What Did You Do In The Garden?

[seedcorn]

I have no problem with snakes but they do startle me. When we first moved here, I was cutting weeds/brush in back when I encountered a black racer. He crawled one direction when he saw me while I ran the opposite direction. Then he stopped and decided to chase me....I stopped to go get my 2 wheeled cycle mower. He stopped. When I went towards him, he crawled away. He looked 6’ Long....

Yesterday, I took out a row of cherry bushes that haven’t bore in 2 years along with blackberry briars that didn’t bear. Messy job.

 

[flowerbug]

these are the fiesty ones:

Brown Snake

and these are usually running away:

i've seen a few other species of snakes here, but don't have decent pictures of any of them.

the only poisonous one is the massasauga rattlesnake and i've seen a pretty young one of those, but none since, they're usually closer to the swampy woodlands than where we are at (1/2 mile away).

p.s. AWNLT

 

[ducks4you]

That top photo is a poisonous snake!! It has a triangular head. The bottom photo is not poisonous. I am not afraid of a non poisonous snake, but a poisonous one could kill my livestock. So, I guess, yes, I would rather not have any snakes on the property. Anybody with snakes in the Fall has them bc of mice. When we were down to 1 cat, we had mice coming in the house from the farm field in back of us. If there is any open area you WILL mice trying to get in. THAT is why you had garter snakes in your basement. I certainly would not kill a non poisonous snake, BUT, I keep chickens and they will go after the eggs, and if I have them, they will eat chicks.
When the crummy neighbors across the street didn't pay for garbage pickup (or their mortgage, as it turns out), they brought rats to their property, which ended up digging burrows under my chicken coop. EVEN THOUGH my cats couldn't get into the chicken run, they still eliminated ALL of the rats. Now, I just see regular field mice, which are nocturnal. Once in a blue winter moon I am in my barn in the wee hours and that's when I usually see mice, but my cats can find them. I have 2 male cats, kinda mouser worthless, but I have 5 females, who LOVE to catch things. The females cats are, btw, all spayed.

 

[flowerbug]

That top photo is a poisonous snake!! It has a triangular head. The bottom photo is not poisonous. I am not afraid of a non poisonous snake, but a poisonous one could kill my livestock. So, I guess, yes, I would rather not have any snakes on the property. Anybody with snakes in the Fall has them bc of mice. When we were down to 1 cat, we had mice coming in the house from the farm field in back of us. If there is any open area you WILL mice trying to get in. THAT is why you had garter snakes in your basement. I certainly would not kill a non poisonous snake, BUT, I keep chickens and they will go after the eggs, and if I have them, they will eat chicks.
When the crummy neighbors across the street didn't pay for garbage pickup (or their mortgage, as it turns out), they brought rats to their property, which ended up digging burrows under my chicken coop. EVEN THOUGH my cats couldn't get into the chicken run, they still eliminated ALL of the rats. Now, I just see regular field mice, which are nocturnal. Once in a blue winter moon I am in my barn in the wee hours and that's when I usually see mice, but my cats can find them. I have 2 male cats, kinda mouser worthless, but I have 5 females, who LOVE to catch things. The females cats are, btw, all spayed.

no, the brown snake isn't poisonous. only the one i listed later is in MI (the massasauga rattlesnake) which i do not have a picture of but you can google for it.

 

[Zeedman]

no, the brown snake isn't poisonous. only the one i listed later is in MI (the massasauga rattlesnake) which i do not have a picture of but you can google for it.

The Massasauga is supposedly here too, it is Wisconsin's most endangered snake. No one I know has ever seen one. I've encountered the Bull Snake before though; it is large, ornery, and will coil up & mimic a rattler... even buzzing its tail on the ground. It's quite effective, you won't take time to check the pattern if it catches you by surprise... it sure made me jump!!!

My grandfather had a large plot of mostly wooded land in central Wisconsin, about 280 acres. There had been a barn there once; all that was left was the foundation, and some pieces of rusted sheet metal laying in the field (probably old roofing). Snakes liked to hide under the metal to absorb heat, my brother & I caught a lot of snakes there... racers, garter snakes, and pine snakes mostly. Fascinating, when you're young...

 

[flowerbug]

The Massasauga is supposedly here too, it is Wisconsin's most endangered snake. No one I know has ever seen one. I've encountered the Bull Snake before though; it is large, ornery, and will coil up & mimic a rattler... even buzzing its tail on the ground. It's quite effective, you won't take time to check the pattern if it catches you by surprise... it sure made me jump!!!

My grandfather had a large plot of mostly wooded land in central Wisconsin, about 280 acres. There had been a barn there once; all that was left was the foundation, and some pieces of rusted sheet metal laying in the field (probably old roofing). Snakes liked to hide under the metal to absorb heat, my brother & I caught a lot of snakes there... racers, garter snakes, and pine snakes mostly. Fascinating, when you're young...

we have that south berm to deflect water covered in black plastic, the snakes love it under there.

 

[thistlebloom]

I worked at a greenhouse and the plants we potted up were placed on a large area of black plastic that was loaded with little garter snakes.
There were a few thrilling reactions from a few of the gals when a snake would slither out of a line of pots, or under the plastic.
I caught a few and brought them home to release in my garden.
I wonder if the ones I see frequently are descendants of those.

Also it's a common misconception that female cats are better hunters than males. We've had good and not so good mousers of both genders.

 

[digitS']

It's double digitS' October! . Are you ready for winter??

Yesterday, probably dug the last of the dahlias. Having trouble imagining that there are any roots living outdoors this morning. It dropped into the teens Fahrenheit at my house!

The saved roots are in the garage and I have the little electric heater on in there. Hate to use the power but it's a good thing that we weren't one of the thousands losing it after that snowstorm. Several hours of work in 2 gardens on 2 days might have been lost ... along with 2020 flowers. .I've made a past mistake thinking that dahlia roots can take more cold than the sensitive, ugly things can tolerate.

Today, it's out after the gladiolas. I know that they can take some cold. We will have a few over-wintered survivors from 2018 to bring into the garage first and then the basement. The bed takes some care in digging; the volunteers are in odd locations like paths and the basil ...

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

picked some of the dry beans that were ready, worked on the ditch project, getting there... a few more feet and 10 or so stones to move and i can call this part of the project done and be ready for the next part.

then helped Mom finish pulling the pods off the lima beans. going to shell those and cook them tonight. then shell out and sort what i can of what else i picked today so the evening is pretty well set once i rest up a bit more and have a snack.

tomorrow's plan is to finish picking some dry beans and then finish up what i can of the ditch project before it rains. we'll see how close they get to being right about the forecast. right now it says rain after 1pm. we'll see... 3hrs should be enough time...

 

[Zeedman]

Picked the last seed pods of Fortex beans, and DW harvested all of the Soissons Vert & Hopi lima. DW, DD, and I shelled out all the Soissons Vert today. Those limas will take a long time to shell, we probably won't finish until the weekend... which is fine, given that cold wet weather is moving in. It will give us time to freeze the butter beans.

And picked more okra (!!!) can't believe it is still producing this late. Found a few second-effort yardlong beans too. The Fortex snaps are still producing enough to eat fresh.

All that is left outside now is Swiss chard and a lot of pods on the Aeron Purple Star runner bean. I picked quite a few dry & near-dry pods, but a large number are still firm & in need of more time to ripen. The forecast was initially encouraging, with frost in outlaying areas... but now the lows in my region are forecast to be in the 33-34 degree range. My local suburban area is usually a couple degrees warmer than the forecast, unless it is windy. I hope that offers enough protection to the APS, this will be a multi-day frost event, and the killing freeze might come on one of those days... the end of the growing season is already predicted for the next county West of me.