My credentials: I have a large patio full of containers, and 50 pecan trees. The squirrels are a problem, but I've solved the ones they make with the container plants. I go to a rockyard - and buy river rock. I prever the flattened shape. The biggest ones that I can fit around the plant on top of the dirt. They work like mulch in that they shade the soil and keep it from getting splashed out when watering. I have one pot that is about 3 feet across, in it, I have smaller stones, and they are 3 stones deep across the whole pot. All my pots with this type of mulch are squirrel free. No digging, no holes, no seeds. The ones that are as big as my hand, and flattened look like giant lozenges are my fave, because it is easy to remove them when you want to repot. Don't have to sift through to find them. But this is the only thing that has worked. Hot pepper is enjoyable to them. I thought about getting my husband a paint gun and letting him scare them off, but that would create other problems. Red and yellow squirrels for one thing.

It isn't so bad in Stanley this morning altho', I guess 35o was the low and the WS says it will be cooler the next 2 days. The thermometer didn't make it above 55o here yesterday and there is rain with 25mph gusts this morning. I just went outside to see if there was snow falling with the rain but, no, it is just larger drops blowing off the trees . . . Tomorrow is summer in Caribou County just like up here for us, mla2ofus. I am always hoping for more warmth in May and June but it didn't happen again this year. I bet your elevation is pretty high but my early planting of peas were looking okay when I put another set of strings on them this week. The greens should soldier thru. The eggplant and peppers must think that this is pure torture. . . . One hoop house is still up but the construction-grade film won't be able to take it much longer. About 3 months is all I can expect from it and, that's okay. Here is an idea, think about 2 hoop houses instead of one for that much ground. Or, build it out of something a little stouter than mine. Maybe not the film but the frame. I have 1/2" pvc pipe for one and 3/4" pipe for the other. One has no frame on the ground but both have framed windows and doors. They are both really protected from the wind by fences and surrounding buildings. The only real problems I've had is with the weight of late snow storms. The cool-season plants have been fine in the open garden for the last few weeks. It is always great to get some of those things started early in the hoop house. It is the warm-season plants that suffer year after year from the late-spring wind and cold. But, that's all going to change after tomorrow! Right?! Steve

I had to think a long while before posting this picture of my late bloomers but wanted to make a contribution . . . The photo wasn't taken in a pretty setting. The snaps were pretty much "spent" by this time and the zinnia blooms had shrunk in size as the plants reach higher and higher. Even undamaged sunflowers had become hard to find after a good deal of wind. I didn't get a shot of the dahlias at their peak this year (which wasn't a very high peak, anyway). I really like dahlias but they've gotten rather out-of-hand with so many plants (and so many tubers in the Fall). Can't keep track of the names, at all, have to look everything up again and again! No other flower I own can compare in the late season garden. Most of the dahlias were purchased in fairly recent years when it made some sense to broaden the palette, so to speak, but some I've had for decades. Not many here - with the coming of Autumn it just became too chilly for much growth. digitS' late bloomers (click for larger):

Call CNN, you've got a chupacabra! Seriously... groundhogs ARE marmots, there are just regional differences and as a result they also go by locally different names. Our midwestern "groundhog" is marmota monax, and there's yellow-bellied marmots (aka whistle pigs out west),woodchucks, etc... I agree this is one messed-up individual. By the pictures I would initially say it seems to be a younger groundhog with some serious spinal issues or muscular afflictions or something like that going on, maybe it was struck by a car and survived?? In the first photo the face does initially seem to have a coon-like pronounced nose/muzzle, but when you go to the next photo, the side view shows more of a continuous line from top of the skull to the bridge of the nose, which is more consistent with 'hogs. I keep going back to the first photo, though, and staring at those feet! This should settle the debate...find a good clear set of tracks or just get out your binocs and count the # of toes up front...a groundhog will have four and a coon will show five. And before anyone gives me a pat on the back for thinking of this, I have to be honest...I was initially going to go with "how does it walk?" first, not # of toes. I know that coons move in a completely different manner than 'hogs and was going to suggest watching for this behavior next time you saw it, but then wondered if this would be a dependable diagnostic given the way this thing is standing, which is pretty FUBAR for a groundhog. So, while I was scratching my head I had hunted up a reference sheet to double check my stride comparisons when I spotted the toe discrepancy. I learn something every day! So there you go, this should help narrow the field. BTW, don't be surprised if it chatters its teeth at you or gives a really loud, piping squeal. And don't corner it... a healthy groundhog will try to get away from you, even shimmy up a tree ( have seen this personally), but if it feels cornered it can fight like the dickens.