We had record-breaking heat and hardly any rain. The plants, as well as myself, felt the pain. I struggled to move from my chair under the porch fan. The weeds gloried in their freedom, knowing I haven’t the energy to remove them. Most days, I only looked at the garden from the shade and the only energy I had was for reading novels.

Now that the temperatures have dropped, I’m back at work and loving it. Many of our plants are burned to a crisp from the intense heat. Some like the hosta, are easy to renew. Hosta leaves grow in layers and if the damaged leaves are removed the underneath layer of foliage looks great. Check out the difference in the pictures below.

Many of the top leaves of this hosta are sunburned.

After clipping off the damaged leaves, the hosta looks good as new.

Another hosta with damaged leaves waiting for its haircut.

The hosta look just like new after the clean-up.

Over the next few weeks, I found the babies running around the garden. I don’t really like that they have robbed me of my beans, cutting the vines off near the ground, but I won’t be the one that stops them. They have enough natural enemies, fox and dogs among them, that I know they can’t all survive.

When we first bought our house 32 years ago, rabbits were a regular sight and I used chicken wire to keep them out of the vegetable garden. Now that our dog is old and the fox population is down, they are making a comeback. It is cute for the moment.

The nest of baby rabbits hidden in the chamomile.

The mother rabbit standing still so I won't notice her.

A baby rabbit peaks out of the nest.

During the day, the mother rabbit keeps an eye on her young from under this rose bush.

The cure for Nature Deficit Disorder starts by leaving no child inside. Take a child for a visit to a botanical garden near you. For both of you it could be the rebirth of wonder and joy.

A new botanical garden in Naples Florida that opened in November 2009, is doing its part to interest kids, their parents and grandparents in gardens and the natural world. Instead of putting a children’s garden on a wish list, they planted it first. Their children’s garden, their bird lookout and their butterfly garden are places for kids to explore, to play, to imagine and to laugh.

A sense of humor is key to interesting kids in everything.  In the children’s garden many of the planters and garden ornaments were taken from a junkyard. Purses, toilets, a basketball hoop and an iron bedstead are among their finds. The signs too are drawing that capture the imagination of a child.

A basket ball hoop becomes a planter.

A crib makes a wonderful garden bed.

Sunflowers always make children smile.

The butterfly garden is a favorite for all ages.  The cycle of life from caterpillar to cocoon to the hatching of a full grown butterfly is on view.

The butterfly garden is inside netting.

A cupboard filled with hatching butterflies.

Butterflies are hatching inside the cupboard.

A close-up of butterfiles hatching.

Even without a child in hand, the Naples Botanical garden has much to interest birdwatchers, gardeners and nature lovers.

An area to commune with nature and bird watch.

Birds are plentiful at the garden.

A willow tree brought down several rose arbors.

A tree crashed into the vegetable garden.

Our heavy metal, antique bench was smashed.

The wind knocked the furniture on the terrace around.

Several weeks after the worst snowfall of the century we were hit with three days of gale force winds and heavy downpours. 51.4 inches of rain has fallen on my clay soil since October. The normal rainfall for the year is less, 49.69 inches. Our soil can’t absorb it and streams are forming along the flower borders and ponds glisten on the front lawn.

Luckily we only lost electricity for a few hours. Several communities near us lost it for days. Sadly, we had two large trees fall down smashing our vegetable garden fence and two rose arbors. Furniture and garden ornaments were blown about and damaged. One of a pair of heavy metal garden benches blew over and its back broke. The benches had sat in the same place for twenty-eight years.

Walking around to assess the damage on Sunday morning after the winds slowed and the rain turned to drizzle, I was more amazed by what survived, then what was damaged. A terra-cotta pot of grass still sat on top of a pedestal in the herb garden, a few yard from a felled tree. It was untouched by the wind. The snowdrops, crocus, dwarf iris and winter aconite were closed up tight but didn’t show any damage from the beating they took. Daffodils in several protected corners had opened, despite the storm. I realized it is the shining example of the plants that keeps me gardening. They won’t be defeated.

It is a miracle that this pot wasn't smashed.

A vole nest of dried grass sits along the path they run on.

Now that the snow has melted and the ground is bare, it is easy to see where meadow voles have taken up residency. With teeth like a rabbit, a dark brown fir body and a tail like a rat, only a mother vole could want one. Although they are small, 5 to 8 inches long, they do a lot of damage. Unfortunately for gardeners, voles dine on tulips, crocus and other bulbs as well as the roots of trees and perennials. Digging tunnels through garden beds, they are the devil to dislodge.

We have found evidence of their tunnels in the perennial garden, by the pond and along the driveway among the groundcovers. One nest was woven in the liriope along one of their footpaths and another in the vegetable garden compost. The nests are made of dried plants and grasses.  One had a bit of string among the grasses.

I have been slow to recognize the problem. It is a new one for us. When I noticed last summer that my red jade tree was loosing leaves, I thought it might be drowning from all the rain. I did find a holes in the ground around its base but I assumed the squirrels had eaten more of my spring bulbs. Now it appears that my fifteen-year old tree is dead, along with the colonies of spring bulbs that bloomed underneath it. All perished so voles could feast. It’s the original underground party.

Thankfully voles are unprotected animals in New York State, probably because they reproduce readily. They can breed any time but the peak breeding time is spring. Females mature in 35 to 40 days and can have five to ten litters of three to six babies a year. You do the math. Just thinking about it wears me out. The only good news is they rarely live longer than a year.

We’re setting mousetraps at each tunnel opening even though the best time to capture them is in the fall when their population is highest.  We have captured three already, only two hundred more to go. For more information on how to trap them, check out the vole videos on youtube.

The entrance to a vole tunnel is a round hole in the ground.

One of many beautiful gardens at the show.

Sadly, our slumped economy has shut down flower shows across the country. The Northwest Flower & Garden Show set in Seattle was in danger of closing last year. Luckily for us, it was bought and produced this year by the family owned, O’Loughlin Trade Shows, Inc.

I was privileged to be one of the speakers at the 2010 show that was held last week. It showcased top garden creators, integrating thousands of flowers and plants with their rich colors, fragrances and textures into dazzling full‐scale gardens. As soon as I walked into the main show room I was overwhelmed by the flower fragrances. It was a happy place in deed.

I want to share some of my pictures of the show with you.

A cozy livingroom with a mossy chair, dog andTV.

Flowers in the bath has a new meaning.

An old truck became a planter.

The back of the pickup was a vegetable garden.

The front teeth of a porcupine has chewed the bark and wood off of this birch.

A family of porcupines ate the back of this birch damaging the tree but leaving a beautiful design.

We discovered that a family of porcupines is living under one of our cabins in the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, they  chose  a pair of white birch on the path to the front door as their dinner plate. Bark and wood  is part of their diet and what keeps them going in winter. If only they would go from tree to tree and not completely ravish a tree until it dies. There are large patches of bare wood along the trunks of the trees, some up near the top. The designs they carve with their large strong teeth are beautiful and visitors stop to admire them not realizing what has caused them.

According to National Geographic “the porcupines found in North and South America are good climbers and spend much of their time in trees. Some even have prehensile (gripping) tails to aid in climbing. The North American porcupine is the only species that lives in the U.S. and Canada, and is the largest of all porcupines. A single animal may have 30,000 or more quills. North American porcupines use their large front teeth to satisfy a healthy appetite for wood. They eat natural bark and stems, and have been known to invade campgrounds and chew on canoe paddles. North American porcupines also eat fruit, leaves, and springtime buds.”

Last summer, the summer of 2009, was not a good year for tomatoes. Besides being too rainy and too cool, critters attacked. I found bites in all the nearly-ripe large tomatoes. The thief left the cherry tomatoes alone. I would have swapped him all the cherries for one Brandywine.

I have lots of suspects-rabbits, birds, squirrels, raccoons and rats. I never was able to catch a glimpse of an animal attacking the fruit. I was at a loss as to how to fix the problem until a friend emailed me pictures of her solution, a raised bed that was completely screened. It is so clever and good looking to boot.