cottagegardener's Blog

Bits and Pieces
Jun 9, 2009 | 9:25 PM PST
Tags: pests , mulch , slugs , racoons , bird feeders

Good Evening All, It's late but I decided to post the bits and pieces of my week. First of all, I can't recall who suggested the bbq skewers for getting rid of slugs, but THANK YOU SO MUCH! I came across a few of them today and those skewers were very handy! After discovering the little buggers, I skewered them and threw them into the roadway to die a thousands deaths! I am convinced they have been the culprits that have been eating everything I have planted this year! But those slugs are not alone in the list of pests I have in my yard. I found that we had moles last year, but did nothing about it. I was too stressed out to deal with a lot of stuff in the yard. This yard as I stated in another blog was totally neglected. Daylilies had been planted all over the front yard. In fact, half of the front yard was nothing BUT daylilies. The neighbors had stated that they hated it because the owners would not allow any mulching of them and the weeds were impossible to handle so the former renters just let it grow up and it got very weedy out there making the house an eyesore. Now I don't exactly hate day lilies, I think some of them are quite pretty. However they tend to attract rodents which in turn attract snakes. So I don't care for them for that reason and another they tend to look tropical and I hate anything tropical looking. ( I know I am going to get some boos and hisses about that statement...lol) Please don't hate me!  I was born in New Jersey and taken to Florida as a child. I never like it and I hated the heat so badly. I couldn't wait to escape Florida and come back north (but not so north that I had to leave the South. So anyway, DH and I kept the lilies mowed down, but they kept growing back. Then we noticed fewer and fewer and the ones we kept were dying off too. It finally came to me that the enemy of my enemy was my friend! The moles were eating the daylily roots, thereby killing them off. Now the yard looks a lot cleaner and at least well mowed. We still have lots and lots of weeds in the lawn, but  we are working on that and the lawn is mowed and neat. The latest pest is cute, but a pest none the less, it's a racoon. We have 4 feeders and 2 suet feeders, but he chose this one particular feeder in the back yard. He would come about 1 am and sit atop the feeder post and then reach down and lift the bar of the counter balanced feeder and feast away. Of course I would watch him for a few moments always torn between scaring him away and delighting that a beautiful creature had come to our yard. Scaring him away is the best thing I could do for both of us and I was determined to find a way to keep him out of the feeder. I searched through the internet to find out what I could do and came across a website that described racoons as walking coyote pot roasts...lol. Apparently they are a favorite meal of the coyotes. I took some tidbits of information and  I thought and I thought. I needed wire that he couldn't chew through and heavy enough to keep him from being able to un twist it. (Racoons are very good at that you know.) Finally I had that  Ah Ha moment. I sailed by my husband and "I said I am going to fix that walking pot roast's little happy behind." and I got an old wire coat hanger and cut it with the bolt cutters. I twisted one end around the counter balance bar and then made a loop at the other end. On the post I screwed in an eye bolt. I then inserted a small padlock through the loop of the hanger and the loop of the eyebolt and voila! The feeder bar is locked down so tight he can't get the bar up.

So far it has worked. I have not heard a sound at night from the feeder and the other feeders are not disturbed. Now if we can just keep the bear out of it this winter, we'll be doing fine :D

That brings me to today. Today was mulching day for me. Actually, I have been trying to get it done for the last week, but I haven't had much success. Today I was determined to get the front porch beds done. I had cypress mulch in the beds there but I think it was killing the dianthus. So, I decided to rake out the cypress and replace it with hardwood mulch instead. You would think that would be easy enough, but nooooo. First there were the slugs that I discovered. Then raking and digging out I found little weeds here and there to be pulled. And oh yes, what to do with the old "new mulch" I still had two bags left of that to put somewhere. So I opted to put that around a large azaela bush, one of the suet feeders and the lilies that are around  that so not pretty street sign in our front yard.  After that, it was much too hot to work in the yard so I had to wait until the afternoon shade appeared. It was about 5 pm and I finally was able to lay the mulch in the beds and be done with at least the front. I laid down so much mulch I found myself making up mulch sales slogans. - Mulch! Get it while it's hot!: Got Mulch?:  Mulch..better flowers for a better tomorrow. :  Everything goes better with Mulch! I decided that I was having mulch delirium and that it was time to quit for the evening. So, after giving everything a good watering it was time to "go to the house" as they say here in the south. All in all it has been a good week ...except for the slugs. I can't wait to take some pictures tomorrow of the newly mulched beds. I hope all is well in your sunny patch tomorrow. take care, *hugs*-