Foliage has always been important to me. Blossoms are nice and are a large part of the garden, but foliage is what carries it through the seasons and makes a landscape garden, instead of just a cutting garden for blossoms. When I see people's gardens on the internet usually I see a collection of close-up flower pictures. That's not a garden, it's a nursery catalog. It has no sense of 'place'. The setting is just as important as the foliage or flower in my mind. Where is it located in the garden? Also, I've noticed there seems to be just pictures of perennial foliage. That limits this Forum quite abit. What about conifers and trees I know there is a separate forum for those, but I think they should be included here too. In fact, anything without blossoms being the main part of the picture qualifies as far as I'm concerned. ""

Claire, I am not sure I've ever heard the term cute associated with starlings . . . ;>) Jane, that series of robin photos is absolutely stunning. I am always interested in the content of photos, but this month there have been a bunch of really lovely photos as far as composition and clarity. I'll submit some photos which are a bit more basic than artistic. I'm not sure how Claire gets such stunning turkey photos. Ours are very wily, and if I open a window or door to take a photo, they jog off in the opposite direction to the nearest shelter. So mine are taken from inside the house, and often through a combination of screen and glass. During the recent snowstorm, our local flock scooted across the road and down into the cornfield. I managed to catch a couple of photos before they disappeared into the evergreens to find shelter. They were moving much faster than usual; definitely looked unhappy about the weather. Arriving down the access drive into the field: From Turkeys in the snow December 27, 2012 And halfway across, scuttling rapidly towards shelter: From Turkeys in the snow December 27, 2012

I saved this old thread from when I first started visiting Garden Web - I don't remember what forum it was on. After my post, Spike (the venerable ur-webmaster) pulled the thread. I never knew if it was my fault, the last straw. That also happened to me on another thread. I felt like the little kid who hammered a nail into a telephone pole just as a huge blackout occurred, and thought he caused it. Claire (Note the date of the first post.) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by Ted - Maine - 4b on Sat, Apr 1, 00 at 18:59 I woke up this morning and went out to check on my primroses. To my horror, they were nearly all gone! After checking around the bed for a while, I discovered two *enormous* yellow slugs slinking away. At six inches long, they're about twice the size of any slug I've seen before! Could these be banana slugs? I've heard horror stories about the way they gobble up perennials. I thought they only bothered gardeners in the Pacific NW, but with global warming, we've been having some unusually mild winters lately in the Northeast. Maybe we're due for an invasion of banana slugs? ----------------- Follow-Up Postings: RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Kerry on Sat, Apr 1, 00 at 21:03 OH dear, they are spreading, these slugs are usually huge and are a puke green to very dirty yellow looking and have dark green to brown spots on them. There are many ways to get rid of them, on it to take you salt shaker out with you to the garden and sprinkle them liberally, when i say liberally i mean it! They have a tendancy to slough off a layer of slime that has been salted and get away, those little buggers, another way, a little more wierd is to put cheap beer in a wider saucer, they LOVE beer and will go into the saucer and drown, and the beer kills them anyway if the drowning doesn't. So keep up the fight, and I hope you win, by the way i heard sprinkling salt around the area keeps them annoyed also. good luck, Kerry ------------------- RE: Delicious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Karen in Toronto - 6a on Mon, Apr 3, 00 at 12:07 Ted and Kerry, since you know that beer attracts slugs, you might be interested in learning that salt, while killing the banana slugs, also makes a very good seasoning for them. While visiting a friend down south(Leamington, Ontario), we had a very tasty meal of banana slugs, dredged in coarse sea salt, dipped in beer batter, and deep-fried. They taste kinda like zucchini. PS - the above story is not true. I don't eat deep-fried food. PPS - Good one, Ted!! --------------- RE: Delicious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Ted - Maine - 4b on Mon, Apr 3, 00 at 16:36 I like the "coarse sea salt" touch. Also, it stands to reason they *would* taste like zucchini . . . ----------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: chris on Tue, Apr 4, 00 at 18:52 Hi, just a brief note, don't go haywire with that salt! I did last year. It killed the slugs. it also killed my lettuce, all of it. I have heard vinegar is another way to get rid of them, however don't know the results on lettuce! ick. Slugs are my most favorite enemy now. Who'd ever think I'd hate a bug? mollusk, whatever, that much! ------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Nancy - PNW on Wed, Apr 5, 00 at 0:24 If you have kids they can be a great help in slug correction. I invented the "Slug-a-pult" for their removal. It consists of a slender bamboo rod, as long as the person is tall. Secure the slug onto the pointed end, then carefully lift it up and back, so that by whipping the bamboo forward, the slug is flung 100 yards or so. Kids enjoy the competition of seeing who can fling their slug the farthest. There may be a problem if you have neighbors. ----------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Nadine NY5 on Wed, Apr 5, 00 at 7:42 Vinegar with lettuce sounds like instant salad. Add some olive oil, and you're all set! ---------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Jan - 7 on Wed, Apr 5, 00 at 21:14 LOL!!!! But seriously, there's a product called Snarol, a powder, I used it last year on the strawberries because the slugs were eating them.. It had to be re-applied after rain. Also, I was told (but never tried) that slugs hate pain, and you can create a "barrier" by spreading that gravel sold for fish-tanks around your plants. ------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: The Slug - 6a on Thu, Apr 6, 00 at 12:09 You people kill me. Signed, The Slug ----------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Beverly VA N 5a6b - Shenandoah Valley on Fri, Apr 7, 00 at 0:32 Just stumbled on this web page that you all may find interesting. It recommends killing slugs with vinegar. Here is a link that might be useful: Slugs and Vinegar ------------------------ RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Rhonda - 7 on Fri, Apr 7, 00 at 22:04 I had to smile when I read this, the only memory I have of San Francisco I have is one of the huge banana slugs in a Japanese botanical gardens there. Luckally we didn't have them in Atascadero, where I grew up. Thanks for the memory. Rhonda -------------------- RE: Voracious banana slugs in the northeast! Posted by: Claire - MA 6b on Fri, Apr 7, 00 at 22:13 Banana slugs can also be dried for future culinary use. I find the easiest way to dry them is to hang them from the branches of any smallish tree. If you choose the brightest yellow slugs, you get a good facsimile of a golden chain tree with the slugs dangling down. When they're fully dried, you can harvest them whenever you need a quick, nutritious meal. Claire

VERY GOOD, Misty! Wow! I don't have a CLUE how to do a "screen shot"---never even heard of that before---but, boy, does that ever do the trick! I was sitting here trying to figure out how to "show" the link without having it "become a picture!" When I first tried to show the href part of the "embed" link and the whole post came up underlined and in BLUE, I just sat here and cracked up! I think I might copy your screen shots---yes, I found the other one in your album---into MY Picasa so I have them handy for future reference if somebody else is having trouble trying to figure it out. Back when I was first trying to figure out how to post pics, BPgreen took the time to spell it all out step by step for me, and I've always appreciated it so much! Wish he still posted around here more! Anyway, thanks for the GREAT help in showing Silver how to do it! That was an incredible idea! Silver, let us know if that doesn't help you figure it out and we'll try again! Re my "choice of pictures," I was in a hurry and looking down my albums for something to post as an example, and the first pic is the cover I had chosen for the album for my trip in June. When I saw it, I just couldn't resist posting it! Here's another shot---looking toward the (back of the) house I was staying in---yes, it DID have a bathroom! It's a FIVE bedroom house that's on the National Registry of Historic Places---and it was $60 a nite! The whole house! I was out in the boonies TOTALLY alone! The doors still used old fashioned "skeleton keys," and they couldn't find the key to one door---so they told me to "just not worry about it"---"it" being, locking the door! I didn't worry about IT! LOL Here's the whole, cool, place! It's in the Nebraska panhandle! And, yep, the barn was included in the $60! It was built in 1914 without blueprints, with lumber cut on the property! And if you're wondering "how my brain works" when it comes to photography, here's a pic of the Facilities at another one of the places where I stayed. :-) Skybird P.S. Misty, I got your email. Have just been too busy to reply yet. Thanks for sending it---I was planning to email you---but didn't get it done!