Jeanie, If the ants are getting into your hoses, keep an eye on your electrical box and your A/C compressor because they like to invade those too.

At least the screens have escaped further damage.

I cannot get ants out of anything with water but if I drop a nozzle or whatever into a coffee cup full of Dawn dishwashing liquid, that gets them out.

Sorry about the Gaillardia. The wildlife is hungry and while I hate to hear they're eating your flowers, I understand it because they are starving.

I bet the hummingbird feeders in Texas are full. Everyone wants to make sure the hummers survive and can migrate as normal.

It surely has to be the worst drought since either 1934 or 1936 for this part of the country and it isn't over yet.

Dawn

Thanks for info on ants. Had NO idea they would get into hoses OR electrical equipment.
So far, since I moved out here, I have had ants in house (now, hoses); grasshoppers on screens; wire eating mice in motor of car; critters in flower beds; raccoons in trash and feeders and tunnlers all around yard. Am I missing anything? What next? HA

Jeanie

Oh, there's a lot of surprises in store.

Since moving here, we have dealt with the following (and as hard as I'll try to list them all, I bet I miss some):

whitetail deer, cottontail rabbits, possums, beavers, armadillos, coons, foxes, skunks, moles, voles, gophers, coyotes, bobcats, cougars (very rare occasions, thank God), ringtail cats (aren't really cats, but that is what they are called here), ferrets, snakes of all kinds, insects of all kinds including huge amounts of black widow and brown recluse spiders, ants of all kinds, predator birds like hawks that get our chickens, uncontrolled and sometimes feral domestic dogs-turned-killers, and feral hogs.

We also have insects of every kind, including many I never heard of until we moved here, and some nuisance birds like blue herons that kill the fish in our lily pond.

We sometimes have had visits from escaped horses, cows and goats, but our primary concern with them always is just to find their owners and get them put back up in their pastures before a car hits them. One of the great joys of country living is to be able to watch colts, calves, lambs and goats playing together in the pastures when they're young.
However, we're also blessed with tons of the kind of wildlife we enjoy seeing too. We do enjoy seeing most of the above-listed wildlife as long as they aren't eating our plants or our animals.

Fire ants will even get into electronic equipment if they make it into your house, and Raspberry crazy ants are even more damaging though I haven't heard of any of them making it from Texas to Oklahoma yet.

One reason we moved to the country was that we wanted to be able to live surrounded by wildlife, so you could say we got what we wanted--and more. Even with all the wild things around and sometimes doing damage, my personal preference still is for country living over city living.

Dawn

Jennie, I have an ant problem every year with my irrigation tubes. I have a cap on the down-stream end of the tube to remove and blow the ants out with water pressure.

I would suggest you spray around the outside condensing unit if you have a central system. Be very careful if you work on any kind of electrical box. It seems to be the relay in the condenser unit that attracts the ants.

Larry

Dawn I could bring you some of those ants if you are missing them.!!

Seriously tho OP I understand there are many downs that pop in. Oh come on is exactly what I said this noon when I saw my dead squash plants booo.

Wow! Thanks Dawn and Larry for all the info! Don't have a central watering system, just long hoses.
Dawn, you are much further Into the "boonies" than I am. I am only a couple miles South of "Desert USA" Wynnewood, therefore you are "enjoying" more wildlife than I am. I have the usual deer, rabbits. coons, squirrels, skunks, armadillos, possums, gophermolevoles, mostly black snakes, mice, spiders, scorpions and, I think, an occassional bobcat (I find very large paw prints in the mud?, what's that?, and I know, for sure, coyotes. I, too, enjoy them, as long as they aren't wrecking havoc on my
property.
Well, gonna soak the hose sprayer and, I guess, start keeping it inside.

Jeanie

Jennie, sorry I did not make myself clear, the central system I was referring to is central heating and cooling, which uses low voltage for the controls that activate a relay that energizes the high voltage side of the system. The high voltage side can be dangerous.

Larry

Kim, The fire ants followed us here from Texas, but aren't too bad this year. I wonder if last year's drought killed them? Please do not feel obligated to send us any of those ants of yours. When it cools off and rains, we'll likely discover they've been here all along and just hiding underground where it is cool. Last year we had carpenter ants all over. This year none. So, ant-wise, it is a good year!

Jeanie, Your very large paw prints likely are bobcats. Their paws are surprisingly large compared to their bodies sometimes.

If you'd just move everything inside that currently is outside, nothing would bother it. lol Can you imagine living in bear country? At least we don't have bears.

Dawn

OK, Larry. That makes more sense. HA. It so happens that I live in a small cabin with one of those AC/Heater wall units, so I won't have to worry about ants in the condensor. Thanks for the warning. That's very caring of you.
Thank goodness, Dawn. No bears. As I have said, I am more concerned about walking upon a snake in the dark or, perhaps a pack of roving coyotes, so simply don't go outside at night. I would love to walk my country road at night when it cools down, but just too dangerous, so, being diabetic, I try to hit the floor early enough to walk in the AM or do yard work. Otherwise, it is like walking in a blast furnace!
Been watching wildfires in central OK. Those poor people! It is so very dry! I have to be alert this time of year, as I am surrounded by a lot of dry grass and shennery that the landowner does NOT keep mowed, and living only 1/2 mile from I-35, I always think of careless people and their smokes.

Jeanie

I would like to take this time to state that I STILL have not seen one hummer. Please tell your hungry feeders that there is nectar aplenty in The Village and I'll be glad to see them...I'm afraid I won't see a single one this year :~(

Sharon

Sharon,
Having lived in the Village and other city locations and in more rural situations, I can tell you that I have had a LOT more success in attracting Hummers outside city limits than in town. My city-dwelling son has no Hummers, either, and I have a difficult time keeping my feeders filled here in the country. Are you growing flowers that attract HB's? They love red, trumpet shaped, necter-filled flowers, such as Honeysuckle. Are you checking your feeders to make sure the necter is still good and hasn't turned back to sugar in this heat, or is full of ants? I make my own necter, so easy to replace when feeders are empty or have become stale:

Recipe:
1 part sugar
4 parts boiled cooled water
stir til sugar dissolves.

You, probably, already know these things, but, if it is any encouragement, the Hummers were slow to make their appearance this year. They should be migrating in the next 4-6 weeks.........

Jeanie

Jeanie,

For years I walked my dogs every morning and every night along our rural roads, but I have gotten out of the habit. I pretty much stopped doing it during the year our cougar issues occurred and never really got back to doing it consistently. The last two years, except for the winter months, it has been too hot. We have a treadmill so when I am not too lazy I walk on it.

The wildfires in so many counties were so bad this weekend. I had the Cleveland County fire channel on my computer all weekend via radioreference.com so I could listen. Every now and then I'd hear the Love County Task Force fire trucks being sent from one location to another, so I was able to keep up with what our firefighters were doing up there. Tim and Chris would send me photos or videos when they were taking a Rehab break.

What's really bad is that conditions still are ripe for more fires exactly like these, and our state is so dry they could happen any time, any where. That's likely to be true until really significant rainfall (inches and inches and inches) occurs. All summer our firefighters have been like cats on a hot tin roof, watching and worrying and saying "it is going to happen". And so it has.

We're already had two fire calls today, but they were not big things, just small ones.

We're about a mile or so west of I-35 so we generally only have to worry on days the wind is out of the east or northeast. One of the most challenging wildfires we've ever fought in our district did start along the interstate northeast of us in the winter of 2006 and headed southwest but only burned across pasture land on two ranches across the street from our place before we were able to stop it. Some of the worst fires we have are when a semi truck tire shreds and blows out, throwing burning rubber off into the grass along a stretch of highway. That can start 2 or 3 separate fires or 10 or 15, and it keeps you running when that happens.

Sharon, I'm sorry you aren't seeing them. Maybe you'll have some during migration. I am seeing more and more every day for the last month. It likely is the males, which begin migrating in July most years. They are not visiting the feeders much because we have a lot of flowers in bloom that they like, but sometimes they do come to the feeders early and late in the day although they visit the flowers in the middle of the day. They mostly like to visit the orange trumpet creeper, yellow-flowered trumpet creeper, American crossvine, mimosa, coral honeysuckle, desert willow and morning glories at our house, so the feeders get less traffic when all the flowers are in bloom.

I change out the nectar every other day in this hot weather so it doesn't get a chance to start growing mold or to ferment. If I don't bring in the feeders at night, I have to put out new nectar every morning because the possums and racoons get it at night.

Dawn

Sharon - take heart. I live rural (you know where I live) and until 2 weeks ago, only saw a very few hummers. It just wasn't normal - and I think I read on a thread here that because of the horrible year we had last summer that their numbers were reduced. I still kept the feeders out and re-freshed them once a week.

In the last week - the numbers have grown tremendously!!!! I've got 5 feeders out and last nite we watched as many as 7 fight over each feeder. I have them placed well away from each other so I know the numbers here have increased. I have more feeders, but with work & the heat I just can't keep up with more than 5.

And if you're busy like me, I've found a way to short cut the food-prep for these little sweethearts. I take a gallon plastic pitcher. I fill it with 6 cups of water and 2 and a half cups sugar and microwave for 7 minutes. Stir afterward to make sure the sugar dissolves. Then I add a heaping 4 cups of ice cubes and stir until almost all are melted. That gives me 10 cups of nectar which fills my feeders and I don't have to wait to fix & fill.

My parent live in Moore proper and don't have any hummers either. They're so disappointed.

Paula

Dawn,
I've had a little success hanging HB feeders on suction cup hooks on windows. So far, the squirrels, raccoons and possums have left them alone. The crafty little rascals will probably start carrying ropes.
The only problem I'm running into walking early in the AM is that in the shady areas of the lane, horse flies swoop down and bite me. They hurt! Poor horses and cattle, both of which are on acreages out here! I've heard dryer sheets repel Mosquitos, but don't know about horse flies.

Jeanie

OK, OK...I'll clean my feeders yet again, and not give up hope quite yet. I have no mold, I have no ants...I don't even have bees this year!! I had a hanging basket that had (hmm...can't remember the name) red trumpet-shaped perfect flowers...they all croaked. I do have other flowers in baskets and/or pots in the area of both of my feeders...they should be attracted!!

Sigh...Sharon

Jeanie, I've been trying to avoid being out at dawn and dusk the last couple of weeks. West Nile Virus is running rampant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with many human cases and several deaths, and it has been moving our way for the last month or so. Now there's reported cases in the Texas county to our south and in Ardmore to our north. The mosquitoes that carry it are most active at dawn and dusk, which really sucks since that's the best time to be outdoors. I have less mosquito trouble if I run outside before sunrise, do what I need to do, and get back in before the sun is up very high in the sky. So, my outside time is reduced to about a 45 minute window in the morning right now. I can stay out longer if I douse myself in Deep Woods OFF, but I'd rather go inside early than spray myself with that stuff.

Most of my feeders hang in trees and are very large feeders, so I don't think suction cups would hold them, and I keep them out in the trees so the cats, who hang out close to the house, don't bother the hummers. I do have one feeder that is hanging from an ornamental iron bracket outside the kitchen window. The bracket is meant for holding a hanging basket full of plants, so it is pretty sturdy. The varmints cannot get that one and I don't have to bring it inside.

We have no problem attracting hummers here. Our detached, barn-style garage is 60' x 20' and is painted barn red, so the problem we have is that all the hummers who are flying by see it, come down and get inside and then I have to work to get them out of the barn so they are not trapped in there. My garden shed is painted red to match the barn and it attracts hummers too, and I have a t-shirt with a red poppy print that attracts hummers to me. When I need to get hummers out of the barn, I close every door but one, and hang a feeder and the poppy print shirt in the open doorway to lure the hummers down from the rafters and to the door. Once they reach the feeder and shirt, they see the open door and fly out. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to lure them out of the barn that way. It has a high peaked roof and they fly up there and cannot find their way out, day after day after day. My solution is to keep the doors closed all the time when I am there, but when Tim is home and out there puttering around he opens every door in the place and leaves them open when he's done. Of course, he isn't the one who has to try to lure the little hummers out of the building. If he was, I bet he wouldn't leave all those doors open all the time.

Dawn

Dawn,
Thanks for the reminder about the WNV. Frankly, I hadn't even thought about it. I haven't seen very many Mosquitos, which is no surprise as I have no pond. The only water around me is the river about a mile down the road that is drying up, my neighbor's horse pond about a 1/2 mile away and my BB that has to be refilled daily. I don't know if tucking a dryer sheet in your pocket is effective or not, just one of those "helpful hints" you receive in E-mail.
I used to have a bright red robe that I would slip on to go out and drink a cup of coffee on my deck. NOT the color to wear outside this time of year! I have a friend at church that had a Hummer drink out of his sweetened coffee cup one time. The little rascals just love that sugar. I always dread when they go South, as I love watching their antics around the feeders!
Yeah. Husbands are difficult to train, aren't they? HA.
This is the time of year (especially the last two Summers) when I start losing heart with gardening, as it seems, no matter how hard you try, the garden looks crisp and pathetic and the jagged cracks in the ground just get bigger and bigger. I'm even watering the cacti and yuccas about three times a week. My potted plants have, mostly, croaked, so actually looking forward to Mums coming out so I can have a LITTLE color this Fall, and I don't even care that much for Mums!

Jeanie

Jeanie,

I have been trying to ignore the WNV talk but as it creeps into counties all around us, I cannot ignore it any more. We have fish in the lily pond so they eat the mosquito larvae there. In what little water is left in our one pond that still has water, I put mosquito dunks and let the Bt kill them. Anywhere else that we have waterers---for the dogs, the chickens and the wildlife, I just dump them out and put in fresh water daily. The little puddles on the ground that I make for the birds,frogs, butterflies and dragonflies dry up overnight if not before sunset so I don't worry about them. However, some of the farm ponds around us are spring-fed and still have a reasonable amount of water (though not a lot) and the Red River is only about a half-mile from our back property line, so I am never sure how many mosquitoes might be around. We had some a couple of weeks ago after the rain, but I haven't seen any this week, likely because all the wet spots dried up. I just don't want to take a lot of chances with West Nile. Now that it has gotten so dry, maybe the thought of mosquitoes being here is more laughable by the day.

Overall, Tim does pretty well, but he'll never close up the garage like I will, so it tends to stay open on days he is home and closed on days he isn't. I don't want snakes, birds, mice and skunks and whatever getting in there, and he thinks that they won't. Well, of course they do. Otherwise, he is fairly handy around the yard as long as you don't let him into the fenced garden with anything like pruning shears, loppers or (God forbid!) a chain saw. My DH with any cutting tool whatsoever is a disaster in the garden. He doesn't mean to take out plants that I want him to leave alone, but he always manages to do it. Oh, same with Round-Up or any other herbicide. If someone is going to spray, it has to be me or our landscape suffers from Sudden Death by Herbicide Drift.

August is hard. I just try to survive August, knowing September will be better. The HPS catalog arrived today, so I've been looking at seeds of pansies and snapdragons. dianthus and flowering kale and dreaming of the day when cool-season plantings can go into the ground. I used to love summer, but these last couple of years I haven't loved it at all and really haven't liked it very much. Either summers are getting worse, or I am getting wimpier every year.

Dawn

Dawn,
Nope. You are NOT becoming "wimpier"! The Dust Bowl days were before my time, and, though, I have seen an occassional triple digit (103-104) Summer in my time, I have NEVER seen heat and drought like the last two Summers.
Garvin County has a beautiful cloud cover and thunder right now, so just waiting to see if we will get some good rain out if it. It is sprinkling, but that is all. Of course, will take anything we can get right now and be thankful for it. The last two Summers have, definitely, been challenging!
Looking forward to doing some Fall planting, but will mostly be "natives", as so many things don't seem to handle the intense heat well, even with me hovering over them with a garden hose.
Present activity? Hummers buzzing the feeders and sun coming back out. This section of the state HAS to be the driest in the entire state!

Jeanie

Jeanie, I hope that the clouds brought you rain. They brought us cooler air (from 108 to 104 when it first clouded up, and then from 104 to 90 when the rail fell). I use the term 'rain' loosely. The raindrops were small and widely scattered. It rained for about 30 minutes and added up to 0.05" in the rain gauge. Even by Oklahoma drought standards, 5/100s of an inch is pretty pitiful for a late-afternoon thundershower in August. Still, anything is better than no rainfall at all.

For fall/winter color I either have to put my pansies in hanging baskets on the wraparound porch, or in molasses tub containers with bird netting over them. Otherwise, I'd just providing green forage for the wildlife. I am so flower-starved. It was a lovely spring wildflower season, but July was awful and August is worse.

Whoa Nellie! Everyone likely believes their part of the state is the driest part (grinning as I say that because it is true, lol) but the U. S. Drought Monitor tells the tale. My county is in Moderate Drought and yours is in Severe Drought. A large portion of the state is worse off--in either Extreme Drought or Exceptional Drought. So, the dubious winner of the title of "Driest in the Entire State" would be the slightly more than 5% of the state in Exceptional Drought.

I think it is bad all over, and in my heart I believe the plants in eastern and northeastern OK are suffering the most. After all, they are used to 40-60" or even 70" of rain most years depending on their location, and many of them haven't even had half of that. Some of them may have had only a quarter of what they're used to.

On paper, my county looks really good with our rainfall within an inch of so of normal rainfall for the year-to-date. However, much of that fell in winter and very early spring and not so much in the last couple of months. I could argue, though, that even in what is considered an average rainfall year here in Love County, I have to water heavily in July and August of every year because drought is just a common occurrence here. Thus, what we consider normal summer rainfall here is still very lacking in terms of meeting the needs of the plants.

Also a person could argue that year-to-date rainfall totals are deceptive. One year I had almost 13" of rain in one day in late April, making our year-to-date rainfall look awesome. However, two or three weeks before that deluge, we had the worst wildfires every seen here in our county because we were about as dry as we'd ever been (until 2011 )and we had a very bad wind day (gusts in the 50s and 60s) all across the state that day during a Red Flag Fire Warning Day. So, I don't look too carefully at year-to-date numbers because consistent, even rainfall means more to our plants than a lot of rainfall once or twice a year with very little in between.

From watching the drought closely, I think that Carol, George, Dorothy and Scott, and others in their region, are worse off in terms of drought than the rest of us. My plants that are used to getting 30-40" a year may not be happy with this year's rainfall of around 20", but they're happier than the plants in NE OK used to getting 40-60" or more a year and which have had 10 or 15" or 20" this year.

When we moved here, I tried to plant the kinds of plants that grew well for me in Fort Worth in well-amended, semi-shady to shady black clay. Ha ha ha! Year after year, the weather and the wildlife took out plants as they pleased, teaching me many lessons along the way. After this year and last year, I think the weather is telling me to paint the ground green and to "plant" silk flowers. At least it would be low maintenance. I doubt the deer would eat the silk flowers either, although with deer you never really know.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Drought Monitor (D-4 is Worst, D-0 is best)

Sharon, I now have 3 hummers and I live in the Belle Isle area. I grow lots and lots of nectar plants for them:

Flame Acanthus
Hibiscus 'Plum Crazy'
Hibiscus, Texas Star
Sunflowers (protein, not nectar)
Hamelia patens
Lavender Porterweed
Tecoma 'Miami Sunrise'
Tons of Morning Glories
Lantana 'Dallas Red'
Butterfly Bushes (3 varieties)
Cosmos
Verbena bonariensis
Zinnias
Tropical Milkweed
Salvia darcyi
Salvia 'Cherry Queen'
Salvia 'Lady in Red'
Salvia 'Black and Blue'
Salvia 'Hot Lips'
Ironweed
White 4 o'clocks'
Cuphea 'David Verity'
Dicliptera suberecta (King's Crown)

A lot of these plants, in fact most, serve as butterfly, moth, and bee plants as well.

I sure hope they find you soon, Sharon, as they are a trip to watch and enjoy in the garden.

Susan

Dawn,
Agree that we had a beautiful wildflower Spring this year, much better than last year. The roadsides were just covered with Indian Paintbrush.

I'm just feeling sorry for myself, as I, too, am so flower starved! It just SEEMS like Garvin County is the driest in the state. Once again, only got a few drops of rain yesterday. As the months and years have gone by since I moved out here in 2007, I have changed my growing habits drastically, slowly changing from Gertrude Jekyll methods to Death Valley methods, this after killing many helpless shrubs and flowers in the horrible soil, heat and incredible wind and watching the wildlife destroy the few brave "soldiers" that dared lift their heads above the soil. I, now lean toward a "Southwest" look, with cacti, succulents and very hardy perennials and natives. Having no shade, literally, I am envious of your being able to grow Pansies. Will be adding a few natives this Fall, such as the wild Echinacea Pallida, Mexican Hat, Butterfly Weed and Rayless Gaillardia, so are my latest hardy natives of choice.

Think I have figured out why the only screen that suffered grasshopper damage was the screen over my kitchen sink is because that is the North side of the house, which is in a little shade as the sun travels from East to West during the day. When I walk around the house, there are hordes of grasshoppers in the grass on the North side, seems many more than on the South side. Guess they are looking for a cooler spot, also.
As for black ants, they are MUCH worse this year. They usually start coming into the kitchen in early Spring and then disappear. This year, they delayed their annual visit to early Summer and are STILL a problem. Found them covering a jar of honey in the cabinet, and the jar was tightly sealed. If I drop even one drop of nectar when filling my HB feeders, they find it. Can they smell?

Boy Susan, that must be a great micro-climate in your back yard, to be growing so many great annuals for your Winged friends! Of course, you guys have received more rain than we have, and I am sure you must have some really nice shade trees.

Well, happy for all who received some rain yesterday..........

Jeanie

Jeanie, I only grow pansies because I can have them in hanging baskets on the wraparound porch, and I only have them on the wraparound porch because a drip irrigation system makes it easy to maintain them. I have to have something with color for winter or I go stark raving mad. Usually when Wal-Mart or Target (if I want to drive 50 miles one-way to go to a Target) put out the boxed Christmas Amaryllis and paperwhites in the fall, I pick up one a week until I have a half-dozen or so, just so I can have something pretty and growing inside in the winter time. Generally, the cats are hard on indoor plants so I don't have plants indoors, but I will line up the amaryllis or paperwhites on a kitchen counter or a baker's rack and they don't bother them.

Last year we planted winter rye grass around the house to provide a green buffer for fire protection. I also think it improves the soil because we have to cut it twice a week most of the fall thru spring and the clippings fall to the ground and decompose. We also planted a deer forage mix behind the barn. While these were relatively small green areas, at least we had some green....and I guess I got used to it and did not always appreciate the greenness of it all as much as I should have. When a friend, neighbor or even the UPS guy or the FedEx guy would comment on our green oasis in the dead of winter, it would serve as a wake-up call to me to appreciate that green.

The hard thing about growing in your county or mine is that we have drought almost every summer. So, for us it is just a matter of how bad the drought is in any given summer, but the last two years, the drought has started developing in spring instead of in mid-summer so the flowers get hit by the heat and drought a couple of months earlier, which is devastating for them. Since moving here, the only two summers I'm pretty sure we didn't have drought were 2004, which had relatively steady rainfall all years, and 2007, which had insane amounts of May and June rainfall, though very little after that. By August 2007 I felt like we were slipping back into drought and, in our county at least, we did have drought in 2008. Usually the degree of summer drought is not as severe as in 2011 and this year, but we always have it. Well, 2002 likely had good rainfall, but was sandwiched in between the drought years of 2001 and 2003 so it still was a pretty rough year.

For me, the bigger challenges are when we have a year like 2004 or 2007 and the plants that tolerate very dry conditions in clay now have to cope with very wet conditions in clay and they cannot do it. Those wet conditions often kill them, so heavy rain isn't always the blessing we think it will be.

We have shade, but only because we created it. When we built our house, we cleared out tons of trash trees, greenbrier, poison ivy and other stuff you wouldn't want near your house, keeping only two trees---a large pecan tree about 60' from the front of the house, and a medium-sized post oak about 15' from the front of the house. Everything else that gives us shade now is stuff we've planted here since 1999. For the first 8 or 10 years I felt like we'd never have real shade, but the trees have grown steadily and now we do have significant shade. It was frustrating to build a house in full sun in one of the open, sunny areas when we had 14.4 acres of mostly woodland, but we didn't want to take out a big chunk of the woodland in order to build in the shade and we didn't want to have to worry forever after that some of those big trees would come down on top of our house. That was a good decision, by the way, as many woodland-area trees have come down in storms during the last few years.

Ironically, though, the trees and shrubs we planted for shade now make me nervous in terms of fire danger. If the wildfires continue to be an almost-perennial feature of summer, at some point we will remove the shrubs and vines and some of the trees in order to widen the defensible perimeter around our home. Having to remove shade trees would be a very bitter pill to swallow, but it may become necessary.

After the house was built and we moved here, we landscaped the traditional southern way with lots of trees and tall shrubs to provide shade for our brutal summers. We planted especially heavily on the west and south sides of the house. As wildfires become more and more common, I think we should have firescaped instead like they do in California. If it becomes necessary to remove the trees, tall shrubs and vines closer to the house, at least maybe by then the trees that are further from the house will be taller and will help make up for the shade removed.

Although we have had lots of wildfires since 2005, we had virtually none in our county that seemed a threat to anything other than a wheat field or hay pasture between 1999-2004. So, I wish I could know if our real weather is more like what we had in 1999-2004 or if it is what we've had since 2005 when the fires have been much more common and much more of a threat to homes.

I already have made some changes to our landscape because of wildfire. For example, junipers burn like mad in fires, so in addition to spending lots of time removing native Eastern red cedar, we also have mostly removed our groundcover type junipers. I've still got two out of 8 or 10 left, and I need to take them out. I've always felt they were in a part of the landscape where they were less of a fire threat, but the wildfires the last two years have changed my mind about that.

Some friends of ours took out their larger shrubs and bark mulch a couple of years ago, and replaced them with very compact shrubs that will stay small and compact and with rock mulch. I understand the logic behind it as it did reduce the amount of material around their house that would burn, but I don't especially want to change to rock mulch here. My soil needs the constant decomposition of bark mulch to help it slowly improve over time. Still, bark mulch is a fire threat. It is so hard to decide what to do.

I do use firewise landscaping techniques as much as I can, but at some point in order to truly do firewise landscaping, I'll have to make some big changes and I am not looking forward to taht.

I normally don't have an ant problem, except in wet years when they do come up into the house. I don't know if they can smell, but I think they must be able to. I can move a hummingbird feeder to a new location where I've never had one before ever and the ants find it within 24 hours. Although we normally avoid using chemical pesticides, in a wet year we will buy one of those ant barrier sprays that you spray on the ground around your entire foundation to keep ants out. Otherwise, they seem unstoppable.

Susan, All my salvias (well, all but one) died last summer, including the Texas Hummingbird Sage that usually reseeds with reckless abandon everywhere, so we have no salvias this year at all. Even the perennial ones near the house died, and I kept them watered. However, we only had 10" of rain from Jan-August of 2011, and 7" of that was in May, so I just couldn't water them enough. I hope to replant the butterfly/hummingbird beds next spring if the weather is remotely cooperative. My tropical milkweed, ironweed, Texas hibiscus, one single salvia farinacea plant in the veggie garden, crium lilies and hardy hibiscus survived, but most of the other stuff did not. Luckily all the trees and vines I grow for them did survive, so that helped a lot with this year's hummers and butterflies.

I sure hope next year is better.

Dawn

Dawn,

AMEN and AMEN! Sure hope next year is better and wetter!

I've always preached against rock mulch and rubber mulch. Let's face it. Once you add rock to the soil, it is next to impossible to get out, if you ever change your mind, not to mention what it does to your hands and nails when pulling weeds or adding plants. As for rubber mulch, can you imagine how HOT it must get under it, and I can't even imagine what a mess you would have, in case of fire! Then, of course, neither mulch adds a thing to the soil. Mulch that breaks down quickly and adds nutrients to the soil is the only way to go!

My son, who is in OKC this week, called and said he would check out Horn's and see if they have any real bargains, since they are going out of business. He said they had been in business 100 yrs. in OKC. I was not aware of that, just knew they had been on Classen Circle as long as I could remember.

Ya know? I think I'll pick up some Paperwhites this year, as I haven't done that in a while, and they smell heavenly!

On my AM walk, noticed a neighbor had thrown a tarp over, at least, one of her shrubs. Here we go again! We gardeners just never say "die", do we?!

Had a friend, who lives in a hilly suburb of Austin, text me and say she had 17 deer in her yard, which is amazing since she lives in a condo, but she feeds them corn tortillos from her balcony, and just bet they are having trouble finding food. She, usually, has 2-3 deer show up in the evening, but 17 is a herd. She was thrilled, but I'm thinking it's a warning sign of no grazing in those dry hills.

Come on, Autumn! I am SO ready!

Jeanie

Jeanie,

It is so sad about Horn's.

Paperwhites do smell heavenly, and having something green to look at in winter is just priceles. By buying one pot a week for about six weeks, I have blooms over a fairly long period of time.

I hope your neighbor left airspace between her tarp and her shrub. Without air space, her shrub may cook.

Seventeen deer is a lot. About the most I see at one time is 7 to 9. The regular herd that follows a certain little trail and visits often, if not daily, is usually 7 deer. This is the resident herd that feels comfortable around me and often will come closer to me than I like. Most of the others come in groups of 2 or 3 and are not regulars that live on our land part of the year. They are skittish and run away if they see me looking out a window at them. The rabbits are fairly well filled-out this year, but the deer are far too thin.

We stayed cloudy and cooler for most of today, so it sort of felt like a taste of autumn. I am so ready for autumn too.

I want to sit outside and feel COLD early in the mornings or late in the evenings. I want to see the golds and reds of the changing leaves (in drought, we often have poor fall color though). I want to see the geese flying south and I want to sit in a chair with a cup of hot spiced apple cider and look forward to many comfortably cool months. That's the dream, but you know, the autumn we actually have this year might not be anything like the dream.

Dawn

Dawn,
Your Autumn dreams sound wonderful!
It looked as though my neighbor had propped up the tarp with poles, as best I could see from the road.
The deer in this housing community of nice hillside condos are quite comfortable around people, which would be their death knell in our rural trigger-happy areas. I can't tell you how angry it makes me to hear the rifle shots during deer season around me! I am quite certain these people aren't starving. They are "SPORTSMEN", if you can call luring deer to feeders so they can be murdered, sporting!

Jeanie

Wow, that's too bad about your Salvias. They are pretty tough (well, most of them).

I feel a bit divided on the deer issue. I love them, but in some cases they can pose a danger. My family lives in rural communities in SE Kansas, and when the population is out of control, driving at night (and sometimes day) can be lethal. But, I guess that's different from killing them just for sport. Boys will be boys. Seems they gotta have something to kill.

Dawn, do you make your own cider? When I lived in Massachusetts, a friend and I went wandering thru the rural areas and came upon a German festival. Lots of homemade apple cider was available and it has to be THE BEST apply cider I have ever experienced! When the commercial producers were required to homogenize their cider, it seemed the flavor went with the process. They grow lots of apple trees in the North.

I fear the trees are already losing their leaves. I noticed the Redbud trees in my daughter's neighborhood are browning rapidly.

Will you not be able to grow some flowering plants in your greenhouse?

Susan

We only had 10" of rain through August of last year, and I couldn't water enough to keep the salvias happy. It doesn't surprise me. They have trouble with our heat in August every year. I'll plant more next year if the weather is better. I was going to do it this year, but it became apparent in April that we were headed into drought again, so I didn't spend time and money on replacing the salvia, which probably was a good decision.

I personally do not care for deer hunting, but without it, the herd would get much larger than it already is and there wouldn't be enough food to support the population and they would die a slow, painful death from starvation. However, we do not allow hunting on our land because we feed the deer. I could not, in good conscience, feed deer and get them used to coming to an area to eat, and then let someone shoot them. I don't think shooting animals that come to a baited area is sport either.

I've never made cider. We don't have a cider press and I don't grow apples, which tend to be hard to grow here because of the thick-as-grass cedar trees and Cedar-Apple Rust disease. I usually get fresh pressed cider at Central Market in the fall. I don't think it is homogenized because it has a very, very short shelf life--just a few days. I'll check it this fall when I buy it.

Greenhouses get too hot too often, so I will have to experiment and see what will grow in there. Even on partly clouded winter days in February 2012 my greenhouse hit temperatures of 114-117 degrees. Shadecloth helps, but not as much as you'd think. I have 50% shade cloth and that keeps the greenhouse maybe 10-15 degrees cooler than it would be otherwise. Even with the shade cloth and the 4 vents and 2 doors open, my greenhouse has hit 145 degrees this summer, which explains why it has been empty since May. I could keep it cooler with a swamp cooler, and we have a big one, but we haven't been using it since there's nothing in there. I may use it this fall if the sunlight heats up the greenhouse too much for the cool-season plants inside of it. It is enough of a job and expense to keep the house, people and pets cool in summer. I think our August electric bill is an all-time record for us, but then we've been over 110 plenty of days, so that is hardly a surprise, I guess.

I suspect greenhouses work better for cool-season plants in the cool season in areas with less-intense sunlight than we have here much of the cool season. You know how Oklahoma is. We can have 80 or 90 degree days in any given month, even in winter, and that just roasts whatever is in the greenhouse.

I'd like to get stronger shade cloth, but you know, at some point you're blocking so much light that the plants suffer. I love my greenhouse, but managing its temperature is a huge challenge.

Pansies will have a better chance of survival on the patio in big pots, but with bird netting over them to protect them from hungry varmints or in hanging baskets because the temperatures will stay more moderate. I think they will roast in the greenhouse even in the winter months, based on the temps in there last winter. I had to work really hard to keep my seedlings from overheating and was running a fan in the greenhouse in Feb and March.

I have finally started seeing the hummingbirds again these last few weeks. On hot days, they mostly visit around dawn and dusk but last night I had three of them cavorting around the yard, it was so cool outside. They were visiting the zinnias and cosmos in my butterfly garden--I've seen them feed from zinnias before, but I didn't know cosmos even had nectar. I haven't seen them around the four o'clocks at all.

I do know that if you give up and stop changing your feeders it can take a very long time before they will give them a try again.