Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit!!!

First of all, here is a picture of the Dragon Arum I took a few weeks ago but never posted. I just can't keep up.

I can't believe it has been more than three weeks since my last post. The raccoon made a few trips to the deck after I put the mouse traps in the large flower pot. It has not been back in about 2 weeks or more. I guess it got it's little patties snapped at a few too many times :) however, I have now moved the mouse traps to the shade garden where all the hostas are. Right after I finished mulching everything some blasted varmint invaded an area just behind one of the hostas, dug a narrow, deep hole and consequently left my hosta buried with excess soil which at one time filled the narrow tunnel now in existence. So, I moved all four traps to the garden and created a barricade around the hole. I have caught three mice and the cat left a chipmunk in the garden for me which he has been rewarded for. Digging is still going on and I am down to three mouse traps meaning something dragged away one of them. I continue to reset them each day since they either have had mice in them or are sprung but caught nothing. What I don't understand is...I have lot's of garden space. I mean, if you calculated the area of my garden it would easily total over 1,000 square feet. So why would that blasted critter continue to come back to the same spot where the traps are? Not that I'm complaining cuz if it didn't I would never know where it would strike next. I am ecstatic that it continues to return to the same spot and dares to chance the traps I have set. I even tried poisoning it with Decon but it just dug it all out....that was before I put the traps there. These chipmunks are not the only pest in the garden. Slugs are also a challenge. I have donned the early morning slug hunting for a box of slug bait and killer. I have had one night with the slug killer. And I can tell you that it definitely attracts slugs cuz the garden had serious slime areas this morning. So time will tell how effective this stuff is.

I have decided to eliminate many of my pots due to constant watering during hot dry weather. Since I started working full time, it seems I don't have time to water even house plants. so in an effort to simplify things I took six of my large geraniums and planted them in the front garden. Today as I was deadheading I came upon three of them just about totally destroyed. The leaves just snipped off and left for dead. And they were so beautiful when I put them in. There must be an over abundance of bunnies around cuz I don't usually have a problem with them. Tiger must be slacking on the job. I'll have to lock him outside more often to do some patrolling. He is a slacker!!!

Okay now that I've told you about all my pests, here are a few updated pictures of the Dragon Arum taken today. This plant is not so much pretty as it is interesting. I put it in three years ago. The first year I just got a few leaves. The second year I got two huge flowers and this year there are three buds just about ready to open. The third one is on the small side compared to the others but even the small one is large. I have not measured these but I'd say they large ones are close to 20" long. Take a look. The small one is difficult to see but if you click on the picture you will see it. That's it for now. Stay tuned for pictures when they finally open. I think it will be only a couple of days.

Happy 4th everyone!!!