Perhaps it's too early for the frightening tales associated with Halloween but let me explain the title of this post. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel published by Ray Bradbury in 1962. I read it as a teenager and became a big Bradbury fan in the process. It's indicative of the impact the book had on me that its title was the first thing that popped into my head yesterday morning when I saw this:
 |
| Despite my efforts to prevent them from digging in the barrels containing Dahlias 'Catching Fire' and 'Karma Prospero' in my front garden, the raccoons wreaked havoc digging for grubs in these barrels (again) |
Wikipedia describes Bradbury's book as the story of two 13-year old boys and "their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival." What better description of rampaging raccoon activity can there be than a "nightmarish traveling carnival"?
The raccoons had rummaged through three half-barrels containing dahlias and assorted companion plants this past weekend, damaging some of these in the process. In an effort to put them off, I cut up a few empty plastic flats, pinning them in place in the spots devoid of plants. (There had been more plants in the barrels when originally planted but some declined during our heatwaves and others were torn to pieces by the masked marauders.) Covering bare soil with plastic flats has worked relatively well with the raised planters in my cutting garden in the past, although I can't claim it's ever been 100 percent effective.
 |
| The raccoons dug up the raised planters earlier in the season but, as my summer-season plants declined, I pulled many of them and laid down full-sized plastic flats anchored in place using lawn staples wherever possible. It's not pretty but it's a moderately effective deterrent. |
 |
| I did the same on Sunday with 2 of the 5 barrels in the front garden, working around the dahlias and remaining companion plants; however, I had to cut the flats into pieces to fit them in. I did the same with a third barrel in my cutting garden that the raccoons had dug up twice. |
 |
| Only the barrel in the cutting garden holding Dahlia 'Lavender Ruffles' was left untouched |
Both of the dahlias in the barrels in the front garden that were torn up still have buds and blooms so I'm not prepared to dig up the tubers just yet even though their foliage is already badly mildewed. I've made another stab at beefing up the protection against further intrusions.
 |
| I repositioned the plastic pieces and added spiky cones dropped by the Magnolia tree around them. The cones have helped to deter raccoons before. More would be helpful but I only had so many on hand. |
If this doesn't work I may need to start nightly patrols of the garden.
In other evidence that all is not well in my garden, I found this last week when I was checking the back slope for sources of irrigation leaks:
 |
| We removed our dying mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) 2 years ago but it's been attempting a comeback ever since. I'd neglected our back slope for 3 weeks or thereabouts only to be confronted with this "seedling," nearly 3 feet tall. I'd swear it wasn't there when I last deep watered the lemon tree. This seedling was a substantial distance from the former tree's location and on an entirely different level of the garden. |
 |
| My husband made quick work of digging it up but I'm afraid he may not have gotten the entire root. If that's the case, it may be back... |
On the good news end, we were on the receiving end of a brief thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, I was mid-way through my daily walk of the neighborhood. I got completely soaked before my husband came to my rescue in his truck. But we got 0.11/inch of rain, which filled my empty 50-gallon collection tank. I can't accurately estimate how much was collected by my other two tanks but they both accumulated at least a bit!
 |
| The rainbow that followed the downpour wasn't vivid but it's there! |
All material © 2012-2022by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party