What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

continuing work on cleaning up the pallet mess today. beautiful weather. progress is happening, but seems very slow.

yesterday was gardening cleaning up the biggest garden inside the fence and getting it set for winter. always good to see some wormy friends.

 

[ducks4you]

@Prairie Rose, re: snakes---you need some cats!! We had a garter snake living under the front steps when we bought this property back in 1999. No cats, per se, now we own 7, and they go in and out of the house. "Inky", black female who was dumped here about 5-6 years ago, tried to bring us a mouse present the other day, out of love.
If you don't want to own any cats, try planting catnip next year and borrow your neighbors kitties.

 

[thistlebloom]

Why in the world would you want to eliminate garter snakes? They are not aggressive and not venomous, they eat slugs and grasshoppers. They can be startling, but they mind their own business.
We are always happy to see our little snakes.

 

[Prairie Rose]

Going to take the sod off the new flowerbed today. Also going to continue working on weeding down the sides of the house. If I have any daylight or energy left after that, will start papering and mulching. It is looking like I may not get my new veg beds this fall after all, but I okay with that...gives me a chance to try square foot gardening

Also, re: snakes, these are just little garter snakes, I don't mind them. What I hate are the big black snakes in the woods who wander up to the ruined barn for mice. I have had a few of them get aggressive with me. There is nothing poisonous around here, thankfully. I am just uncomfortable around them.

 

[digitS']

Not all that many area snakes for me to take pleasure in, @thistlebloom . Startling, I suppose but worthy of admiration.

My intentional awareness of them probably has to do with growing up in rattlesnake country - on the Rogue River. It was surprising to me when @Collector told us that a rattlesnake had been found as close as the Dishman Hills. I did come across one near Sprague once ... in the dark

Only a few garter snakes and bull snakes. And, our wonderful resident Charina bottae, rubber boa. What can be startling is our western skink. That bright blue tail! What compares to that??

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@thistlebloom, I'm surprised at you! I didn't want to eliminate garter snakes, just don't ever see them anymore since we have enough cats to kill all of the vermin. The snakes are there to eat mice, rats, baby rabbits, squirrels. When the cats get them, the snakes move on.

 

[thistlebloom]

@Prairie Rose, re: snakes---you need some cats!! We had a garter snake living under the front steps when we bought this property back in 1999. No cats, per se, now we own 7, and they go in and out of the house. "Inky", black female who was dumped here about 5-6 years ago, tried to bring us a mouse present the other day, out of love.
If you don't want to own any cats, try planting catnip next year and borrow your neighbors kitties.

Sorry if I misunderstood, but cats do kill garter snakes and I thought that was why you recommended them.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I did get the sod pulled out of the new flowerbed. Also papered and mulched it, until I ran out of paper, mulch, and energy. I am going to go back to work with quite a tan next week!

The goal for tomorrow is to finish the last few feet of paper and mulch, and get the perennials in the ground. Then I have a couple bags of alliums and crocuses to plant, and am calling that bed done for the year. After that it's mostly weeding, and cardboard and straw on top of the veg bed. The finish line is in sight!

 

[ducks4you]

Sorry if I misunderstood, but cats do kill garter snakes and I thought that was why you recommended them.

I Misunderstood!! Never thought that my cats would kill any snakes!!
FORtunately we don't have any poisonous snakes in my neck of the woods.

 

[Zeedman]

Why in the world would you want to eliminate garter snakes? They are not aggressive and not venomous, they eat slugs and grasshoppers. They can be startling, but they mind their own business.
We are always happy to see our little snakes.

Me too. When we moved into our suburban home, there was apparently a nest of garter snakes somewhere in or adjacent to our foundation. I'm fairly sure of that location, because one winter, we suddenly had about a dozen appear in our basement. The basement is unheated, and they were very sluggish... I put them in a bucket, threw some hamster bedding over them, left the bucket on the cold floor, and they hibernated until Spring. Never could figure out what drove them in - or how they got in - but that never recurred. I think a raccoon or possum killed most of the nest a couple years later.

I was happy to see a couple garter snakes reappear in the garden this year, there must still be a breeding population nearby. Its a good sign that my suburban neighborhood hasn't become "citified" yet... as much as a couple of my neighbors might wish otherwise.