Last year I told you about

The Great Ongoing Battle.

The battle between me and the squirrels, to see who gets the tomatoes.

Well....here we go again.


Earlier this year.


They're already attacking.


I looked out the window, and saw the 'decorations', on the top of the fence.


Clever, huh?


And, the little monsters darlings don't even eat it all!


So, I brought every one I thought would ripen, into the house.
There are more...but, you get the idea.

Some have started to ripen, already.

So much for VINE RIPENED.


Hula Girl is dancing for joy.  We have beaten those pesky squirrels...for now, anyway...
and, she gets to watch over the tomatoes.

Hope you're winning your Garden Battles.

Happy Gardening...
~~Linda~~

Sometimes, it seems like we have just TWO seasons here.

One...the fall....when the Cedar Elm leaves fall.

And, Spring...when the Live Oaks lose their leaves.

Then, we have these.  I call them Brown Squiggleys.

Officially they are Live Oak Pollen Catkins.

Catkins....sounds so sweet, doesn't it?

They're NOT.

They cover everything.

They fill in between rocks, making it hard to brush out.

They STICK to the fur of  little white dogs....who by the way, LOVES to roll around in them.

And, as an added bonus this year, we have all the little Cedar Elms coming up.

Above is the front bed, which has been cleaned out...twice...and mulched.

It hasn't deterred more from appearing.

My mother's hoe has come in handy.  I'm not sure how old this is.  It's been around as long as 

I can remember.  But, it still works.

If you get the roots turned over, they die.

Some places are harder to get at.  I've poured some boiling water on these.

That works pretty well.  We'll see if more come up.

I got this weapon tool, for chopping around places I don't want other roots disturbed.

So, that's what's been going on here.  

After we get the leaves and the brown...uh, Catkins...cleaned up, and all 

the Cedar Elms dug up and REdug up, THEN we can put down new mulch.

Ah...a gardener's work is never done.

And...while I'm whining...we have ANOTHER cold front here.

Tonight is supposed to be low 40s in town.

That could mean 30s here.

THIS IS MAY, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!  

Some of the plants here are very confused.

And, so is this gardener.

Back to hoeing and raking. 

Until later...

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Well....there are two of them.  

And, they've been chomped.

Remember the lovely Powis Castle Artemisia that the deer NEVER touch?

I have it all over the place.

Well...they've been chomped.

Remember this agave that we put in the new Drive Bed last year?

Well...it wasn't chomped...

...it was shredded.  This is an old picture.  It looks worse now.

The centers of the Lophanthas have been chomped out.  

Oh...they don't EAT it.  They just take it out.

Remember last March, I showed you the back view of the Front Bed?

See the nice Softleaf Yucca?

Well...they've pulled it up so many times, I don't think it'll make it.

I really want to garden.  I feel sorry for the hungry deer.

But, I get tired and a bit discouraged, when those hungry deer eat everything I plant.

I don't want all our plants to live in cages.  

I guess we'll just have to start over....again.

I love grasses...they strangely don't eat grass.  But,  but I don't want ALL grasses.

No wonder so many people in this neighborhood have just given up.

Then again, some people have the same things I do....

and the deer don't eat it!

OK....thanks for listening to me whine, yet again.

The weather is supposed to be nice for the next few days.

I have a lot of clean up to do.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Oh...by the way...I'm linking to Pam at Digging.  for
Foliage Follow-Up.

Once upon a time, there were two very nice Yuccas, in the new Driveway Bed.

I especially liked this No Name one.  Very pretty, and the centerpiece of the bed.

Then....tragedy struck.  The No Name began to die off.  The top looked good...no drooping.  

Just from the bottom up, it was looking very sad.

I trimmed off the dead leaves.  Checked all around it.  A pup on the side looked pretty good.

Then more leaves began to turn dark, from the outside in.

The Softleaf Yucca, in the pot, had a lot of dead leaves at the bottom, too.

I decided to take the advise of some of you, and put the No Name in a pot to try to nurse it back to health, and replace it with something else....maybe an agave.

Too hot to plant much of anything else right now.

Then yesterday, I tried to straighten the Softleaf......and, it broke right off.

The stem was mush!  I dug down and found several Grub kind of worms.

No photo of them.  I was too busy squishing them.

I went over and pulled on the No Name....it broke right off, too.

The stem is mush.

There were no grubs in that spot.  The leaves never drooped, as I thought would be a symptom

of Yucca Weevils, or Snoutnose Agave Beetle. 

After some research, the grubs in the pot look like the larvae of those two villains. 

The soil in the No Name was a bit more moist than it maybe should have been.

I little too much help with watering maybe.

So, we're taking out the dirt, and discarding it....just in case.

I don't know what to put in their place.  

Between the heat, the deer, and worry about putting another yucca or agave there to be attacked, 

I just don't know.

The agave already in that bed looks ok, for now, though.  

Anyway, I just wanted to whine to my gardening friends about my trials and tribulations.

Hope you're having a better time in your garden.

Happy Gardening....

Stay Cool...Pray for Rain...

~~Linda~~

The big problem with being an over-achiever with decorating for Christmas...

sooner or later you have to take it all down...

pack it all up...

and put it all away 'til next year.

OK...whining is over.  Back to it.

Two years ago, we had a bad summer drought.  No rain, from June to September.  

That was our first summer, living here.  The heat was bad.  We reached 68 days of 100+ temperature.

Now, we're sitting at 73 days of 100+.  And, more to come.  

Yesterday, we hit 112.  That tied the all time high, set back in 2000.  We remember that one, too.  We were helping our son-in-law put in a water line at their old place.  Not fun...

We have more and more deer come to the birdbaths and buckets.  Our neighbors are putting out water, too.  That helps some.  But, the heat has to be taking a toll on the wildlife as much as the plants and trees.

Water is the great relief.  We'll keep supplying it, the best we can.

Let's hope the heat subsides soon.  

And, let's also hope that we get some of that good old water from heaven.  

Let's hope this is my last whining post.

That's a saying we have in Texas.  Texans tend to be a proud bunch.

Well....it's true.  But, I don't think we're doing much braggin.  More like moaning.

We tied the record for 100 degree days, set way back in 1925.  Today, we'll probably set a new record.  Then tomorrow, break that one.  And, on and on and on......you get the picture.

Just in case you wondered what our month has been like.  Last month wasn't much better.

And, it's not looking too good for the rest of the week.

This has to break sometime.  This kind of heat, and no rain, is taking a huge toll on this region.  Dead grass, struggling trees and wildlife, and people's homes going up in flames. 

Davy Crockett once told someone 'You can go to Hell...I'm goin to Texas'.

This summer, it's been hard to tell the difference.