I love your place!! It has so many possibilities!! You mentioned that things look better when viewed from one side only. I would suggest forcing the perspective. Design your walkway, patio, etc. so that it runs along the good "one side". Unless the shape of the walkway is ridiculous, people usually prefer to walk on established pathway. Another idea is to use the focal point. If you want people to look "here" but not "there", use plants with brightly colored foliage or interesting form "here". Use plants that catch my attention. In the "there" spot, plant boring things. You mention that June is the big month for your garden. For other months, add bright color artifically with a brightly painted trellis or other small wood structure. For example, in my front yard, I want people to look at my door and porch. I don't want people to look at the 4' tall utility box in the corner by the road. So, I introduced contrasting color, form, and texture by the door. The utility box is surrounded by boring indian hawthorne shrubs. (I thought about not planting anything there, but the utter lack of landscaping actually attracted attention.) I hope this makes sense and helps!

Rats are likely in walls, an attic but I'm not familiar with them living underground either. Our neighbors had some that were going unchecked until they sold the house. Our dog caught one or two and we started seeing them at our fence. We put out Rat Zappers -- a battery operated zapper and placed them so they would be least likely to get other critters. I think we got 7-8 rats. One morning I opened the door and smelled skunk. The zapper had been flung a number of feet and was upside down and facing the opposite direction. I actually laughed out loud but felt sorry for the poor fella. It wasn't enough to do more than make him angry -- no skunks were anywhere to be found. (for anyone feeling even sorrier for the skunk -- they get even. they sprayed our dogs four time in the summer after the rats left). Because of the dogs as well as neighbor dogs and cats, the squirrels and such, we didn't want to do poison or traps. The zapper worked for us. I'm not sure what the exterminator used next door. The zappers are available on Amazon. Good luck. Call a pro if you need one.

Edie...Funny story...last summer, Sean had some buddies over for a swim. His friends know where Sean's plant collection is--grouped together near the house by the pool. One of the guys decided to be a smart a--, and grabbed one of the smaller cacti in a pot and yelled to another guy in the pool, "let's play keep away from Sean...". Now mind you, these were all baseball players with pretty good arms... One of the other 'new' guys said "hey..throw it here" (he was in the pool-not knowing what kind of plant it was). Sean just stood there shaking his head and told them I don't think you want to do that...the kid threw the plant to the other kid, and he caught it mid-air about 30 feet away---along with a handful of thorns!!! OUCH!!!! I'll never forget the scream! Sean said "they'll never touch my plants again!!!" Yes, boys will be boys...

Hi, This is a Cooper Hawk. Nice picture. Luc Tremblay Quebec, Canada.