Getting My Hands Dirty and Getting Pissed Off

I spent the better part of the end of last week and most of the weekend gardening and planting my favorite annuals.  I went out and bought all of the plants and any supplies I needed.  Believe it or not, that only took me one trip.  I did try and find my favorite mulch and two stores were out, so my
husband rescued me by checking out a third store and voila - mulch.

I love working outside.  However, I really only like it when it is warm out which is why I had waited so long to start at all.  Plus, the absolute earliest you can plant around here is Mother's Day weekend. If you fall for Mother Nature's tricks and plant earlier, you will find yourself replacing everything.

By Saturday afternoon I was all finished except for the placement of a few more bags of mulch and that will happen this week.  I have a hard deadline and I was very excited that I had completed this chore.  My deck looked beautiful and I was sure that in a couple of weeks it would look even better.

Fast forward to Monday.  I went out to eat on my lovely deck after I got home from work and to my horror, every single pot had been dug up and there was dirt all over the place. Pots were on their sides and tender little plants were gasping for life in the hot sun.

There is not a single doubt in my mind who was behind this.  Those smarmy little chipmunks.  They make Rach crazy.  We should have let him have take care of them last summer.

I swear to you that Sherman on his march through Georgia to the sea was not more thorough in his destruction than those stupid little chipmunks.  They put huge holes in all of my carefully planted pots and just plundered the lot.  And here's the kicker - they didn't even eat the damn plants.  They just had their way with them and moved on to the next one.  I bet they thought that they had arrived at the Six Flags of the Deck.

I was able to rescue everything in short order.  Heaven only knows if I got them in time.  I think that I did.  At least it is the beginning of the season and I should be able to replace things if it comes down to it.

In an effort to keep those damn critters at bay I got out the best weapon I have - blood meal.   I dare them to return to the scene of the crime.  If worse comes to worse, there is always fox urine.

And if that doesn't work, I have the big gun coming in tomorrow. That's right.  Rach is staying here for a few days.  Maybe we will take the skirting off of the deck and let him have at 'em.  I will gleefully participate.

Now, I need to go and watch Caddy Shack so that I can get some good ideas.  I was so upset, I couldn't even take pictures.

Update:  It rained an inch yesterday evening, so I had to go out and sprinkle some garlic powder on my plants this morning.  My deck smells like the Olive Garden, but no critters.  My back up plan arrives this evening.