How is your garden looking today?

Hold your horses, Panzade. I'll try to take some in a couple of hours.

Promise.

Where are those photos Diane?

The squirrels are killing me. So far, they've gotten six of my big boy tomatoes, 5 still green and 1 just beginning to ripen, while we've gotten zero. None. Nada. I grow them in a barrel and I've thrown up netting and locked it down and still they're getting in. I just can't figure out how they're doing it and, even more baffling, how do they manage to get a 1 lb. tomato out of the barrel and onto the ground without causing any other damage? There are no broken stems, ripped leaves, nothing that would suggest that anything has been inside the barrel.

I threw up more netting and tied it up at the top now, but there are some stems that are taller so I've got to leave a little part open for them to peek through. I'm ready to stand guard at this point. Almost.

Trying to view this as a challenge, as my husband has suggested, but I could just cry. 6-0.

When I went out to look, most of the flowers are not blooming--mainly because they were just put into the ground a couple of months ago, or they have already bloomed.

Some photos are in Dys' album, so I will get him to post them. I did take photos of almost all the plants in the front yard in order to compare what it looks like this year and what it will look like next year and to find out what plants weathered well and which ones didn't like our summer or our winter.

Here is a list of most of the plants in the yard:

Fringed shasta daisies

agastache-desert sunrise
Ava's Hummingbird Mint--spikes of deep rose-pinkflowers

penstemon pinifolius--Compact Pineleaf Penstemon
scarlet color
Penstemon eatonii--Firecracker Beardtongue

Globe mallow (spaeralcea minroana) Orange long wands of orange flowerd--a bit like miniature hoyyhocks.-Thrives in heavy clay.

Silene regia 'Prairie Fare' Royal Catch Fly--2 1/2 flowescent scarlet-red flowers

Blue Fescue Grass

lavender--Provence, English--lots of lavender festivals all over New Mexico


buddleia Butterfly Bush--considered invasive in California, not in New Mexico

ajuga--bugleweed part shade ground cover

Tanacetum--Double Market' painted daisy

spreading thyme and spreading rosemary, ground cover

Angelita--dainty yellow flowers on the end of 12 inch spikes

Salvia--red

hollyhocks

echinacea--cone flower

ice plant ground cover

I also plan to put in manzanilla--camomile--as a ground cover. It does best if planted in the fall.

I am very careful to put in plants that attract hummongbirds--want to keep those little beautys coming back each year.

Most of these plants like heavy clay soil, downright poor soil and very little water, once established.

If you can't bring yourself to shoot the damn squirrels, sprinkle ground hot pepper on your 'maters. The hotter the better.

shiksa says "if you got flies on on your ceiling, use a 12 guage, don't worry about the rain, it doesn't happen that often."

I tried hot red pepper flakes. Didn't seem to phase them. The netting didn't seem to phase them. None of the tricks from past years worked this year.

eoe, try shaking up the hot pepper powder in a water solution and spraying the tomatoes with that.....?

aaaaaaawwwwwww.....

Poor eoe. I know this is very disheartening, but do try littlk's suggestion. Use the powder, not the flakes, and mix it with water to spray on the plants (pitiful plants that they are). Be sure to spray after every rain. This usually works pretty well. Hang in there or come to our house for lots of Sweet 100's (like candy) and grape tomatoes.

For some reason, the Early Girl hasn't done well at all and even the Better Boy doesn't seem as happy this year as last and we haven't been bothered by bugs, at least not enough to make a difference.

Mother Nature is a strange old broad.

Well, we did get the Sweet 100's going and got the chance to enjoy those but now they're being bombarded as well as the larger ones.. It's like all of a sudden, the squirrels went wild.
I will try the red pepper juice.

Get a Havahart trap and bait it with cherry tomatoes. You'll catch the culprit(s). Like people, squirrels have different taste preferences.

Remember, squirrels are tree rats.

but they have more dark meat.

Yep, they're quite a favorite at the Road Kill Cafe.

Road Kill Cafe is still there!

There was one in Maine, but are there others?

The one I knew of was near Santa Fe - South of, I think. Off the highway to Pecos, maybe? If memory serves, it was near the exit to Madrid (the back road to Albaturkey).

Hmm, when we go to Madrid, we take the road going north through Tijeras on the Turquoise Trail. I'll keep my eyes open if we come back on I 25.

Now I'm thinking it's off I25 (old rte 66) near or at highway 285. eh. It could be anywhere. I hadn't realized it was a chain.