Petzold6596...I have the burgundy beans planted, That is what I planted last year also. I read online that squash planted next to beans or corn would deter animals because of the sticky plants. The critters don't like to get a taste of stickers (or whatever they are called). I don't blame them because it itches me when I pick or tend to the plants (same with okra). I break out! I looked today and nobody has any squash plants. And, I can't find any seeds either. I do have a big squash patch planted in another one of my gardens. So, if I plant squash, it would be for the pests. I plant radishes by my squash to deter bugs on those plants. I'm a believer in using natural controls.

I've only found so far 2 garden plants that are self cleaning. Lilies and clematis. They drop their blooms and all I'm left with is empty stalks on the lilies and the clematis just stays green until the winter comes. Iris, daylilies, phlox, coneflowers, roses, lavender, the list goes on all require maintenance. That is the challenges of being a gardener and having a garden. I enjoy this time of year even with the challenges because around the corner comes winter and we hibernate till spring comes around again. You might consider just buying bushes on your next project that you just have to trim each season. There are many varieties that add color and texture to a landscape.

2010 was great for us. It was one of our wettest years here. I just loved it. The garden did really well and I didn't have to expend much energy watering it in order to keep it happy. I remember that ice storm and all the damage it did in your part of the state. It was stunning to see how long it took to cut down all the trees and get the broken limbs and collapsed trees off the power lines and get the power grid up and running. I know I am going to jinx myself by saying this, but we've been here since 1999 and never have had an ice storm come far enough south to hit us and cause that type of trouble. The closest one damaged trees maybe 3 to 5 miles north of us. We've had several rounds of freezing rain that did coat the power lines and trees, but they didn't bring down the power lines or tree limbs. We've been incredibly fortunate. I know that Marietta was hit by a storm like that about 10 years before we moved here, and our local electric co-op had to replace miles of power lines and tons and tons of poles. Ever since then, they have worked very hard to keep trees trimmed way back from the power lines in order to avoid a repeat of that year. One year Tim and I were at Wal-Mart in Gainesville on the day after a fairly mild snow/sleet storm. Our VFD was paged out to a pasture fire. We were shaking our heads because we've just driven though that area a few minutes earlier and knew that everything was covered with ice and snow. How could anything burn? When our son got to the fire in the brush truck, he found a power line had fallen, and apparently it melted the snow/sleet enough to catch the ice-coated grass on fire. That's sort of our all-time strangest fire. I'd like a nice, calm winter with some pretty snowy days that don't coat the roads with ice and cause problems, but that's asking for a lot here in OK. The good thing about our winters is that there is so much variability in them, so that whatever weather we are having, good or bad, won't last long and next week we'll have different weather from whatever we've had this week. At least we get those occasional warm, pretty, sunny days instead of having months of endless gray skies and gloom. The yard is so depressing today---browned and blackened foliage and limp blooms where we had tons of green foliage and bright flowers in bloom just a couple of days ago. It has been cloudy all day and I am tempted to say that I am "over winter" and ready for spring, but the truth is that winter isn't even here yet. A few years ago, I jinxed us by saying we only had hail an average of 1 time a year, and some years never had hail at all. So, what happened? That year we were hit by hail on 11 different occasions. Now, I guess I should be expecting an ice storm in the winter of 2013-14. The one little bright spot in the garden is a couple of Laura Bush petunia plants that had some freeze damage but which also still have some green leaves and small, barely-damaged flowers. Two plants isn't much to get excited about, but it is better than nothing.

Kay, I can actually see you ”packing heat” to protect your gardens!! I am hoping Exotic Starfish increases more-only one scape this year but lovely blooms. Thanks Debra-I know you can appreciate deer problems. They can inflict major damage in a very short time. Sherry, so much room leads to overpopulation of plants!! And a reminder to those of you in suburbia, deer can become citified in a heartbeat!! Here is a photo my daughter in Nashville sent this week that was posted on her community Facebook page. A small fawn-reported to appropriate authorities who told them to leave it alone-that the mother would be back. And she did and off they trotted, probably to someone’s daylily garden. (Watch out, Debra!!)