TomatoNut95 said: After you retire please come build one for me with an 8 foot tall electric fence around it.

That would NOT be retirement, and there would be a big bill I suspect, lol.

Ran to town to Chiro, came home and cleaned house. Outdoors is still too swampy and soggy to walk in the yard yet, I cringed but got the water hose after the dogs, Remi is shedding so heavy he looks like his underfur is falling out in clumps and he scratched all night long - and he is a rather short haired dog. Oakley sheds tiny fine hairs but is getting more long haired....and gray. Garden doing okay, about finished with trellising and figuring out climbing rails for hyacinth bean. It was hot, muggy and miserable outside, but I did my walking and headed indoors. I got the dragonfly drawn, I am not too happy with it, but it will work for the garden. I couldn't find my pencil sharpener anywhere, nor my french curve, and my shaky hands could have used some help, chuckl. I think summer is about to slam into us with a vengeance.

it's slamming here, I'm now hiding out in the house after pulling weeds while my helper weedwhacked weedgrasses too tall for my mower today. Code Enforcement cruised by while we were working, I was about to get a ticket I think, it was over 24 inches between my privacy fence and side street. but I have chunks of concrete and rock along street edge put there last summer to keep the contractors out from under my elm that was throwing branches, and I really like my mower. He did a great job mowing with the edger. I put up a 2nd swarm trap for honey bees and re-baited the first half an hour ago, now to peel off sweat and chiggers...

Storms expected tonight and rain all next week. I'll never be able to take my greenhouse down. I know I'll be praying for rain like this come June or July but in the meantime this is hurting the garden and being a nuisance.

My yard runneth over with Salt Marsh fuzzies. I don't have the heart to stomp them. They are very fond of eating weeds, they don't touch the garden at all.

Hazardous weather warnings issued for some counties. Check your forecast.

I have those black caterpillars too, lots. Didn't get any rain today

We had a nice cool front come through overnight. Thunder but no rain. The prediction is no chance of drying out. Lots of rain in the forecast for my weekend of course.

It's cool here today, I turned the air conditioners off when I got home yesterday and opened the windows, the front came in while we were working on a pond.

I don't think it rained last night. After all that trouble of covering everything.
Nice and sunny this morning, saw 2 stupid rabbits; one was chasing the other. I don't want more rabbits around. Then I saw the roadrunner. Wish he would eat rabbits.
Caught another mouse in my greenhouse. Gotta go haul it off.

No rain, tho Sunday is a maybe - this is more the summer thunderstorms time of year than the gullywasher rains. Checked the garden and the parsley worms are all over the dill weed, chuckl. Loosened the dirt around the plants, but need to get me in gear and go put a bean trellis up for those hyacinth beans and a stake for the african blue basil...just not motivated today at all.

Are 'parsley worms' the same as Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars? I've been removing eggs and baby cats because the fennel isn't big enough to sustain them yet. The parsley is for my use and I don't share it if I can help it. I knew when I saw this one that eggs and caterpillars would soon follow.

Great photo!

Yup, parsley worms are BST's and yours is a female. I have dill everywhere, so they are welcome to it. I have one eggplant with a bloom now, and was waiting on this gloopy day - I am freezing today. So, I bundled up. Rain appears to be staying north of me tonight and as usual, moving east.

I only have a few BST cats, so they're not a problem and I have plenty of fennel and some parsley for them to enjoy. There are also some American Lady cats on my Sweet Everlasting plants and a single frit cat on a passionflower plant. One Giant Swallowtail cat from a Hop Tree has pupated recently. Guess you could say I have enough host plants. Have seen Queen butterflies, but no eggs or cats as far as I know.

I saw black swallowtail cats on my fennel yesterday but i grow it and the parsley to share with them. Pleasantly cool. Carpenter ant nest in porch post and part of the rails that got changed yesterday. All nice and reassembled and painted and i think garage roof leak is fixed

I grow the fennel for the BSTs, though I'd like some for myself. I don't have an area suitable to grow enough for both of us though. I learned the hard way that a plant can be overgrazed to the point the cats never reach maturity due to exposure to predators and starvation. That doesn't result in any butterflies, so I try to calculate what will be a sustainable population so some can reach maturity. That's harder than you'd think. Cats can consume a LOT of vegetation as they grow and just 2-3 big cats can make headway on a large plant. The plant has to be able to regenerate growth as fast or faster than the cats can eat it. I move wheel bugs off if they decide to reside on the fennel. Another lesson. They are quite capable of controlling the cat population until it's down to zero. I'm fine with them consuming most of the other worms, e.g. tomato hornworms. I just relocate them to another plant.

I have spiders that graze the BSTs cats, sigh. Apparently a few do survive.
The rains have begun and I hear hail out there, a few bits anyway... and it has quit. Small as in cupcake dots size. Harder rain, buckets are full again, sigh.
The thread "2024 Vegetable Gardening" in Vegetables and Fruit forum did garden pics from this morning here. Mrrrowt, Doodle says LET ME OUT OF THIS RAIN, MRRROWT. I am cold, the dogs are hiding from the thunder, think I will take a nap

Rain, rain, go away...you're hurting my garden!!
My tomato fruits aren't growing, they're literally just sitting there. No sunlight and too much rain for too long is upsetting them. It's raining today and will rain all next week.

It's raining here. Nice rain and won't be enough to add anything to the reservoir. Chances for more rain are disappearing from the forecast. Only one day this week and the chance there is now reduced. Probably means no rain at all. All the other chances in May have been taken out. So far, the projected temps aren't really high. I hope that proves true, but am sceptical.

Nice rain here, roof still leaks. I let a roofer check for hail damage a few years ago and I think he kicked a few shingles up based on what my helper found yesterday, and the fact that the garage started leaking the next time it rained after he left. I didn't connect the 2, the peak has always had issues, we flashed those a month ago. Apparently one more.