Edited by Cathy Tylka, for Let’s Talk Plants! September 2024.
Question for Sharing Secrets column for this month:
Who, what, and/or why is something living in your garden? Is it wanted or unwanted and WHY?
Joan Herskowitz of 92024 responded…
… Hi - I have had four large pots of the bromeliad, Portae petropolitana, along the edge of my patio for many years. This plant is endemic to the Atlantic coast of Brazil. I don't prune or fertilize them and only occasionally water them, and they remain green in winter and then put out this huge red-purple flowering stalk in July and August. I look forward to seeing it flower every year.
Sharon Reeve shares…
…To have living things in my garden is the goal of my garden. I plant to attract wildlife--as much wildlife as possible. Would love to include birds, butterflies, ladybeetles, lizards, frogs, beetles, snakes, possums, spiders, fox, coyotes, etc. There are many butterflies right now!
Linda Chisari writes and recites after noting, I’ve never seen so many happy snails, at least until a month ago. They prompted me to write a little poem, which is attached below.
Ode to a Snail
By Linda Chisari
'She Snail' peeked out from a rocky crack
When she finally felt raindrops slickening her back.
For months she’d laid hibernating deep in the dark,
Her epiphragm protecting her soft, moist parts.
Now ‘twas time to explore the rain-dampened world,
Her body from its smooth shell could finally unfurl.
She hoped that no Nike, Adidas, or Brooks
Would shorten her life, as she slipped from her nook,
By stomping without care on the delicate shell
That had offered protection while she’d hidden so well.
She drew a beautiful trail, her path silvered with slime,
That grit on her belly felt simply sublime!
Now free in the open, what should she eat?
What might taste best, a delectable treat?
She remembered the lettuce growing o’er the street,
In those raised cedar beds, elevated and neat.
Dare she venture that far and expect to be pardoned,
If she nibbled on leaves that grew in that garden
And were surely intended for the family’s dinner,
Would they see her and think her a slimy sinner?
She was lucky on this day to have chosen a spot
Where the owner loved all living creatures a lot.
When ‘She Snail’ was spotted in the day’s dimming light
She was simply moved aside so to sleep for the night.
Tomorrow she’d glide back to her familiar dry crack
But when next it was rainy, she knew she’d come back!
(After reading this fantastic poem, the Let’s Talk Plants! newsletter editor-in-chief and SD Hort Book Club head muckety-muck can’t help but think that the timing is perfect to encourage Linda and everyone else to join the SD Hort Book Club - at least for September if not for always because we are reading The Sound of a Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Book discussion is on Zoom at 4:30p social/5p discuss on September 2, 2024. To receive the meeting Zoom link send an email to info@sdhort.org with “book club” in the subject line.)
Gerald Stewart of 92084 relates…
... Something occasionally gets into my little ponds used for colorfully foliaged bog plants. Months ago, three huge raccoons (that made so much noise I turned on the outside lights and saw them) ravaged the ponds. I bought little electric fences to keep them out, but other issues on the property kept me from installing them. A couple of days ago I noticed a couple of pots were overturned in the little pond, spilling adobe dirt into the water. Time to make installing the electric fences a priority. I enjoy living in a rural residential area. There's, for example, a six-acre field behind me that won't perk for leach lines, so stays a wild area. The minimum lot size is one acre, yet Target, Aldi, Walmart, and Stater Bros. are under four miles away. Lots of wild animals populate my neighborhood. For years, a possum lived on my acre but died last year.
Years ago, when sitting on a deck to the south of my house, a skunk and her little litter strolled past.
Mourning Doves and other birds build nests. I rarely see a nest, but know they are there when a couple of birds keep teasing me or the cats. The only wildlife I'd rather not have are vermin, which the six-acre field in back produces in droves.
Carol Mosley of 92131, participates with…
… I have a raccoon family who come visit the grape arbor nightly between 3:30-4:30am, now that the grapes are beginning to ripen. I am going to the hardware store this weekend to purchase 14”x10’ galvanized steel roof flashing to construct a barrier on the two poles that she and her babies are using to access the free “all you can eat” dessert buffet! I will appreciate other insights on how to deter the little rascals.
Walter Anderson, laments…
… What’s living in my yard?? Good question.
I know there are rats, probably mice too. We had mice in our garage and I called our exterminator who quickly got rid of them. The “Sticky Traps” took care of them in about a week, they’ve not been back in over six months (the traps are still there and empty). I see a rat, on occasion. I have not had issues with the birds eating anything.
My neighbor feeds the birds with bird seed. He feeds the Hummers too. I have not mentioned it to him, since it’s one of his joys in life, he is elderly (me too) and he enjoys watching them feed, but maybe the rats come from his side of the fence.
We live in an area of Clairemont, some room has been provided for “open space” here that I assume is where the possums and raccoons live, there or under nearby decks. Not too many problems and they interact with my cats around 8:00 PM through the glass doors, but not often, maybe once a month or so. Kind of entertaining for our cats who are never outside. I’ve only had a few citrus fruit scraps laying around, small price to pay to keep the kitties happy, and it doesn’t happen that often.
We have quite a few birds, thanks to the neighbor mostly Finch (a few kinds) and the hummingbirds. Everything seems to co-exist in the ten years we have lived here.
E.N.M. O’Neill of 92014 only states…
...Gophers!!!
Helen Garcia is surprised and savors the moment – Arugula …
…I bought a plant for the veggie garden about 20 years ago or so. I’m still trying to get rid of it.
On the bright side, the gophers don’t like it.
Tynan Wyatt provides…
…So many residents that aren't paying rent. Sparrows nested and fledged this year. The screech owls are back for another round. There is a new cat every year, this one has decided that my son’s growing area is a fine cat box. The skinks always wait until the last second to scurry away, often making the "man of the house" surprisingly nimble and with a higher pitched yelp than I'd like to admit. Very bold raccoons, shy possums, and a family of growing skunks. Thread snakes have made a few appearances, which was super cool. And all sorts of other visitors such as hummingbirds, bees, and monarchs.
Guess the west side of Chula still has some wild left in it!
Lori Johanson of 92084 tells us a sad story…
…Whatever decided to chew the Netafim drip line in our orchard cost us 1000 gallons of water. So, it is DEFINITELY unwanted. We check those zones before they are scheduled to irrigate (midnight), but whatever decided to do this destruction did it during the night. All suggestions are welcome on how to prevent this.
We continually repair the lines. It seems the orchard is their dining room complete with a water source. This is just the latest waste of water.
p.s. Some may consider this another unwanted being in their gardens. This healthy rattler slithered about in our courtyard. I always look both ways before exiting any door in our house!
Jim Bishop of 92103, partakes…
... I was watering some Agave shawiis and thought a rock rolled out from under one when it started moving and then hopping. I believe this is the San Diego native kangaroo rat. But it looked like it was having some trouble moving, maybe because it was wet and/or been woken up.
Anyway, I let it be since it is native and hopefully not as damaging to things as packrats or Norwegian rats.
From Wikipedia: “Like other kangaroo rats, this species proceeds in a series of hops, using only its hind legs, and stabilizing itself with its long tail. The front legs are used for digging…The Dulzura Kangaroo Rat lives in a burrow which has several entrances, some of which may be at the base of shrubs. It is nocturnal, spending the day in its burrow (often blocking up the entrances) and emerging for a few hours at night. It feeds mainly on seeds, but also eats green plant material and insects, its diet varying with what is available at the time of year. It carries its food back to the burrow in its cheek pouches. It is solitary, the female defending a territory against intruders.”
Stephanie Lehman includes…
…I have a skunk and opossum who are regular visitors to my yard - sometimes even a raccoon as I've seen footprints. I also have a little community cat who now lives permanently in my yard (and house when it's raining!).
All are welcome - the cat is now part of the family. She is a hunter and catches gophers and mice and brings them home to "share". She now has a princess bed in the house and loves it when I get home from work and let her "brothers" outside to run and play.
Once I realized the skunk and opossum were visiting, I started to leave out a little tray of fruit, a boiled egg, and any left-over cat food as well as a little kibble. I've had only one or two snails all summer since they've been visiting. And hardly any earwigs. I wish they hunted down mosquitos as effectively!
Ida Rigby of 92064 provided this reply…
… So, who are the residents (and I will add visitors) welcome and unwelcome? The constant battle is with the wood rats (aka pack rats). Every night they begin projects under and on top of the bridges over the dry creek beds, and every morning I demolish what they have started. One fall morning I noticed that they had invaded the covered orchid house/storage area and had begun distributing the 1x1s that I had neatly gathered into a bundle on the sawhorses. By the third morning they had completed the construction in the photo, which I disassembled, only to have them reassemble it. Industrious and persistent little critters they are.
The signs of their nocturnal visits to the garden include nibbled Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Hybrid tomatoes. The problem for next year is: should I plant them again as decoys so they do not eat the cherry tomatoes or just forget about larger tomatoes? Obviously, chicken wire is no deterrent, and I am not sure I can construct wire mesh towers with tops to really keep them out.
Then there are the visitors who just deposit signs of their passage, like coyotes and raccoons. Although the raccoons usually arrive in August and make mayhem in the pond, tearing up the water lilies. When we put in the pond our consultant asked if we had raccoons or egrets in the neighborhood. I said no.
Of course, you do not know who is in your neighborhood until you set the environment for them. Both were, of course. Neighbors have seen a bobcat in our front garden; we have never seen it.
Mallards visit in February and March. We have a resident garter snake, and have had gopher, rattle and king snakes. We have a series of resident male mockingbirds. I used to enjoy counting the number of songs they had mastered, but then a few years ago a Cooper’s hawk came into the garden and each visit lasts only about 3 weeks; then I find a perfect circle of feathers beneath a branch in one of the pomegranate trees. It’s a good lesson in non-attachment as I have ceased relating to individual mockingbirds. Our gardens teach many lessons, practical and philosophical.
The pond is at the moment the liveliest site for residents and daily visitors. Every morning and early evening a hummingbird goes gnat catching over the pond. A house phoebe fly catches in the mornings and late afternoons. Mourning doves try to dip their beaks into the water, but usually cannot reach it. A frog serenades by the pond every summer evening.
Dragonflies zoom back and forth across it and lay eggs; then the mature larvae climb out on a lily bloom stalk and shed their skin, leaving a transparent ghost larvae grasping the stalk.
Half a dozen butterflies regularly pass through. Summers are a very lively time for residents and visitors alike. Since it’s the rats that are residents, I prefer visitors, who tread more lightly.
Karen England of 92084 vehemently declares ANTS!
…These wholly unwanted creatures are everywhere in my garden, home, property, car, etc...
Recently there was an ant on my eyeglasses. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of giving a presentation when the ant appeared, making me a little panicky. I tried to not look crazy as I talked but I could see the ant running around on my lenses, it was so distracting. I stupidly tried to take off my glasses to get rid of the ant only to quickly realize that without my glasses on I couldn’t see the bugger. I’m sure that the crowd thought I was nuts.
Cathy Tylka of 92024, says…
… Well, these two guys live in the yard and in the clothes closet during the winter. My Desert Tortoises were born at my home courtesy of the Turtle Society. If you are interested, they’re a wonderful group, and allow adoptions.
Additionally, an old friend, who continues to bloom and allow me to make additional plants from it, still lives. The poor man’s orchid, Reed Stem Epidendrum, comes in several colors, and can live almost anywhere with little to no care.
Question for next Month:
Are there any Old Friend Plants that seemed finished but were revived by this year's rains and have survived into this summer?
Sharing Secrets Question for next month:
Who, what, and/or why is something living in your garden? Is it wanted or unwanted and WHY?
Remember, all who answer the Sharing Secrets questions get their name thrown into a hopper to win a SD Hort logo hat every quarter!
Just like member Jim Booman, the most recent winner!
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