What did you do in the garden today?

[Liz Birdlover]

Went out to get the mail and stopped to look at my cukes. They are planted in this raised bed trellis (although I've removed netting 2 weeks ago because DH got it caught in the mower...).

About had a heart attack when a snake tried to strike at my face when I was looking under the leaves. I saw it slither towards a corner but it never came out of the box so it must have a burrow in there. No idea what kind of snake it was... Either a copperhead or a black rat snake. If it's a rat snake, I don't want to kill it.

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Wow, it is a surprise when a snake lunges at you, especially if you didn’t even know it was there. My dad said he nearly crapped his pants when he went into an outbuilding to find something...a big black snake "stood up" and was vertical, they stood eye to eye...before dad made a hasty retreat. My dad stood 5'10" so that snake was a good bit longer...it was up level face to face with dad & much of the snake as still on the floor. Later that week, we found the perfect shed snake skin in that outbuilding, and no trace of mice anymore.

I've had rodents tunneling in my raised beds before. Maybe your snake was sniffing out a rodent? Hope it's Not a Copperhead!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Rat snakes EAT Copperheads...

How will you evict it?

I've been told that's a myth. King snakes will kill copperheads but not rat snakes.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Wow, it is a surprise when a snake lunges at you, especially if you didn’t even know it was there. My dad said he nearly crapped his pants when he went into an outbuilding to find something...a big black snake "stood up" and was vertical, they stood eye to eye...before dad made a hasty retreat. My dad stood 5'10" so that snake was a good bit longer...it was up level face to face with dad & much of the snake as still on the floor. Later that week, we found the perfect shed snake skin in that outbuilding, and no trace of mice anymore.

I've had rodents tunneling in my raised beds before. Maybe your snake was sniffing out a rodent? Hope it's Not a Copperhead!

Blue racers will stand up like that... It's enough to take a few years off your life, for sure.

As for the snake in my cukes, if he wants to hunt that dang gopher or any voles, he's more than welcome to hang around....

 

[fuzzi]

I've been told that's a myth. King snakes will kill copperheads but not rat snakes.

I looked, and there's evidence for both myth and truth, depending on the website. Black racers and Indigo snakes are also listed as predators of Copperhead snakes.

 

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

Ducks completely ruined our new flowerbed we were trying to make!

Our chickens are kind pure-hearted souls who will use them to poop and such to help fertilize and further boost the progress. They will get rid of all those pesky destroyers of the flowers and get rid of small snakes around them.

Our DUCKS on the other hand are evil and cruel, If you gave them a cup of water and ask them to save half they would break the cup in half instead. They are evil despicable and horrendous, they are a threat to all of humanity and completely destroyed the flowerbeds and uproot the flowers and eat the earthworms and stomp on sprouts and bury their FAT beaks into the soil and eat the seeds and anything helping it grow.

Okay I am done with my rant.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

There are various types of black snakes. I found this to help ID.

https://thepetenthusiast.com/black-snakes/

 

[jerryse]

It has looked like rain all day. It has not rained yet. Yesterday while out DW stopped at Walmart. I thought I would buy some mosquito dunks. I was surprised they had none. I wanted dill seed to plant for the butterflies but none. I bought dill seed in the spice section. Should grow and lots of seed in the bottle.

 

[jerryse]

 

[Birdsarelife]

Do any of y’all have indoor plants? If so may I see them?

 

[Smokerbill]

The leaves on my bucket o' daikon were trying to grow out of the floating row cover that was bungee'ed over the top, so I built a new cover today. The daikon leaves have room to spread now.

I built it with scrap lumber I had laying around, then covered it with previously used floating row cover. Used my jigsaw to cut the bucket size hole out of the OSB. I ran a strip of adhesive foam door gasket material around the bottom of the cover to close up any gaps.

I'll start thinning out the daikon soon. I overplanted on purpose so I could pick and eat the young daikon at thinning time. Roots and leaves are edible.

I keep the radishes covered to keep root maggot flies from laying eggs on my project plants.