Please send the feral cats, Alex! I fear the two or three that roam my hood are outnumbered by this year's bumper crop of chipmunks. We have now spotted them in the veggie garden. They will not be stopped. At least not by the methods I've attempted so far. The blood meal seems to only have deterred the ground hog(s) from what's left of my zinnias - but not the chipmunks from the tomatoes, zucchini or brussels sprouts. I have tried 3 pounds of Bonide All-Animal repellent (contains dried blood, putrescent eggs, and garlic oil among other things). Nada. Then I tried slices of Lever deoderant soap - a friend of my mother's recommended it. The munks don't give a damn. It's tempting to try the PlantSkydd, grandmamaloy, but I may be applying these scented tactics too late for this crew. They now have a taste for tomatoes that will not be stopped! I thought the tomatoes growing higher on the vine were safe, but not so. So far (knock on wood), the eggplants are a little too tough for them to bite through. And they have not touched the flowers. Meanwhile, I have been picking the untouched tomatoes a bit early and letting them ripen on the windowsill. They're still pretty sweet. Next up, my neighbor gave me a couple of rolls of mesh - stiff plastic and metal. We'll see what we can devise. The saga continues!!

carrie, around here the 4 o'clocks will make a big tuberous root that will come back bigger and faster in subsequent years, and you'll have blooms much sooner. mine would be full bore by now, but with the strange spring and the droughty conditions i haven't had blooms on even the old ones yet. just let them go this year, and next year should be better. you can get a head start by buying tubers, which are sometimes sold in spring. they'll actually reseed so much you may regret planting them in a few years. they are easy to weed as seedlings, though. the jb's fly when it's warm, so if you are going to do soapy water, it really helps to do it during the morning or evening hours when it's cooler. if you have to do it midday, try spraying them with cold water first, which will slow them down temporarily. after a few days of going after them with the cup/jugs, they'll get wise and move quicker. good luck!

Hi Melody, Also, zinnias like frequent (every few days) feedings of reduced-strength (1 or 2 teaspoons per gallon) Miracle-Gro Tomato Food. That formula contains extra Magnesium, which is a vital component in chlorophyll. (Plants can't make chlorophyll without Magnesium.) Miracle-Gro also contains other vital trace elements. Drench your zinnias in the morning with a foliar feeding, allowing the excess to run off to feed the roots as well. Morning feeding is good because it gives the plants time to dry off before nightfall. Foliar feeding is handy because it doesn't require a sprayer. You can just sprinkle the plants from an ordinary watering can. If you have had cloudy weather (very probable in the Pacific NorthWest), add some sugar to the formula (a teaspoon to a tablespoon per gallon). Zinnias can absorb sugar through their leaves to make up for a deficiency caused by too little sunshine in cloudy weather. Cloudy weather can greatly reduce the amount of vital photosynthesized sugar produced by the chlorophyll in sun. ZM

The JB's are just moving into my area, first showed up 2 years ago. Small numbers so far, but I have seen more mating pairs this year, so I expect they will soon become a problem. I grow a lot of soybeans & the JB's are focused on those (leaving the beans alone) so soybeans could be a good trap crop. They also seem to like the Zebrina mallow that I grow to attract pollinators. JB's have yet to make an appearance at my rural garden (only 6 miles West) so they seem to be spreading very slowly. Not complaining, mind you. I've been having good results using a spray of rubbing alcohol & water (about 50/50), dish soap, cooking oil, and maple syrup, in a one-quart spray bottle. The mixture temporarily paralyzes them on contact, then kills by suffocation. I was trying to find a mixture that killed cucumber beetles without damaging the plants, it works on JB too, provided they are completely covered.