Cats and birds have been around for a long time but cats have not been fed and cultured the way we do now. Larger predators have been removed until this rebirth of coyotes. Balance is a hard thing to maintain. Human intervention of the food chain is all over the place and sometimes further intervention is called for and sometimes less is called for. I have been asked by "my" biologist who has designed my wildlife plan to BE the predator that brings the land back in balance. I don't like it, but it has been suggested to kill Racoons,, stray feral cats, deer, and FIRE ANTS. They are all out of balance. I know my neighbors' cats that live close to me., but there are 2 places that have 30+ cats. One old man who used to buy 40lbs of cat food a week died a year or so back and , oh lordy, were we trapping some sorry mean cats that inundated us and taking them down to the shelter. I have another guy who lives about 1/4 mile from me who has at least 30 cats hanging at his house. They make it over here and we try to scare them off. My cats are past their hay day of hunting. They don't bring down anything. Even the lizards pay the little mind. The cats do like the field mice and the rabbits. I see a family of really fleet whiptails that have moved in. The coon population has dwindled because of our activity and the foxes have replaced them. They are much more in balance. The coyotes are working on those cats. I hear them at night. My cats stay inside at night. I tried being a cowbird predator but that didn't work out too well. The rather large trap is at my neighbors house raising chickens. My neighbors got rid of their cows and we don't see the cow birds now. The deer are a hard nut to crack. Our land is weirdly shaped and the place they love to hang is by the road and hunting them is dangerous for passing traffic. We do have a mountain lion on occasion. Then , all the deer get scarce in a hurry and I start feeling like I am on the menu when I go run the trash out in the night time with my long mag light grasped tightly. I have heard it roar. We have boars. The lions killed 2 400lb boars a couple of years ago and my neighbor shot 4 of them last summer. They can root up ground in a hurry.I wish I could channel that energy in the spring, I wouldn't need a tractor to plow over a field. We do have wildlife in disarray. The boars do damage, the deer are making once common trees endangered. I am doing my best caging tree seedlings and watering them in the summer when we have no rain. Lately there have been no seedlings making it through the summers because of the drought. I have been revegetating and diversifying flora and fighting invasives. It is a big pill.

Back from out of town....so chiming in, since I added to this with more detail than Patann...sorry.... When I did the cuttage, it was critical that each piece of bulb tissue had a piece of basal plate attached, thus is seems critical/vital that the basal plate is required for bulb growth. Tissue without basal plate won't prosper. I've been in California for the past 4 days, and appreciate all that's been posted on this. I will try and make a trip over lunch this week to speak with the general manager. Maybe the sales pitch from the bulb company was that these bulbs will put on a magnificent display as they are desparate to survive. Doubt the basal plate was removed for propagation purposes. The hurricane lamp and pebbles are pretty shallow and I bet that the company finds that the roots just "get in the way"...and that the bulb will bloom and die.....ensuring another purchase next year. K

Cool. I can see y'all have been busy. Is anyone else getting that sinking feeling of, "oh no.. what have we done?" (lol) I'm not even home yet and I already feel guilty about what I'm swapping for! I hope it stops raining long enough to care for everything we'll all be hauling back. (hehe) Notes: tn_veggie gardner (Steve) - I'll see about those dwarf pomegranate seeds. I'm not sure if the fruit are quite ready or not (they do have to ripen on the plant), but if they aren't, I'll just wait a bit and run them over to you sometime (It's not as if Percy Priest is miles away or anything). The fruit should be allowed to dry out thoroughly over the winter, and then come spring you can either plant them shallowly in a pot indoors (they need soil temps of around 65 degrees or better to germinate well) or outside later in the ground once the soil is warm. This variety ('Nana') does very well in a pot, so you may just want to do that. The plants are hardy to zone 7, but just to be safe I keep mine in the pot and then put it in the unheated garage near a window. Once a month I make sure it has a bit of water and I guess it goes semi-dormant, but it always leafs right back out once it starts getting more daylight and water again. I've overwintered it for three years successfully this way. Now, I think they could be left in the ground over winter here, as long as you gave it a very sheltered position, such as adjacent to a south-facing wall. I think they'd be like bananas and rosemary then, which aren't really supposed to be hardy here, but are with a bit of care. irisaddict - I'll have to see how many fruit I have out there, but as you can see above, I leave mine out in a pot all summer and then bring it into the garage for a bit of shelter over the winter. New-gardener-123 - I have one of the Shasta daisies for you, some trumpet lily bulbs, and a Korean bellflower. I'd love a chamomile start (if you still have some) and some gourd seeds for next year. :-) Pat - can bring you a bellflower in addition to the sedums already mentioned earlier. :-) Palmetto_gardener (Judy) - I'll give that second aster I have to you for those naked ladies. Thanks so much! And of course, the trades for Joe, Connie, Velvet, and Wanda already mentioned. I sure hope it doesn't rain tomorrow - otherwise it's going to be pretty mucky work getting the last few things out of the ground. And it's getting down to 34 this weekend! Can you believe it?

bbabers, thank you so much for posting the site. There was one little itty bitty problem, there is no way that I can just order the two items. Already tagged 4 items and called daughter and told her to look at the site. That is a wonderful site for beautiful things for our cuties. You all have lots of fun with you sweetness. Please continue to post pictures. I plead old age , not being able to post pictures.