A few years ago I had a rat problem and I cured it with a live trap. I had a bird avary in my garden and the rats found a way into it and ate several birds. I caught 7 very large rats and of course I had to sacrifice them by drowning in a tub of water while in the cage. Evil little critters! I found that the same trap helps me to control the squirrel population to keep it low enough so that the squirrels (commonly referred to as tree rats) get only their fair share of my vegetables and fruits. You can get live traps from your local feed store. I use peanut putter as the bait in the live trap for both of these pests. Don't worry; you are smater than the rats! Although my wife says that the squirrels make me look kind of dumb.

Your peonies will most likely recover just fine this year. If this was the first year they produced flower buds, it's all the more to be expected. I seem to end up with as many as three years of blasted buds before a peony finally blooms. That isn't always the case, but it happens often enough, especially with inexpensive bare-root or potted peonies from the box stores. I just lost a hardy orchid in my pond because our new kitten was chasing birds, and knocked pots and, I suspect, himself into the pond in the process. It was a new plant, fairly small, but doing well until the kitten had his "adventure". WHY don't they make kitten chow with tranquilizers? But eh--at least I know that variety of orchid (Epipactis gigantea) tolerates the alkaline water here. I'll try it again when Thomas T. Monsterkitten gets a little older and a lot calmer. And cottage-style gardens ARE possible here, especially if you plant them in dappled shade/part sun rather than full sun. If you want a cottage-style garden in a full sun area, think xeric. It ends up looking a bit more abandoned-gold-country-homestead than english cottage, but it has the same loose feel. Lisa

I agree with most of the Crate Training Article. However. Lots of people try to push things to fast. One of the biggest mistakes made is trying to get a dog used to the crate all at once. This can cause all sorts of problems, such as anxiety. The process must be rehearsed, especially with pups. It is unrealistic to think a pup can be used to your absence all at once when you are at work. You need to get pup used to the crate when you are going to be away. Starting with about 20 - 30 minutes is a good time period, and making a treat trail on the floor outside the crate that leads inside is best. Give a command such as "go home" so dog associates this with going in the crate. When you have to force pup inside, this is a negative, and pup won't look forward to going in. Also, gradually increasing the crating time by about 15 - 20 minutes is probably best. Dog needs to get used to your leaving, and be reassured that you are coming back. Pups can panic easily when you are not visible. They just don't realize that you have not left them. When you are at work for hours, they need to realize that you are going to come home for them. Again, doing this and other training is a gradual process, building sometimes small positive behavior on positive until dog is able to be weaned away from the crate. Alternately, it can (and does) go the other way, and negative get's built on negative, and winds up being a real mess. SG

Thank you for all the great ideas and info on how to landscape the way you have it! The retaining wall we just added last fall as the side of the hill was starting to cover a window over there and my dad (a civil engineer) said we needed a retaining wall to keep the side of the hill from becoming structurally unsound. The fence is there because that side of the yard is not dog proof yet and probably won't be until we rent a big dumpster for the yard renovation as the previous owners left a bunch of dangerous (to dogs) junk under those stairs. Because at the time we didn't have the time to clean up the yard, we just put up a fence and have just left it there as we have discovered the rocks and yard in general isn't working out well for the dogs anyways so we would have to redo everything. I don't know what kind of soil we have. I've been planning to stop by the local Extension office to get a soil test kit to find out what the soil is like. There is a bare patch of grass near the deck stairs that has been bare since we purchased the house so I'm wondering if that part of the yard has something wrong with the soil. We have tried seeding that area multiple times with different type seeds and nothing ever worked. You have me very excited about doing the yard now. I can't wait to remove all that rock.