Hi Julie! Actually I had been doing that to a limited extent with mint around the roses. Our deer are pretty aggressive, we have a steep hill right by our fence, and they stand up there to eat my 2 daylilly plants..ugh! I'm just going to station my dog out there every few nights during the growing season, that will show 'em! :) So far the only thing that helps is to put dead sharp sticks that are longer than the growth. I tried deer netting, but they eat the new growth..plus black snakes get tangled in it too. Argh! At least they haven't eaten my sweetbriar rose yet, and the good thing is I did have a few roses that were 'own root', so hopefully a few will come up. So far I've only seen 4 of them and they were all of that Dr Huey! Grr... That is a great suggestion though. I had some success spraying a garlic/oil/dishwashing mixture on the plants (and others like my fruit trees) last year.

Thanks to all who responded. Yes, my eye began slowly working it's way back to normal. After the first day, it had gone down to about half the size it was the night before, and was starting to show some response to light. By the second day, I was able to focus my eye again, and by the third, it seemed normal, if not still slightly sensitive to light. Those first 2 days I had to wear sunglasses even in the house because even the sunlight coming in the windows was painful. Definate lesson learned here, I think when working with these plants from now on, I will wear gardening gloves, as a precaution that I wont absently wipe or scratch my eyes, and be sure to wash thoughoughly upon coming back inside. Very scary indeed when you make a living as a freelance photographer and only have one good eye. (I was born with an abnormality of my left eye, looks perfectly normal but is basically just window dressing, can't do more than distinguish color and light with it) I couldn't imagine giving up our brugs, our yard is always vibrant with the colors of them, and on nights like last night, with literally thousands of open blooms, you realise why you do all that feeding and watering. We had a candlelight dinner and a movie on our lanai literally floating on clouds of the most wonderful perfume. Earlier in the evening just after dusk we were returning home with the windows open in the car and could literally smell our place before we arrived in front of the house. Appearantly the weather has just been on the perfect side for them this winter, as the trees are just bending under the weight of as many blossoms as they can possibly hold, with flushes coming one after the other. I haven't slowed my feeding scheduel yet, as it's been pretty much in the lower 80's still all the time, and have had to do quite a bit of pruning, both of side shoots and branches that are getting on the roof and in the gutters. So I should have plenty of cuttings if anybody wants them who didn't get some of the plants I had earlier, they went amazingley fast. Dave

I regret that I didn't pick up this really mature sized Rhino Hide with a thinner centre section that I saw early in the season because they went fast. If they have them again next spring I'll snap one up.

Don't worry about mine, Beverly. I won't be assembling either quilt until I work my way through several UFO's. A late surprise package will be fun. Bonnie