Squirrel Mischief!

Omigosh!  I'm so sorry, garden peeps!  Things got really, REALLY crazy last fall, and I dropped the ball.  Sorry!

First, let me share with you some squirrel mischief! Yes, more rodents to join the rabbitsssss.  Here's what they did to our lawn in one day/night/morning in October.

We weren't sure what exactly did it at first.  But a friend in another part of town actually caught a squirrel in the act, doing the same in his yard!  In broad daylight!  The grass is pulled up and peeled back, exposing the soil and roots, and we don't know why.  The grass surrounding the digging is weirdly dead.  We have not had issues with grubs in this area, the lawn was quite healthy, and there were no nuts buried there.

I tamped down the "squirrel divots" and prayed for the best.  But the darn animal came back night after night.  Are squirrels really nocturnal?  Anyway, we overseeded, but the turf is still a mess.  So we decided to have a lawn care company take care of our grub control and fertilizing this year, to be sure the right stuff goes down at the right time, in the right spots.  We crunched the numbers and found it's a good deal for us this year, especially with visitors coming in May and some other work being done.


The playfort is gone, and we had the small tree taken down, as well.  The little purple tree never really flourished in the 12 years we've been here (planted before we got here); arborist said the species is prone to infestation.  Next month we'll have its stump ground, along with an older stump outside the fence.  I was encouraged to plant another tree about 5 feet from where the other one was, so we'll be getting a real tree (not a sapling this time) in the ground, too.

And we will have the crabapple tree addressed.  This year it gets a long-overdue haircut (or rather, amputation) by the arborist.  I was told last fall that it wouldn't hurt it to cut way back.  Another interesting thing is about the bark.  Remember how I was concerned about it splitting?  The tree guy said it was okay, and normal, even.  Okie-dokie, then.  He was more interested in the amount of fruit.  Well, it's all gone now, thanks to the Nebraska winds.

So we start the spring season (okay, it's a week away) with big projects.  I've got herb and flower seedlings started inside, but that's another post.

Garden Tuesday: Speaking of Bugs

Ick, ick, ick!  It's been a couple weeks of dealing with bugs.  We finally got some rain (yay!), and "normal" temperatures, and it brought out the bugs.  Lucky me to discover their abundance.

For starters, that lovely spider web (yes, I know it's an arachnid, not an insect, but it's still a bug) in the crabapple tree belonged to the ugliest darn thing!  He was huge, bulbous, cream-colored, and menacing.  He came down with some of the upper-branch fruits that needed to be trimmed away.  He's gone now, but I'm having nightmares.

And the mosquitoes found their way to human flesh.  That scares me because of the West Nile virus, so we're just being extra careful.

I discovered two large ant hole openings near the back patio (building up their doorways for a storm).  Inside, I found hundreds of dead tiny ants, which came in during the last 3-4 weeks.  (The area is behind the TV/game station, and I get it once a month.)  So the barrier spray is working as it should, although the buggers are trying to get in.

But the most disturbing insect to this homeowner is the carpenter ant.  Talk about your nightmares! {shudder}  We "gave away" the playfort over the weekend; actually, it fell apart as it was being taken down.

 
We had no idea it wasn't going to be usable!  (Those carpenter ants are pretty sneaky, with their damage on the inside.)  The taker was kind enough to haul away the unusable wood and keep the plastic parts, so after we helped him load up, we took a look at the vacant area.  The hardwood mulch and the wooden structure had been a palace and playground for some of the largest ants I've seen in Nebraska.  We were going to rake up and reuse the hardwood mulch, but I think now it's going to be purged.

There is a smaller tree also in the backyard that I noticed this spring was infested with insects, which I now realize is the same carpenter ant.  It's dead halfway up, and the top portion did not leaf out well this year.  I had already planned to have an arborist out this fall to address that (take it down).

One call to Brad the bug guy, and he came out assess the situation.  Fortunately, he said they're far enough away from the house that they likely won't head for it, and our fall spraying in a month or so should be sufficient.  He said they may go to the fence (better than the house, but still not good). We've been through carpenter ants before, and termites, and they are quite destructive, so I hope they just go away.  HA!  I sprayed the area anyway with ant stuff.

At least the bugs are staying outside.  The ones I see inside have met their end; the flies that get in are gone quickly, and there are very few other carcasses I vacuum up.  (Except those tiny ants.) We're supposed to get 100-degree weather again tomorrow, but after this round, and with the next cool-down, I'll get out there and start preparing the garden for fall.  Little by little.

How are the bugs in your yard?  Share your garden pics and enjoy the others at  Garden Tuesday and Bloomin' Tuesday.

The Crabapple Tree

This is another edition of "Remember When?"  Last fall I posted this article about the bark on my crabapple tree.  Here's a new pic, with bark woe enhanced by fresh water (read on about that).  You can really see the splits when the bark is wet:

Well, I think I figured out why we got bark splits.  Remember that it wasn't insects, and it wasn't because of winter freezing and ice buildup.  The foliage and fruit seem unaffected by this.  The tree has always leaned (planted by previous owner) and is secure in the ground.  I wondered if it was too much moisture.  And it is.  "Here's what's happened."  (For you Monk fans.)

A few years ago, when we went on a long vacation in the middle of summer, DH and I adjusted the sprinklers to water beyond what they normally did, because it was very dry, and so that the potted vegs and flowers could be placed just so and be watered while we weren't there.  When we got back, they didn't get readjusted.  The following spring, some of them did.  Except for two.  Which hit the tree.  One hits it halfway up!  I know, right?!

DH likes to water the lawn at 4:30 am.  (Let's not get started on that discussion, please.)  I'm usually in bed, trying to fall back asleep at that time.  This week, I asked him to start it later (6 am).  The backyard zones disperse at about 7:30 (yup, really big lawn, ten zones), so I have seen two days of the tree getting doused too much in the wrong places.  This explains why the tree is damaged on all sides, and why the branches are damaged, too, not just the trunk.  There is no splitting above where the water hits.

So tonight we adjust the sprinkler heads, again.  This should prevent further damage, but I'm not sure how to fix the current situation.  Any suggestions?  Should we wrap it?