What Covers, Yet Reveals?

Raccoons

I have little use for raccoons. They eat my sweet corn and pawpaws right before I’m ready to pick them for myself. They leave gigantic piles of poo along the side of my house. And yes, I asked myself, why is there so much of it? The answer I found on the internet is because they are known as communal poopers. They all go to “go” in the same spot. Gross. Sorry if you were eating while reading this.

I thought I’d gotten rid of the raccoons in my garden but I guess they are still hanging around. I don’t know where they hunker down during the day—they are noctural generally— and I’m not inclined to go looking under shrubs for them. What would I do if I found one? Nothing. I don’t want to tangle with them because they could have rabies. Instead, I’ll do my best to keep the bird feeding area cleaned up and secured so they can’t get into the feeders and don’t find food on the ground to eat.

By the way, I did write a chapter about raccoons in Creatures and Critters: Who’s in My Garden. Yes, that’s the book I wrote in 2019 and published just as the pandemic lockdowns started this past March. It is the book few have read but those who have read it have enjoyed it. “A nice winter read,” she broadly hints.

I’ve Been Getting Around

In case you thought I was sitting around all through the holidays doing nothing, here are some links to other places I’ve been.

I was recently a guest of Teri Speight on her podcast, Cottage in the Court. We had fun talking about gardening and Creatures and Critters. Loads of fun. I hope she invites me back when my next book comes out in the spring.

I was also a guest on a YouTube video talking about both gardening and retirement with Josh Scandlen from Heritage Wealth Planning. A friend hooked us up. It was a fun hour-long conversation. We might record another video in the spring about gardening, which is another interest he has.

On the radio side, I was pleased to be a guest of C. L. Fornari on GardenLine on WXTK radio. She broadcasts from Cape Code, Massachusetts, but has guests, like me, from all over the country. The podcast of the show I was on isn’t live yet, probably because I was on her show on Dec. 26th. You know how things go with the holidays. The link above will take you to the podcast episodes of her shows. Eventually, after everyone returns from holiday breaks, they’ll publish the show I was on. I’ll update that link when they do.

I was also on a radio show out of Florida, Better Lawns and Gardens, with Teresa Watkins, in late November. If you live in Florida, please tune in to her radio show for great gardening info. No, I did not give gardening advice to gardeners in Florida. We talked about my children’s Christmas book, The Christmas Cottontail. Teresa thinks it would be a great animated holiday show. Of course, I agree.

And I’m still recording weekly podcast episodes with Dee Nash. We publish new episodes of The Gardenangelists every Wednesday at 12:00 am. This past week, we talked about sunflowers and microgreens.

Oh, and one more place… I am also posting little videos on YouTube. For this new series, which I started on Dec. 16th, I post a daily three-minute video update on something related to gardening in my world. We’ll see how long I last doing them. It doesn’t take long to record and upload each episode because I don’t do retakes, and I do little editing (as you’ll see when you view them!)

As you can see, even though I don’t post on social media, I’m not afraid to be on the internet. It should be pretty easy to find me here, there, and all kinds of places.

Happy New Year!

To wrap up this rambling little post, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year and take you back to a post I wrote in 2007 about how to P.L.A.N.T.S. goals. Or if you’d prefer to listen to a discussion of the same topic, check out this episode of The Gardenangelists. It’s our most popular episode so far.

Happy New Year!

Happy Gardening!