Garden Pests

One of the things we enjoy is seeing lots of bunnies as we walk the winding paths of Durham. I believe Crystal once saw 17 on a mile long walk to the doctor. It's difficult to catch a picture of more than a cotton tail hopping off into the distance. But cute as they are, when a couple of my butternut squash seedlings disappeared one week — I had to dig in the dirt to even find a root remaining — my British friends unanimously pointed the finger: rabbit. The next day I caught a shot of this particularly guilty-looking rabbit trying to lay low in the grass. Hmmmm...

But my friend Mike said he strongly suspected snails and slugs. With a note of urgency he said to get some slug bait and put a perimeter around my garden. Being hesitant to sprinkle poison around casually, I've been trying some more organic approaches — egg shells, covering the plants at night, and going on evening snail hunts. Well, I think I've had enough. First off, you have to wait until about 11pm before it's dark enough for them to start coming out. And when I do get out there, I find not a few snails here and there, but entire herds, wandering the range of my garden, stuck to any ol' (formerly) green thing they can find. I collected them up by hand and was throwing them in a can of water (thankfully snails have built in "handles" to pick them up by....blech). But one can was full so I covered it up with another can and started to collect yet another can full. By the time I filled that one up, the rascals had colluded to knock the covering can off and escape en masse.

Gimme that poison.

On a more serious note, thanks for all the words of concern about our safety in light of the recent terrorist attacks in London. We're over 250 miles from London. But having said that, these bombings touch home for Britons and those of us who live and visit here. Nearly everyone here has been to London at one time or another and has traveled on the tube. Many people have been through the attacked stations many times and know them quite well. In a way it was a "close call" for large portions of the population. I'm sure those who are most directly affected will greatly appreciate your prayers.