field rat damage

More traps were set and one thing that I learned was that live mice and rats consider dead ones food.  I’m finding a little bit of fur and tails when checking the traps.  I need to get them under control before seed planting time.  Last year and the year before they got into my planting containers and ate all of my seeds which resulted in a limited amount of late vegetable plants that didn’t survive the early 100 degree temperatures.

Pondering why I’m having so much trouble lately with the field mice and rats in the greenhouse, it occurred to me that it’s the only place where they are safe from the hooligans.

Blackie and Patches my two rat killers

Back to this year’s goals as I call them instead of resolutions; I thought I was in great shape until I received a 15% off card from Bluestone Perennials if an order was placed by this past weekend. I made a wish list that I discarded, but after logging onto their website, my order that I thought was discarded when I logged off was still there. Well —- you know the rest of the story.

With all the rain and the warm temperatures, the fire ants are starting to emerge. As soon as the rain slacks off, I’ll pour grits around the mounds.  One particularly large mound may take several feedings to kill off all of the queens.   Cotton seed meal was put down around my azaleas and blueberries getting them ready for spring blooms. With the warm weather, I worry about my fruit trees budding out.  Two years ago a warm January was followed by a late February freeze and snow in March.   None of my fruit trees, blueberries, or strawberries bore fruit or berries.

A couple of weeks after knee surgery, I found a close out of shrubs ninety per cent off.  I can home with a truck load of Encores, gardenia, sky pencil and rhododendrons, normally around two hundred for a little over eighteen dollars.  I put them in the greenhouse until my knee is back in digging shape.  Later in the week when I went to water them, I noticed that several of the shrubs had limbs chewed off; field rats had gotten in the greenhouse and were eating everything  in sight, even the half length toilet paper rolls that I use for starting seeds. After feeding them bait traps for several days, I was disposing of the casualties inside while Blackie was outside digging up tunnels; she leaned on the siding and a piece broke out and that was all she needed to burst through.  The sun pounding on the western side has made the plastic brittle.  I have a left over piece in the shed that will just cover the hole.  For now a hooligan cage with a couple of stands covers the hole.

extreme rat hunting

The first Saturday in January 2012 was rainy, (2.11 inches of rain and more coming) but pleasant temperatures in the low sixties.  I was able to enjoy sitting out on the screen porch with my paper and coffee. I had planned to start cleaning my flower beds, but made up planting mix for my African violets instead and spent the day re-potting.  Extra leaves were placed in a rooting medium for the Arc of the Shoals greenhouse program.   

 My goals this year, I can’t keep resolutions:

•  Have the first home grown tomatoes in town.  I noticed a couple of volunteer tomato plants coming up in a Nun’s orchid that I’m over wintering in my garage. In the last couple of weeks, both plants have grown nicely.  I’m going to try and put in a larger pot and hopefully they will still be in good shape for transplanting to the garden when it warms up.

• On my try to do list again this year is not buying anymore plants until I get the rest of my potted plants into the ground.  I ordered my plants and seeds the first of December so I have that one in the bag.  However a couple of seed packets, Kiphofia hirsute traffic lights and Courgette zephyr, I have no idea what I ordered and will have to go back to the Thompson & Morgan website and find out what they are.
• Find some make in the USA jeans and gardengloves. I have been looking since last summer.  With all the jean sewing factories in the area, why can’t I find made in the USA?  My old ones have issues and things keep falling down my legs whenever I pick up something.  I’m also getting sunburned in unusual places.  Fort Payne used to be the sock capital of the world, and it took me months to find USA socks in local stores.   My favorite Womanswork ‘original’ gloves are now made in China instead of Pennsylvia. The USA made ones would last a whole gardening season.  When I placed my last order, I wasn’t aware of the switch until they wore out after two months.  When I complained and inquired as to why, I was told they had trouble finding people to do the tedious finger sewing. I told them that north Alabama has had a lot of sewing factories closed and one destroyed by a tornado and we had a lot of folks that would be willing to do fingers.  They also said that the it was still ‘The Original’ style even though made in China, and that if I wanted made in the US, they had other gloves still made in the USA.

• Decide the location and whether I want an arbor or two pergolas.  I put up 2 poles a few years back for a pergola and then decided to do an arbor for kiwi on the other side of the garden and dug 2 holes there that I covered over with concrete blocks.  Then after the kiwi died the next winter, I thought about it again, I decided to do a pergola in each spot.  Blackie has partially filled in my holes digging after field mice.
• • • Run a new waterline along the creek and along the side of my blueberry row to replace the ones the mad tiller chopped up last summer.  I have a couple of 100-200 foot sections most chopped into  six inch sections that I took out when I should have hee’d instead of haw.  While the ground is moist I’ll take a middle buster down as deep as I can so it’ll be safe from shovel or tiller.      

• Finish the stackable retaining walls around the house and garage.  I started this project a couple of years ago.  Knee injuries have slowed this one down.  The so called landscapers placed an uneven single row around my front beds, these will be used around the back of the house and a trench edging will be used around the front beds.  I have zoysia in the front yard, so it should be easy to keep out of the beds.

Blackie & Patches checking out where I stopped working before knee injury

• Repair and redo the greenhouse.  The contractor didn’t allow enough air flow and left large gaps around the small windows and didn’t use the foam inserts at the end of the siding.  I thought about checking with a local window company for windows taken out of remodel projects and recycling. Wish I had thought of this when Mom replaced her windows.
•  Continue working on my themed gardens, Auburn, Deshler High, University of North Alabama, Born in the USA, song dance and people, pretty in pink, the blues have it, and valley of the lilies.   And no I don’t have one for that college on the other side of the state.

Hand of God

swallowtail on Joe Pye Weed

 The hooligans and myself wishes for you in the New Year: smell the flowers, notice the beauty around you and take it easy.  I’m still trying to get Blackie to that that advice.

Patches

Levi

Check out the hooligans resolutions on my GRIT magazine blog post.

Wow, I just got a postcard from Bluestone Perennials, 15% off if I order before January 18. Oh goody I did have a wish list made that I discarded; okie dokie, now where did it go?

Merry Christmas from the hooligans!

Mom decided to that we needed to make a Christmas card again this year. After we nixed last year Christmas bows we thought she wouldn’t try anything this year, but no she decided that we were going to wear Santa hats. We had other ideas. She even got Grandma to help. We kept them busy for a while and gave them the run around, especially when Patches ran off with the hat.  After Mom chased her around for a bit she gave up. We hope you have a Merry Christmas, Blackie, Levi and Patches oh, and Mary.

Hooligans letter to Santa:

Dear Santa we’ve been very good doggies this year.  Mom hurt her knee last April and we tried to help her weed by digging holes around the yard.  Mom said we dug the holes too deep and also dug up the good plants along with the weeds.  She didn’t explain to us the difference between a good weed and a bad one. They all look the same to us.  We kept telling Blackie not to dig around a couple of trees after mice because Mom told us not to last year, but she wouldn’t listen.  Patches ran and told Mom and got Blackie in trouble.  Patches really enjoyed that. Blackie had surgery in October for bladder stones as she refused to eat that nasty food to get rid of them.  Mom had knee surgery the middle of November. She’s been walking around with a couple of sticks under her arms. Grandmother has been feeding us and when we really act like we are starving she’ll give us a little more than Mom.  After all that’s what Grandmothers are for aren’t they?  Anyway Santa, please bring us some chew bones and another one of those tires with the rope on it. We lost the two you brought us last year.  Also bring us another one of those roll around play balls. Blackie left it the front yard and Mom accidently ran over it with her tractor.

For more making the hooligan’s Christmas card pictures, check out my GRIT blog post.

If you would like to see last years hooligan Christmas card, click this link:

Check out my Grit magazine blog post Pre-Christmas goings on.

Check out my post-Thanksgiving Grit magazine blog post along with some of my favorite sunrises.

Get well gift from my co-workers

This time of year one popular plant purchased or given as a gift is the Norfolk Island Pine.  The Norfolk Island Pine scientific name if you are into things like that is ‘Araucaria heterophylla’ and is a native of Norfolk Island near Australia in the South Pacific.  In their native country, they can grow up to a height of 80 feet.    Kept in a temperature that is comfortable for you in your home in bright light, but not full sun, they will maintain a reasonable size when grown in a container. However they really enjoy daytime temps around 65.  If the temperature drops below 50, they will not survive long, so they cannot overwinter outside in most areas of the country.  They don’t like to be re-potted, so limit that to every three or fours years, watering thoroughly before removing from its current container.  Use a light fast draining mix to re-pot.  Fertilize monthly during the summer months with half strength plant food. 

When watering use either rain water, or tap water which as set out at least 24 hours and water thoroughly at least weekly, and more often if it dries out sooner to keep the potting mix slightly moist in the summer.  In the winter, allow the potting mix to dry slightly between watering.  The Norfolk likes high humidity and the plant enjoys being misted daily.  Signs of under watering and/or low humidity are tip browning, needle drop, and eventually, the lower branches dying off.  Once the tips turn brown, the branch stops growing.  Pruning the end of a branch off will also cause it to stop growing.  The only pruning should be trimming off the brown dead tips of branches and dead branches.

lack of water or low humidity problems

 When used as a Christmas tree, one thing to keep in mind is that lights will dry out the Norfolk.  As with any other Christmas tree, keep the decorations on for as brief as possible.  This one pictured was given to me as a gift from my co-workers. It was sprayed with a clear paint to put sprinkles on.  It’s not able to breathe and the limbs that have a heavy coating on them are starting to fall off.  

 With the gardening season winding down, I took the time last week to get my knee repaired that I blew out last April during the tornadoes.  I’ve found out it’s gotten too old to crawl up on a chair to change a light bulb.  I should have gotten my step ladder instead.  I was able to get most of my potted daylilies and iris in the ground before surgery. Some not where I would have liked, but at least they are in the ground. When they bloom next spring, I can decide which theme area they need to go to.  I have a few peonies still potted, but they should be alright during the winter.   During my time on crutches, Mom has been cooking and feeding my three hooligans, and driving me to my PT appointments.  Friends Lisa and Gracie have brought goodies to keep me from starving.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for my family, wonderful friends, great co-workers who even my Mom considers family. The hooligans are thankful they have a good home on three acres with all the mice, birds, bumblebees and rabbits to chase. They are thankful their lives are now free of the abuse of the past, except when I yell at them to stop digging up a tree after mice

Check out my Grit magazine blog post, memories of our milk route and my attempt to make a Christmas card with the hooligans.

I have a little over 450 varieties of daylilies and you won’t find a Stella de Ora among them.  The first group of daylilies I purchased was one of those buy this group of 100 special.  Problem with this type of offer is that many are mislabeled, and some really aren’t a nice daylily in form.  Some were named by the grower and never registered.  Since I’ve gotten more into the connoisseur varieties instead of the plain Jane ones, I’ve been culling several to get the number of varieties down and the quality up. When I order a daylily these days the first thing I look for is a re-blooming variety.  Early hybrid daylilies had a week or so bloom and then nothing until the next spring. Now varieties are being develop that have another blooming cycle.  When looking to purchase daylilies look in the description for Re or RE.  This indicates that the variety is a re-bloomer.  Among some of my very late re-blooming daylilies this year were My Ways, Paper Butterfly, Charming Ethel Smith, Cradle Song, Savannah Debutante, Joly White Giant and El Desperado.  My Ways, Charming Ethel Smith, and Cradle Song were still blooming at the end of October, even after a couple of frosts.

The amount and quality of re-bloom (which is also true of the initial bloom of any daylily) depends on the soil condition, amount of water and fertilizer.  You starve something and have it in hard clay; it gives you a puny bloom cycle.

During the early spring heat wave and  dry spell, I dug up several clumps of iris and daylilies which needed to be divided and planted them in pots and stored them under the large hackberry by the creek. I also purchased a number of plants last fall which were potted due to the rock hard ground and little rain. This meant daily watering during the near 100 degree temps we had.  Now they have to get back into the ground before the cold weather hits.

I had several beautiful weekends and spent the time moving iris and daylilies out of and into my Deshler High and Auburn sections. During Auburn’s games I listened to the game on my head phones while working and recorded it on my DVR for later viewing. When Auburn scored a TD or INT, I would scream and jump up and down and the hooligans would come running. My neighbors don’t need to watch the game to know how Auburn is doing.  I moved orange daylilies and blue iris into my Auburn section along the driveway. I now have Tuscawilla Tigress, Bold Tiger and All American Tiger daylilies in my Auburn University section. Daylilies Scary Mary (the name is the reason I got it), Raspberry Star, Rosie Meyer, Red Twister, Stargate Angel, Velvet Widow, Wine Delight, Black Cherry Blues, Indian Giver, Vanilla Frills, Tribute To Mike, Humble Heart and a double red called Fires of Fuji went in my Deshler High School (cardinal and white) section on the opposite side of the driveway. Prince of Darkness Celebrity,  Giant Red Peonies and iris Sweeter Than Wine also went into my Deshler section.

 Now I need to mulch everything before the rain comes back and the weeds start emerging again.

In my Born in the USA section, I have American Revolution, Empire Strikes Back, Forty Second Street, Sticky Fingers, American Bicentennial, Pearl Island, Shortening Bread, Making Double Time, All American Chief, Making Double Time, and America’s Most Wanted daylilies, iris Millennium Falcon, Starship Enterprise, City Slicker  and Jitterbug, Mount Saint Helens Azalea, Singing in the Rain peony  and Cheatin Heart hosta.

Hooligan Blackie continue her remarkable recovery from surgery.  She has been on a tear after field rats, mice and moles and has been digging post holes everywhere.  Patches and Levi were doing transcendental napping. Saturday while planting some Snow Queen Oakleaf Hydrangea along the dry creek, Hooligan Patches kept bumping me with her nose. When I asked her what her problem was, she looked toward Blackie digging a huge hole next to the trunk of one of my bald cypress. After I yelled at Blackie to stop, Patches looked so smug.  That smug got even bigger when I petted her and told her she was a good girl for being a tattle tail.

 Check out my last Grit magazine blog post: Tuscumbia history and haunts trolley tour. 

I was working in my flower beds close to the mailbox Saturday when the mail ran. We were discussing the weather, and I wondered if we were heading for a harsh winter this year as I was finding a lot of wasp nests close to the ground.  She told me that she had been finding more Black widow spiders in mailboxes than usual.  I told her I hadn’t seen any this year.  That was yesterday; today I planted a new variety of designer pansy called ‘Midnight Sun’ and picked up a stack of small pots just outside of the garage to add the new ones too and behold there was a female Black widow with two egg sacks.  I played with her a while trying to get some good pictures of her, especially the hour glass on her belly.  So you won’t be totally grossed out, I included some weekend blooms that I found this weekend plus tonight’s sunset. 

Black widow spiders generally live in trash, closets, attics, woodpiles, garages and other dark places and make a build non-symmetrical, irregular mesh webs. Five species are found throughout the USA.  Only the female spider is dangerous to humans.  The name Black widow comes from the mistaken belief that the female kills and eats the male after mating. Rarely is the male killed. 

The northern black widows’ range extends from eastern Texas to Florida, north through New England and southeast Canada. The southern black widow occurs from eastern Texas through Kansas, north through southern New England to Florida and the entire southeastern states. The western black widow extends from western sections of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, north to the western Canadian provinces, throughout the western states to the Pacific coast.

What does a black widow spider look like?
The black widow spider is a beautiful shiny, inky black spider with a large round tail segment (abdomen). Including its legs, the black widow generally measures from one-half inch to one inch in length. Red to orange-colored markings, usually in the shape of an hourglass, are found on the underside of the belly.  Males are generally about half the size of females with yellow or red spots or bands on the back or sides.

What are the symptoms of a bite?

No pain is associated with the bite. A black widow spider bite gives the appearance of a target, with a pale area surrounded by a red ring. Severe muscle pain and cramps may develop in the first two hours. Severe cramps are usually first felt in the back, shoulders, abdomen and thighs. Other symptoms include weakness, sweating, headache, anxiety, itching, nausea, vomiting, difficult breathing and increased blood pressure. Young children, the elderly and those with high blood pressure are at highest risk of developing symptoms from a black widow spider bite. In pets, there may be a blanched region surrounded by a red zone.

How dangerous are black widow spider bites?

Only four human deaths were officially attributed to black widow spider bites in the United States from 1960-1969. No one in the United States has died from a black widow spider bite in over 10 years.  However, cats are exceptionally sensitive, with fatality rates estimated as high as 90 percent. If a black widow spider bites a person, do not panic!. Very often the black widow will not inject any venom into the bite and no serious symptoms develop. Wash the wound well with soap and water to help prevent infection.

If muscle cramps develop, take the patient to the nearest hospital. Some victims, especially young children, may be admitted overnight for observation and treatment. There is treatment for a black widow spider bite that can take care of the symptoms. Various medications are used to treat the muscle cramps, spasms and pain of a bite. Black widow spider antivenin is seldom necessary.

Control

A female will produce about five to 10 egg sacs, each usually having between 150 and 250 eggs. After hatching the babies can easily come through a window screen or enter the house through an open door or hitch a ride in on a package.   The best control is to make the area less attractive to the spiders.  Clean up the clutter.  Store firewood away from exterior doors and inspect wood before bringing into the house for hitch hikers.

For more information on Black widows, here is a link to a U of Tennessee pamphlet:

Blackie continues to amaze both my Vet and myself with her recovery after surgery to remove several large bladder stones. Surgery was on a Wednesday and Saturday Levi was running for dear life with Blackie in hot pursuit.

Some of our great staff waiting for you help

The Arc of the Shoals in Tuscumbia, as most schools in the state of Alabama has been hit hard by proration.   Older folks in the Shoals still call the school for adults with special needs Hope Haven.  The Arc consists of Hope Haven Adult Training Center, Phyllis Lyle Work Center, semi independent living programs and group homes.  It is a great organization with wonderful employees who care for the clients they support. The organization is on a very tight budget and makes full use of the funds intended to support it’s programs.

One of the training programs is a gardening class.  Plants are grown by the clients and are available for purchase at the school.  There one little problem, our greenhouse is not complete.  The ventilation fans and heaters don’t work.   Here’s were you come in and it won’t hurt you a bit, all we need is your vote.  Listerhill Credit Union is sponsoring a “Cash for your Cause” sweepstakes.  Whippoorwill Hollow Films made the Arc’s entry possible by filming the video required to enter the contest.  You may vote once per e-mail address until October 27, 2011.  The winner will receive $3000 toward their cause.  Please watch this fantastic video and cast your vote hear?  Voting ends on October 27.  Thanks for your support and a big THANK YOU to Whippoorwill Hollow Films for their gracious help. 

The Huntsville Botanical Gardens plant sale is tomorrow Saturday October 15 from 9 AM until 4 PM.  

I took this information from the newsletter: The Garden has over two acres of green houses and development areas where volunteer experts hand-cultivate these plants from either seedlings or special cuttings. All are fertilized with a special mixture of fertilized soil and lovingly nurtured in the Garden’s greenhouses for 3 to 7 years before offered at the Fall Plant Sale.

Just a few of the items for sale at the Fall Plant Sale include: shade trees, bald Cyprus, sourwood, oak, chestnut, river birch, cherry bark, a variety of magnolia and gum trees, Jackson vine, narrow leaf sunflower, sweet shrub, winterberry holly, rhododendron, native azaleas, oak leaf hydrangeas, heats-a-bustin’ with love, America beauty berry, a variety of perennials  and much more!

I wish I could let myself go to this plant sale and expert garden seminars, but if you saw all the potted plants that needs to go into the ground, enough to have my own plant sale, you would understand why I don’t need to go, esp. with knee surgery looming.

Check out my post this week on Grit.com

I have a Troy-Bilt 6 hp walk behind weed eater that I purchased in 1996 after I did a Superwoman off of a ladder into a concrete drive at Mom’s house.  Since I wasn’t in a cast and had all of these pins and bars everywhere holding all the broken pieces together , I needed something to use one handed while I worked with an Occupational Therapist to get use of it again.  It has an electric start which is very nice to have.  It was a little on the expensive side, but when you figure out how many hand held weed eaters you’ve purchased over that time spell, it’s really not that expensive.  It can cut through just about anything except barb wire, which if you weed takes a long time to unwrap from around the string holder thingy. It does a great job chewing up plant tags if you get too close. It has been a steady performer and major expense has been battery replacement a couple of times and replacing a pull cord which comes in handy when you haven’t used it in a while and the battery runs down.   

The biggest expense has been replacing the dust filter on the top of the motor which is my biggest beef about the Troy-Bilt.  You cannot just buy the foam filter any longer, it can only be bought with the cover that the filter fits on which adds greatly to the cost  I’m not sure how many of these plastic holders that I have up on the shelf in the barn, as I don’t need them.  The original cover is metal, so why replace it with a plastic one?  They’ve taken a dollar part and increased the price mark up to around $25 the last time I bought one, actually two.  I purchased the first one and made the mistake of leaving the box with-in grasp of one of the hooligans who has a thing about boxes.  She just loves to open boxes and chew on its contents.  I came home once and a box of daffodils were scattered everywhere.  The next spring a daffodil came up in a bed where none where planted and it took me a while to remember why.  So it was back to my service shop to order another.  The oil and gas caps are right up there next to the filter, it has to be removed and cleaned so you can put gas in and check the oil. Now filter number 2 apparently didn’t have the corners glued well and when it was rinsed the seam came apart. Is it by design or is it another part that was moved from made in the USA to out of the country?   Well this lady isn’t running back to the supplier, I’m handy with a needle and I think using nylon thread will work. 

This past weekend I worked along the driveway beds.  It looks like I have enough piled up on the driveway to make one large bale of hay.  The beds that I hired some one to clean and mulch back in the spring looks just as bad as or worse than the ones not cleaned.  And I didn’t have to worry about loosing over two hundred dollars in plants in the beds not touched.  I’ve been digging, dividing and making new larger daylily beds trying to get my colors co-coordinated between my Auburn, Deshler, UNA, Born in the USA and people, song and dance beds.  Several of my re-blooming daylilies have been in bloom since the rain and cooler temperatures.  I’ll show some of them in another post.  It doesn’t look like my re-blooming iris are going to bloom this fall. 

A couple of weekends ago, temperatures were near one hundred degrees and two days later, it was in the mid seventies.  It was a record low high for the date.  The following couple of cool days signaled the start of hummingbird migration back to Mexico.  Each year it seems like I have more hummingbirds than the year before and this year I’ve hit the big time.  I haven’t been able to keep my feeders full.  (Have I told you not to use the red dye commercial stuff?  It’s not good for them).  When I take down an empty feeder, the ruby-throated will swarm around the empty ant moat and hanger just flying around and around looking for the feeder.  When I walk back with a full feeder, I’m being buzzed and they are feeding before I can get it hung back up.  I have a couple of videos of the migrants at my feeder for your pleasure.  One was taken about a foot away. 

The other video is from a few feet away so you can see how many are in the area around the feeder.