After hearing about the tornadoes with deaths in Missouri and Oklahoma, I'd felt very lucky. I hope all of our friends are OK. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the house, thankfully. The storm last September really did a number on the siding and roof- we had to replace the entire roof then, including the wood. Garden damage is far less than what I expected to find. (I took the camera out with me and the batteries died after one shot). Two of my 3 butterfly weeds are flat on the ground- blown down flat. They already had flower buds. My Yvonne's Salvia are planted in a row, like a hedge. The one on the end was also blown flat. On closer inspection I see that it was partially blown out of the ground. When things dry up some, I'll dig it up and replant it. For now it's just being supported upright by a stake. And some leaves were blown off of several of them, others were torn. But they are setting their flower buds. Most of my recently planted seedlings look good, just a little crooked, no doubt too small to really catch the wind much. The weather currently looking good, the sun finally peeking out occasionally. My husband has been on the computer all day, working on the photobucket viruses. They FINALY seem to be gone. But so is my husband- the idiot just left for the golf course. I just can't imagine golfing on this soupy ground. But nothing interferes with golf. And still a 30% chance of storms tomorrow, 90% chance on Saturday. What a vacation/planting week I picked. I'm just going to curl up with a book. Karen

More damage found from our storm. Top 3 feet of the white spruce on the ground on the north side of the house, plus another three large branches off one elm. Almost split the maple tree in half. Neighbours lawn furniture up against the chain link fence. Many more trees in the neighbourhood were downed. Found my greenhouse in pieces! Freaky! I'm still convinced that we had a baby whirlwind go through our yard by the fact that it only moved specific things. and didn't even ruffle the light weight stuff. There has always been a bit of a wind tunnel through these two houses and many times I have seen whirling dervishes blowing through. Real freaky! Ginny

Ouch! I know what that is like. Planting irises 2 years ago got stung 8 times!! I can't remember what the doctor told me to soak it in but I used calendula cream on the stings and that seemed to help greatly. Also Tiger Balm if you can get it. I use that #$%^& on everything! That's so cute you have a memorial garden for your kitty. I have a bunny tree in the yard that Dad planted when I was 10 and my bunny died. I am looking at it right now as I type. I also have a Land called Honalee, a faerie garden, an easter garden, and a memorial garden for my mom and starting one for Dad. He's still with us but is 91 and has alzheimers. He's the one I got the green thumb from. :) I'm really big on themes and sentimental mushy stuff. I also have Virginia and Ginny DLs and am looking for Sweet Amy Lynn DL cause that is my daughter's name. Soon I am going to need a farm! :) How's the storm stuff?

I'm voting for squirrels. The digging in the soil is a giveaway. They've always dug in my pots, I've seen them do that many times. But the last couple years they've eaten things in my containers that they never did before the drought. There is so little moist wild food that they changed their eating patterns. They've stripped my hibiscus, first year the flowers, next the flowers, buds and leaves. This year I have no flowers and they eat the leaves as soon as they just start to bud out. The bite pattern on your leaves looks just like my hibiscus leaves. They're also tasting everything else and the bite looks like that. I've seen them doing it from my windows. Caterpillars bites look a bit different to me; they tend to eat the whole leaf and then go onto another. The squirrels will eat most of one, a bite out of another and nibble the tips of the branches too, all at the same time. That's pretty much what I see from your pictures. Not much you can do except net the whole plant. You need to make a frame first and then put the net over that and make sure there are no gaps anywhere. If a part of the plant gets close to the net the squirrel will eat it through the net. Dang varmints! They're just rats with fuzzy tails!