Category: Plants

Seriously? The Squirrel is at it Again!

Squirrel Hole

The squirrel dug to the right of the hole I filled with wire and pepper flakes yesterday.

Poultry Netting

I folded two pieces of poultry netting, then manipulated them into a ball.

Wire in Hole

The balls of poultry netting were crammed into the large hole and the smaller hole to the back.

Empty Pepper Container

I emptied the contents of a container of red pepper flakes into the hole.

Covered Hole

Placed a piece of poultry netting over the hole. Covered the area with soil.

Now, my hope is the squirrel will go live some place else. There are fields and a small mountain at the end of the street.

Mountain

To the right of the service road there is a mountain and a large field that often has cattle grazing.

Rocks

There are loads of rocky areas that would make a lovely home and protection from predators.
What a nice little succulent!

Water

I was surprised to see water still flowing from the mountain.

There are plenty of places, not in my courtyard, that would make a delightful home for a ground squirrel.

Update: Not even an hour after I published this post there was a thump on the door. The squirrel jumped from one of my potted tomatoes and hit the door. When I checked the courtyard I found that it dug a hole on the opposite of the tree.

Squirrel Hole

Preparing to fill the new squirrel hole with poultry netting.

Squirrel Update

Squirrel

Squirrel Hoovering the Bird Feeder

Removed the bird feeder from the courtyard thinking that removing the food supply, well except for the garden plants, the squirrel would leave the area. Didn’t work. The squirrel wants to live under the house.

Squirrel Hole

The squirrel removed poultry netting that was to act as a deterrent.

Yesterday, I again removed the bromeliads and ferns and potted them up. The squirrel has been digging them up to access “his” space under the house.

Bromeliads

I placed a layer of rolled poultry netting in all areas previous dug up by the squirrel. Then I applied a layer of poultry netting over the entire space and covered with soil.

This morning, I inserted poultry netting into the hole, added red pepper flakes, replaced the oriningal poultry netting, and covered the lot with soil.

In the past I tried using dog fur (courtesy of our nephew’s dog) that supposedly was a deterrent. Didn’t work. The squirrel removed it and continue to dig.

Now I wait. Gardening is a lot of waiting.

Oak Leaf Hydrngea

The arrow is pointing at a start of an Oak Leaf Hydrangea. It should fill in the space nicely.

Oak Leaf Hydrngea

The Oak Leaf Hydrangea start was taken from a plant, that was a start taken from this plant..

Spending all my time working on the rock/succulent garden leaves little time for cleaning and maintaining other garden areas.

Plan to start placing the rock in the rock/succulent garden today.

Building a Rock/Succulent Garden

I am in the process of converting a garden space into a rock/succulent garden. Spent the past few days removing everything–Solandra maxima, small Japanese maple, a medium sized Brugmansia, miscellaneous plants, and a bazillion bulbs.

While removing the current irrigation system, I found an amazingly large root growing through the entire space. The garden space is only 4.5′ x 7′. Curious how anything else was able to compete.

Root

The irrigation system was in place when we moved in. The main line seems to be quite deep.

Rock Garden Space

This morning, my first task will be to remove the root. I am hoping to remove it in one piece. That may not be possible.

Next will be the removal of some of the soil, prep the bed, organize the rocks, and set up the drip system.

Then after all of that, get the plants in the ground!

Rock Detail

Detail of rocks that are currently being used in my garden and will be used in the rock/succulent garden.

What have I learned? Two tools that have been helpful in the removal of bulbs and unwanted other stuff.

Garden Tools

The tool with the blue handle was designed for harvesting grapes, but I used it in place of my fingers.

Always wear proper eye protection when digging in soil that has some hard bits and rocks. It is important to protect your eyes from possible flying debris.

No excuses–if your goggles steam up, use a couple crops of Sea Drops. It is typically sold in scuba diving shops.

Sea Drops

The bottle lasts a really long time. I started using my bottle in the early 90s.

Wallpieces, Concrete Columns, Flax

While archiving project working files for the garden wallpieces, I thought it would be a good idea to have the layout image with the finished wallpiece.

Wallpiece

Wallpiece

Wallpiece

Wallpiece

I chose to switch the colors on this wallpiece. When the two are viewed together on the wall, I wanted the dark brown rope of the embroidery stitches to act as a frame.

Our the weekend our neighbor gave use two solid concrete columns.

Concrete Columns

The columns are 29″ x 8.5″ x 9″

Leaning toward building a faux fireplace as the focal on the back wall of the courtyard between the two wallpieces. Need to relocate the Cordia boissieri, Texas Wild Olive. The location isn’t sunny enough.

Wallpieces

Need to stain the columns and perhaps even break off some hunks to give the visual feel of age. The mantel will be a couple of thick slabs of wood. Inside the “fireplace” will be snake plants to stand in for the flames of a fire.

Can’t wait to get started, but first I must finish building a rock garden. Over the weekend I removed the plants and bulbs. Today I started removing the soil and locating the irrigation system.

Flax Seed

Harvested Flax Seed