[gardeners] Sunday in the garden [sic]
lneuru (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:37:56 -0400
borrowing a leaf from George, here. I have received no garden mail for
awhile, several days, I think. Am I still with you?
We went out today for another bout of weeding. I have been incapacitated
for almost 6 weeks but am more or less functional now.........and boy has
the garden enjoyed it's freedom while I've been laid up! So far 6 garbage
cans/bags full of weeds (too much to compost) and we are only about halfway
through a 50 by 150 yard. It's been alternately hot, then rainy and cool,
ideal conditions for the stuff in this climate (Great Lakes).
We found termites in our pressurized lumber raised beds, one, anyway, so we
figure it's in more of them. So much for making life better through
chemicals. I'm sending Len off the Canadian Tire for lots of termite
poison. - we don't use pesticides but we are going to make an exception
here. And we are going to replace wood with stone, just as soon as the
bugs are dead.
We now have a red squirrel; he ate all the sunflower seeds in the bird
feeder, then ate the bird feeder. They are very destructive little
beasts....all my high falutin precepts about wildlife and gun control in
cities etc.etc. are being replaced with dreams of h-bombing this
creature......add to that the skunk we had removed from under our porch
(2nd year in a row - she found the tiniest, moveable brick in the walkway)
and the possum who has moved in somewhere in the back 40. Aren't they
supposed to be southern creatures? So far no #$%^& groundhogs, but I guess
they'll be next.
What is happening up here is that we are just the tiniest bit warmer the
last few years, that and the animals are being presssured by encroaching
ciites. We are and have been town for over 100 years here, but near a very
large railway allowance and a conservation area, and a big park. So I
guess we look like the woods. We have more wildlife here than we do down
east on the farm where we *are* woods, almost.
The weeding was somewhat satisfying, but I ached badly in the shoulders; 2
aspirin did nothing so finally resorted to hot water in the shower, full on
the bum shoulder, and that did the trick.
So life has returned to good - another leaf from George.
Lucinda