climate, I doubt even our spring rush can compete with those located in more limiting climates. My day at the nursery passes in a blur but even with the seasonal crunch, schmoozing with and helping customers is the best part. Unfortunately, I seem to get tied up with more office work at this time of year than I'd prefer. Taking enough breaks is really important - that few minutes away from the sales floor can make all the difference in attitude and enthusiasm. And try to compartmentalize as best as you can - it's tough to give good customer service when you are preoccupied with restocking or ordering for the coming week. And don't forget to have a social life - as tired as you may feel, meeting friends for drinks or dinner occasionally can really recharge your spirits, not to mention spending some quality time with your family or just by yourself. Don't skip days off just because it's the busy season - good garden center managers understand that proper time off is essential to having a good humored and well balanced, enthusiastic sales staff. Organize an afterhours potluck or other gathering - we had a Cinqo di Mayo BBQ afterhours last week to unwind from the Mother's Day weekend prep and gear up for the coming weekend and it was a great stress-reliever (not to mention a ton of good food - don't all nursery workers focus on food??). Believe it or not, I find coming home and spending a bit of time in my own garden is a great diversion from all the other activities. Yes, I work with plants all day long (and with garden designs well into the night) but finding a few moments to spend putzing around my own garden seems to put everything else into proper perspective. But I sure wouldn't mind having a personal assistant to tend to my other affairs - just finding time to return calls, pay bills, take the dogs in for grooming (or me for a haircut) and the car for servicing, even emptying the dishwasher sometimes seems more than I can manage. Just remember that the crunch period passes - sometimes all too soon - and pace yourself.

Looks like a great space with lots of opportunities. Just some advice I've gotten over the years: Visit wild places near you with a field guide and identify what native plants live there already, particularly those that provide food and shelter for wildlife. (Be sure to take into account sunlight exposure and moisture level to match to your site.) Then find a local supplier of seed or plants and purchase your plants. Before you plant, remove as many invasive species as you can (sometimes this is a project of many years) (multiflora rose, buckthorn, asiatic bittersweet, garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed, etc.). Design a gently curving pathway that leads through the woodland and has one or more "destinations" (doesn't just wander aimlessly) - could be a bench, or a specimen tree or shrub. Plant in odd-numbered irregularly-shaped clumps - largest plants farthest from the viewer (in house, on path, etc.), smaller plants closer. Don't try to do everything all at once - go section by section - this is a long-term project, and that's a good thing. Water carefully for the first year - after that, the natives shouldn't require much more maintenance (although you'll have options: deadheading, seed collecting, dividing, removing unwanted reseeds). Be patient - it may not look all that full the first couple of years (don't mind the gaps), but just wait - you'll be amazed. -- wd