• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Creatures and Critters
    • Potted & Pruned
    • Homegrown & Handpicked
    • Seeded & Sodded
    • The Christmas Cottontail
  • Speaking
    • Upcoming Speaking Engagements
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Social
    • YouTube
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

Precision Cut

July 1, 2006 By Carol Michel 2 Comments

Notice the precision cut of these gazanias? Isn’t that something? I knew I needed to dead head them a little but someone or something beat me to it.

I suspect chipmunks, but I haven’t seen any actual chipmunks around. I can’t imagine that rabbits jump up on the pot and eat these. Or maybe they do?

Note there is some little grassy weed coming up on the left side, and how whatever creature nibbled these down to nearly nothing left it? It appears they actually had to eat around it. A discriminating diner, it is!

I had noticed some nibbling earlier in the spring, and sprinkled the plants with cayenne pepper to keep the nibbler away. This did keep whoever or whatever away long enough for the plants to actually grow a little and flower. I think I actually just saved the plants to provide “it” with a much bigger meal later on.

Just think if we could “train” whatever did this to provide this kind of precision cut where we want it, like on the lawn, or maybe on a topiary?

Some good news from the gardens:

I saw a hummingbird close up yesterday evening. It flew up to some impatiens about three feet from me while I was quietly sitting in a chair on my patio. I didn’t have my camera with me, so you’ll just have to believe me. Such a pretty bird!

We’ve had a lot of rain in June, above our average, but not so much that I feel waterlogged. Everything is so green. In some past years, by now the grass is browning out and we are challenged to keep the pots and flowers from drying out. But not this year!

I’m going to visit a hosta and daylily nursery tomorrow!

Filed Under: Blog

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kasmira says

    July 2, 2006 at 4:38 am

    Gazania leaves must taste nice because I’ve caught my kitties nibbling on mine!

    Reply
  2. Randa says

    July 6, 2006 at 2:31 pm

    The Precision Cutting story made me laugh. I can relate. We have deer visitors which, while they are very pretty, do a mean cleaning out of the Garden Geek Salad Bar — hostas, sedum, succulent lilies, tall phlox about to bloom, hydrangea buds…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,012)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2022 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.