On Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:36:52 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 8/10/2015 6:04 AM, Boron Elgar wrote:
On Sun, 09 Aug 2015 18:41:58 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:


Just happen to have one that I don't use much, may give it a try next
season on the tomatoes. That's if I don't see any pollinators as
happened this year. I hope the A holes who sprayed around here by air
and the builders who destroyed a virgin forest behind us have a bad crop
too.

We have suffered from lack of pollinators this year, too - at least
for the cukes. It is hard to screw up growing cukes, but I have had
trouble with 2 varieties, grown far enough apart so that I know there
is something odd going on.

We do seem to have lots of little critters buzzing around the rest of
the flowers and fruits, but I am guessing whatever preferred cukes had
a bit of a population crash this year.

And I discovered that it hasn't been 4 footed mini-mammals destroying
the tomatoes - it's been mockingbirds!

Yup, had that problem last year but not this year. Has happened to us
many times and the ag agent said they're worse in drought years because
they're after the liquid and the seeds. We set up a small bird bath made
with a plastic bowl from a pot set and they seem to prefer that. Mostly
I see them eating insects nowadays, of which we have plenty of.

The folks next door have a waterfall and not more than 50 years the
other way is a stream. My mockingbirds have a mean streak.

Tilly Dawg got a rat in the garden today, saw her ears go up and then
she pounced and brought me a nice sized field rat, probably from the
retention pond area behind our house. She didn't eat it though, just
killed it and brought it to me so it went straight to the trash can and
today is trash pick up day. Good Dawg!

Oh, you'll like this tale then...

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/inde...ckstarter.html