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Category Archives: Critters
Tomato Hornworm Visits the Garden
Well, look who showed up in my garden last week. This lovely fellow is the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata), a caterpillar that can quickly defoliate tomato plants. He’s about 4 inches long and as fat as your finger, having just … Continue reading
Posted in Critters, Fruits and Vegetables
Tagged hummingbird moth, sphinx moth, Tomato hornworm, tomato pests
2 Comments
Creative Critter Control
I toured more than a dozen gardens this weekend and saw lots of creative ideas, from antiques in the garden to exciting plant combinations. Two of my favorite ideas were ways to protect plants from marauding critters. This contraption is … Continue reading
Posted in Critters
Tagged hosta protection, Hudson Garden Tour, South St. Paul Garden tour, uses for tomato cages
4 Comments
What Gardeners Are Talking About: Deer
The Spring at the Inn event, held last Thursday at the Lake Elmo Inn, drew a packed crowd of enthusiastic gardeners, who oohed and aahed over a dozen or more new perennials and shrubs that will be available in nurseries … Continue reading
Deer Resistant Landscaping
A Gardener’s Reading, 23 of 30 Like many northern gardeners, I’ve battled critters pretty much as long as I’ve gardened. At my old house, the issue was raccoons, who had a cozy home in the storm sewer under our street. … Continue reading
Posted in A Gardener's Reading, Critters
Tagged Deer-Resistant landscaping, Neil Soderstrom
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Here’s What Mole Damage Looks Like
If you are wondering whether moles are the source of damage in your yard, take a look at this picture of my backyard. See all the raised patches and the occasional small mounds of dirt? That is the work of … Continue reading
Oh, Deer!
While I’ve battled with a variety of four-legged marauders over the years, including voles, moles, pocket gophers, beavers and rabbits, I’ve always counted myself lucky that we did not have deer nearby. Until now. We live near drainage ponds near … Continue reading
Those Rascally Rabbits…
You can tell how high the snow was in my backyard this winter by the height of the dogwood and hyrdrangea bushes that the rabbits chomped on. These branches are about 30 inches high, and considerably lower than they should … Continue reading
Caterpillars Pig Out
Last fall, Northern Gardener published an article on ways to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. In it, Tom and Donna Krischan recommended a plant called bloodflower milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). The plant is known as a terrific food source … Continue reading
Posted in Critters
4 Comments
Garden Warning: The Ticks Are Here
This morning, I felt something funny on the back of my head. Uh-oh. I found a tweezers and asked my teen-age daughter to see what it was and remove it. “I think it’s a tick,” I said. “Ewww, Mom, gross.” … Continue reading
Posted in Critters
4 Comments
Bee Condo Attacked!
Well, nature is cruel, and yesterday I witnessed a downy woodpecker pecking at the bee babies in my bee condo. (I had the camera with me because I’ve been trying with no luck to get a photo of a hummingbird … Continue reading