Around the garden

We will get another, but probably place it elsewhere. Where it was did demarcate between where the fence used to be. So actually losing it makes the extended garden, seem more like 'ours'.

Every time we get a storm, or high winds, the trees behind us lose a bough or two, and occasionally a tree will fall. Mostly silver birches, some are really old.

So a little good did come out of this...

Those are just very large weeds. Our front hedge at the other house is all leylandi. It lookls awful as they were overtrimmed, and never recovered.

Yeah, they apparently never regrow anything... so once it looks empty it stays empty. Ours look awful because the person who planted them kind of grew too many intertwined, and they were all empty on the inside because of no sun, but now that 2 are missing, the emptiness is there on the ones that remain....

Yes, that's them alright.

I am sure it's mostly harmless snakes.... right??? lol

welllllllllll.................

See!

I knew it.

Aw, they are so cute when they yawn.

Ugh.. we have Japanese Beetles eating our crape myrtle

We are going out every couple of hours to pluck them off and throw them into soap water. They say that is the best way to try to get rid of them without using chemicals. They feed and mate every day or two.... so they can lay up to 60k eggs each in just 6 weeks. OMG WTF lol I am going to be quite busy for the next few weeks I guess... So far we have killed about 24 of them. Many of them were in the middle of mating, too, so that should help make a dent.

We are also going to purchase milky spores to introduce into the lawn.. it's supposed to help prevent the grubs from becoming adults, so that should help.

This is what wiki said:

"Research performed by many US extension service branches has shown pheromone traps attract more beetles than they catch.[13][14] Traps are most effective when spread out over an entire community, and downwind and at the borders (i.e., as far away as possible, particularly upwind), of managed property containing plants being protected. Natural repellents include catnip, chives, garlic, and tansy,[15] as well as the remains of dead beetles, but these methods have limited effectiveness.[16] Additionally, when present in small numbers, the beetles may be manually controlled using a soap-water spray mixture, shaking a plant in the morning hours and disposing of the fallen beetles,[14] or simply picking them off attractions such as rose flowers, since the presence of beetles attracts more beetles to that plant.[16]"