Ha! Growing up, I would capture anoles at my grandmother's house in Sanford, NC and cart them back to Charlotte. They are entertaining animals.
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Yep, as a kid I had more than a few. Always loved going to the beach and trying to catch them. The further south you go, the bigger they seemed to get. In Hilton Head, there were some truly huge ones. (Damn things could bite, hard, too!)
I'll eventually let this one go, but not here at the house. I'd love to turn him loose in the same garden his mom put him in, but my cats think they taste like chicken.
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My garden apparently has fur. Just checked, and two tomatoes have chunks out of them, and one of my baby cukes is now a little more babyish looking than yesterday.
I need to have a talk with my above said cats...they ain't doing their job. Guessing squirrels...but whoever it was climbed through a jungle for lunch.
PS...(and keeping on topic). I've been reluctant to use chemical pest treatments. I'm not an organic enthusiast, I love me some Miracle Gro, but I'm leery about spraying what I eat with lord knows what.
Now, I am encouraged even more so to stick to that, since I have proof positive that dinosaurs are on my side, running around my plants, and eating the bad guys.
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We are very partial to the spray product Invisible Fence, deer and rabbit repellent...plus it contains no noxious chemicals, only things like rotten egg solution and some pepper...the deer get one taste and move on to something else, someplace else.
We had a bearded dragon when we lost power for several days in Snowmageddon, and things got cold! Our (then pilot-lit) gas hot water heater gave us a warm tub and steamy bathroom.
Worked for a couple days, then we decamped to a friend's house...
All for the dragon, of course!
-jk
We use coyote urine. You can get it at Tractor Supply or pretty much any local hardware store. Just put it in a sprayer and spray a barrier 3 or 4 yards around the exterior of your garden. Deer and other early morning munchers will stay away.
Word to the wise, if you decide to put it in a backpack sprayer(I had a large area to cover), make sure the seals haven't dry rotted so the stuff doesn't drip down your back the whole time. I had to burn my clothes and the kids and my wife didn't want to let me in the house. :cool:
Ha, years ago I used to take the dogs down to urinate on the area, I would join them. Great family fun...have also used the coyote stuff, but the Invisible Fence product is so much easier to use, I strongly recommend that...does not require burning any clothes, just smells like rotten eggs, though with the spray bottle it's easy to avoid contaminating yourself.
One of the vegetables growing in my garden is Philippine squash called Upo. Here are a couple of photos. The first is of the plant growing up the trellis and the second is of a squash hanging behind the plant.
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The Underhill Garden Club is meeting chez nous today, delicious grill items will be served along with strawberry shortcake. Challenges and techniques for growing certain types of plants shall be discussed. There will be cocktails.
Current conditions: sunny, 79 degrees, 34% relative humidity, dewpoint of 48.
I can claim no credit, but I thought I'd brag on my wife and her father who have been tending this plot for several years.
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The first few rows are lettuce, carrots are to the left and herbs to the right in the next few rows. The tall vines crawling up those metal cylinders are sugar snap peas which are obscuring the broccoli. A second plot to the left has tomatoes and pumpkins. We've been eating the lettuce and broccoli and the various herbs. The tomatoes haven't started popping yet. The carrots have never really taken but they keep trying each year. Last year we got ravaged by rabbits. This year there is a pesky red squirrel who keeps invading but he hasn't done too much damage, yet.
My wife ran across this male black widow yesterday under a bucket in our back yard—these spiders are ubiquitous in our neck of the woods.
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