Comment by Dominic Florio on January 8, 2013 at 10:08am

The one Lady Slipper I have blooms once a year.  The Vanda is doing great.  My first one held on for a few years and when I moved it to the sunny side of a tree, it bloomed.  The roots took hold of the bark and I couldn't move it during a freeze, and lost it.  But now I know better.  Some sun and daily watering seems to do the trick.  I have this one about six months and this is the second time it has bloomed.  I like to mix the various species on hanging poles, so that in I always have something in bloom, at some time.

Comment by Dominic Florio on January 8, 2013 at 10:15am

I wanted to add that I am an animal rescuer.  Yes I have hens, roosters, ducks, peafowl, guinea fowl, doves, pigeons, quail, a cockatoo, 12 cockatiels, 3 conures, 3 turkeys, finches, canaries, budgies, 3 cats, 2 prairie dogs, 12 guinea pigs, 3 sulcata tortoises, frogs, fish, 2 goats, and 6 pugs.

Comment by Sentient Biped on January 8, 2013 at 11:01am

Amazing garden!  Beautiful birds!  

I love including the animals in my thoughts and ideas about gardening.  Even the moles, which are annoying, have their place.   Plus, growing organically, the manure helps a lot with fertility.

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 8, 2013 at 12:53pm

Dominic, what a splendid menagerie you have and such varieties. There must be a lot of interesting sounds emanating from your place. I see you have sturdy fencing; what predators give ou grief?  

Comment by Dominic Florio on January 8, 2013 at 1:19pm

Foxes, coyotees, skunks, possums, raccoons, hawks, snakes, weasels, otters, bobcats, and neighbor's dogs and cats.  The only ones I really resent are the dogs and cats because that is a human issues.  The rest are welcome.  It is up to me to provide good fencing to protect my animals.  It's been a learning esperience on how to out smart them.  I just recently discovered how to combat rats.  My feed is in metal garbage cans, but they would eat whatever was in the hoppers and avoid poison.  I tried grating the poison sticks or mixing pellets with peanut butter.  I tried mixing all types of food items with poison, but only to very limited success.  Finally, I mixed the feed (as I do with my small pet birds) with cayene pepper.  The fowl like it, but the rats had no choice but to eat the poison.  It is working! 

Comment by Idaho Spud on January 8, 2013 at 1:56pm

Dominic, the cayenne pepper solution is interesting.  I'll remember it if I ever get some land in the country.

I used it as a solution to my squirrel problem.  There was one or more that found an opening in my porch attic and made a lot of bothersome noise, so I covered the hole with a board.  The squirrel promptly chewed through the board, so the next one I covered with pepper mixed with glue.  The squirrel chewed at the edges of it, but finally gave-up before it got through.

Comment by Sentient Biped on January 8, 2013 at 7:56pm

Now I'm going to think of a hot pepper/glue variation for my fruit trees.  Maybe hot pepper / paint.   Or hot pepper / wax.  I was mulling over how to make that from habaneros, since they are so much hotter.   As others have commented, the deer might just find it a spicy flavor.

Comment by Annie Thomas on January 8, 2013 at 8:49pm

I've really enjoyed all of the wonderful photos shared here lately.  I thought I'd add my own.  No flowers, but a stowaway who found a nice basking spot in my solitary wasp house.  I go out every afternoon and have seen him there for the last five days.

Comment by Dominic Florio on January 8, 2013 at 9:22pm

To stop the squirrels from chewing my springler system, I mixed cayene with vaseline, and then spread it on the tubing.  Also, talk about stowaways.These are Cuban Tree Frogs who have lived in a bird house for six years.  In the future, I'll take some pictures of them peeping out of the oppening.

Also, I mentioned my Lady Slipper in another post:

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 8, 2013 at 9:58pm

Annie, is it a snake?

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