It is May and skunk season according to the CT DEP wildlife info....and they must be under my deck too! I had a box of mothball flakes in the closet and threw it down between the boards, but I'm not hopeful. I tried mothballs a few years ago for the critters under my shed and it really didn't help. Just waited till Fall and using wire fencing, bricks, etc. I plugged the perimeter as best I could. Last year the bunnies were my enemy. But the skunks are back. I could wire all around the deck (after they vacate - am going to try the ammonia trick above) except there is no way I can get the wire fencing to block off the space behind the deck stairs. It's really weird the way they are done on a corner and descend on each side of the corner. Drats! One site I found talks about fox urine stuff as that is their enemy. Any one have luck with similar products?? At least I am not alone with this scourge - and you can't trap and relocate them in CT by law (or any animal that is rabid prone.) Doris

The earliest I've ever planted peas is the first week in April. I don't know where you are, but up here the ground is just too cold before that for the seeds to germinate or to grow if I pregerminate them. (We often still get one or two good snowfalls in April.) Regardless, they don't do too much before mid April this far north (a bit north of Concord, NH.) Raised beds or a bed cover before planting to help warm the soil might tweek this time a couple of weeks earlier. You can plant several successive plantings of peas a couple of weeks apart to get continuous peas until about early August around here, though in Mass or farther south it's probably not quite as late. Potatoes are another crop that you can plant quite early, and I love the varied flavors and textures you can get in homegrown potatoes that aren't available in the store. After Memorial Day is usually suggested for warm weather crops, like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc. that won't tolerate any frost, though you can talk with gardeners in your area to see whether this is actually a good time where you are. I'm in a river valley and so often get late spring frosts, so this is actually a good time for me, since there are often frosts until about the third week of May.

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Our yard is small, but birds are encourage to visit. There are the hummers, of course. The common finches, goldfinches and house sparrows, mourning doves and Eurasian collared doves, towhees, wrens, bushtits, warblers, phoebes, ravens and crows, and migrating what-nots. In the winter I feed the white-crowned sparrows; always miss their songs when they leave for the summer. Lincolns, song sparrows and various others show up. Once I had a rare Harris sparrow. The escapee parakeets, and spice finches stop by. I discouraged the spice finches when their numbers topped 25 at a time--those things eat more than any other bird I know of for their size. The little piggies! Orioles visit occasionally. And then there are the Cooper's hawks that show up frequently. They go through periods when they will perch on the fence every day for a week, looking for the unwary. The urn water feature really attracts the birds. Even though I have saucers of water in multiple locations, invariably, the birds want to fight the flowing water by perching on the urn rim to drink. It is funny to watch them trying to master the skill. Bluebirds nest in the front yard, which is amazing considering we are in the middle of a tight-packed residential community! I would have thought it to not be bluebird nesting habitat at all. But they do, and often successfully fledge two broods per year. I pamper them with meal worms and Ochna shrub berries. Harris Sparrow Nov 2012 Mourning Dove