I would be fuming! War would be declared

That's tough, Glen. Sometimes, no matter how much you like an animal, the conflict is really too much. At least that's how works for me.

Ive got either rats, possum, or raccoon coming and eating my almost ripe tomatoes at night. They eat about half of one, then move on. They have a water source, so it shouldnt be that, but, If I didnt want vine ripe tomatoes I wouldnt grow them. The only critter off the hook , for once, is the squirrels. They really tore my daylilies up this year, they love to eat the roots, but they are petrified of the dark, so the tomato escapade is not them.

I have had no problem with the squirrels eating my daylilies, except breaking off a few blooms and scapes occasionally. The raccoons have been terrible again this year. Every year I do have trouble with the squirrels eating my tomatoes. There is a branch right by the garden, I have bird baths throughout the yard and two fountains, so the squirrels just like tomatoes.

Poor Glen. After all the trouble of watching pods, germinating seeds, to lose them when they are healthy is sad. Hope the birds have only eaten the tops and they resprout??? Or are they like the dreaded scrub turkeys and dig up the soil?

I now pot my germinated seeds and keep inside then gradually move them out. I had slugs eat a few which finished them. I put this out for a few hours of rain. Will put it in semi shade to acclimatise. They are planted with 'crown' just above soil level. When they are bigger I will add some crushed pine bark which is currently coming off felled trees. The 'soil' is just a mix from pots with dead plants. The seedlings were so vigorous no great TLC. There are 3 others just under the 'soil'.

pod parent; pollen unknown, poss self

After 2.8 metres (yes about 104 inches!) of rain in the last 24 hrs and 79mm (about 31inches) in the 24 hrs b4 that, we have a nice sunny crisp day. Fortunately the great ponds and pools of last night have drained away. Our dogs and cats can go outside without dodging a bucket of water. Ideal weather for daylilies which are putting out lovely green blue growth. Certainly a good opportunity to cut off all rusty foliage.

[quote="gardenglory"]Ive got either rats, possum, or raccoon coming and eating my almost ripe tomatoes at night.

HI Pam
Wondering, if for a while at least u start picking them as soon as they show any colour, whether the critters will go elsewhere, especially as it warms up. I think that tomatoes only need warmth to ripen and not sunlight. Maybe wrap them in newspaper and put on a warm windowsill. Direct sunlight thro glass may cook them. We ripen paw paw here that way so the fruit bats don't get them. Maybe make cylindrical wire cages from fine wire. Have to secure the bottom and top well.

Also I now pick pumpkins as soon as I see any sign of gnawing. We just finished the ones I picked months ago even tho they were green and not huge. Would not have picked them but for the critters but they were great. In fact I just picked 2 that had gnaw marks. One small one was a half eaten out shell. They go for the seeds. I was hoping the rain would help them grow heaps. I know it's rats now as I found a healthy looking dead one. Think our cats may have got it as they were desperate to go out at night around that time. That is a "No No" unless they race out the door. I was up till 4am one night calling one b4 he came in.

But population control is one advantage of having pythons around. Because I had lots of pumpkin vines come up the first year I was here I probably caused a breeding explosion as something discovered them after a while and ate heaps.

Wow, bron! That sounds like record rainfall. Can't imagine having that much here. Seeing your little baby seedlings makes me want to take some seeds out of my fridge

oops. I gave false info!!! thought that was too much rain. I saw an extra 0 that wasn't there. However, we did get more than the airport as my tall bin out in the open has about 40cm=20" in it, and I didn't open the lid until well after the rain started.

I planted a philadelphus in front of some daylilies. It is supposed to be a short and fragrant one. Am after more small deciduous shrubs that can shade them in summer but not winter. On the footpath the weeds have appeared overnight. Ground too wet to mow yet. And ground way too soggy to dig.

Just pulled rusty leaves off PREPPY and DENALI which are said to show resistance. Have decided that when it is less saturated I will transplant a bunch of daylilies with rust. I will take off all the green bits and plant them together. Then I can dig the old area. Wish there were a team of me. But I am grateful every day that I can still walk and do stuff. It is a race. I have to get smarter about achieving my goals. And maybe reassess what my limits should be. Since there is an (as yet unknown) upper limit on how many daylilies/plants I can look after, I have to be more judicious about what I acquire and keep. As my daughter often says, "Quality not quantity".

Bron, I have MS which does put some limitations on what can be accomplished. I am deeply grateful to still be mostly functional and have made adaptations to accommodate the non-functional parts. Like hermitizing in July and August when it is so dadgum hot, here. I have been ruthless the last year or so in eliminating Daylilies and Iris that are less than stellar. While I CAN still care for them all (mostly), keeping a fewer number lets me pay more attention to what I have.

Debra, I hope that some recent meds are able to help you. You are wise and courageous to do what needs to be done for you to be able to enjoy your plants. I am keeping in mind how stressful it was seeing my pots in the long hot summer with weeds growing feverishly and the daylilies shrinking amongst them. Every day I look at a problem area and say to myself what is going to fix that long term?

Today I ripped apart a few pots after their soaking by the rain. Even though they had little foliage, the daylilies were surprisingly well endowed with tubers and roots. Hopefully they will now grow well and soon flower in their new pots of wattle compost and clay. Of course I ripped off most of the leaves as they looked a bit rusty.

Glen, I saw this suggestion on a Nationl Parks Foundation site.
“If cockies are already stripping the woodwork, you can deter them by attaching strips of aluminium foil, fabric or feathers from a feather duster that will flutter in the wind near where the birds are chewing. This will frighten them away, but be warned that it will also deter other birds too.”

it then went on to say they are clever and often wait at drinking fountains for someone to turn them on. So maybe they would soon learn to ignore the foil. They make such an awful noise. I recall them screeching before sunrise when I was studying Law in Sydney and I needed more sleep than I was getting. Where I am now, the big black cockatoos are the noise makers.

Today a man at Aldi told me they had had Snake Repellers for sale. They have a light that emits some specific wave lengths. Apparently one guy bought all the stock in the area and a further 30 from their main store. Wonder if they wld work on cockatoos.

Thanks for the ideas Bron!!!!!! That guy must have a plague of snakes. I hope he wasn't buying snake-oil.

SPACECOAST RUFFLES is still flowering. And I think I may have seen new scapes coming up elsewhere because of the deluge last week. I might get my July bloom after all!

it was worth the wait for these buds to open. Glen have u seen doubles on SCR before this month?

the colour was a litle deeper than the pic. sky is white. wish it were snow.

Lovely. Yes, Bron, over several years. But they have always been reblooms of Spacecoast Ruffles.

Bron and Glen love the flowers. Send some of that rain my way, please.
I would probably do the same thing the snake hater did. I don't care for them at all.

Bron & Glen - Very, very nice! How awesome to have blooms so late in the season!

Mike - I just have to ask .... what is the cultivar in your avatar? It's a beauty!