Was: SNOW this morning -- Now: Plants, Porches & Pee Range!

[Guest guest]

Dee,

's not much for anything spicy or hot or out of the

ordinary.. so I highly doubt we'll be trying anything more

"exotic" than the lettuce, spinach, tomatoes & onions.. that

all salad material and he's the only one that will eat the

spinach.. that's just nasty stuff and ranks right up there with

"Liver & Onions".. head shaking ewwww..

We put in a birdbath a few years back.. and then used those

edging stones to build a flower bed around and under the

birdbath.. I put in some deep red spikey type flower (can't

remember their names, but they were pretty).. some purple

something else's.. and a few orange marigolds.. with them spaced

around the birdbath in an orderly fashion.. 12, 3, 6 & 9 on

a clock position were the reds, then the others went

yellow/orange, purple uniform.. BUSTER.. first took out the red

flowers.. one at a time.... peeing on the same one until it

died.. after he killed all of the reds.. he started on the

purples.. one at a time.. took him longer to kill the marigolds

as those things grow like wildfire and aren't easy to kill.. but

the little stinker took them out.. one at a time.. till all were

dead.. We don't put any flowers in there any longer.. it's now

surrounded with... what we always called "lucky stones" when I

was a kid.. but the bag calls them "river rock".. it's the

smooth oval type shaped stones.. And turned him loose to pee on

those all he wants... Anything I want to keep is in hanging

baskets out of pee range..... Tried putting a Yellow Calla Lily

on one side of the fence gate and a yellow tuberous begonia on

the other side.. the Begonia survived only because it was out of

reach of the little hairy critters from next door's pee range!..

Yes, the neighbor lady is trying to "train" her ragmoppy (I

can't remember the breed name) to stay in their own yard.. but

her hubby & kids just turn them loose.. and with ALL FOUR of

them being male (only 1 of the 4 neutered)... Pretty sure that's

where the term "pissing contest" came from..  my fence gets

bathed regularly!... Can hardly wait until finally gets the

outside fixture plumbed in so that we can have a hose outside..

then at least I can hose it all down & dilute the urine

smell out there!  Some days, during the summer, when it's real

hot outside.. I pray for rain!!! so that it washed the fence

down ( made the mistake, years ago, when he had Dobes.. of

weaving that chair webbing stuff.. through the fence... green

& white striped.. I don't like it one bit.. and as we slowly

replace the fence.. it doesn't get the webbing.. though he does

have to buy tent stakes & stake the bottom of the fence

down.. at least until we border the outside of the fence with

brick or retaining wall stone.. so that Buster doesn't shoot

straight under it (and he has) to get to the "puppies" from next

door when they are peeing on HIS fence.. He snarls something

awful.. but has never hurt the puppies.. just stands over top of

them like a shade umbrella! LOL..

Squirrels will be knocking on my window before too long..

forgot to fill the bird feeder this morning!

HUGS

|)onna

Donna that is so funny about the dogs~ out of pee range

indeed! I have two raised garden boxes by the front door on

the south side and my stuff loves it and I don't have to wade

through the mud if it's been raining to the garden garden on

the north side of the house. So I did plant potatos out there

and am composting on the rest of the area while we have our

son take out our holly bushes in front of the two front

bedrooms. I am going to put two raised garden boxes there as

well so I can take care of it all together and they get the

best part of the sun. just love them! Dirt compacts though so

have to add more about every other year. Reminder that spinach

and lettuce are cool weather plants so they may need a shade

awning to grow in summer. I run a lot of it and it does great

in the fall and spring...and anything that started in the fall

but wasn't quite ready pops right back up when we begin to

break through to spring, even after the ice storms and snow

piles. It's amazing~ But alas, I have much trouble when it's

hot to get many of the seeds to cooperate, even in the shaded

area on the north side once the midwest heat hits. So if you

have trouble, keep it in mind in the fall when we start having

cooler weather to start some up so you'll have some when we

have the up/down temps of the winter/spring change over. It is

a great surprise that they return. Green onions also come back

after ice and snow~ I have to pull mine out about every 3

years and start over because they're huge and tough and

crowded in the barrel pot. Have you done leeks? those are fun,

usually ready in the fall. My british gf's both love leeks and

have a leek casserole recipe they gave me. New to me but

pretty tasty. Those are pretty easy to grow, just have to hill

them periodically and water in well drained soil. Did

tomatillos, they really like it here...too much! they took

over and I ended up pulling the darn things, and they seed

like nothing else! Did aneheims, which make great chili

relleno casseroles but also had a med heat pepper there too

and they cross pollinated. ha, so freaking hot ended up

throwing all my prepared/frozen peppers out. hmmm what else

have I tried? onions, kind of did okay with that but they

didn't like being relocated, stunted their growth. Radishes

were easy but we don't eat many so that was silly. carrots,

same thing but here I am again growing some lol. Cant get

parsley to grow for nothing, but my british gf has an

abundance to attract butterflies if I recall and she's like 2

blocks away from me. Oh, bok choi was another one I tried. did

okay, much smaller than the stores but was not too demanding.

I'm so excited for you, you'll have to post a pic of your

boxes when things get started growing! best of luck with it

Donna

Dee