Painting on the iPhone -- plus more Evil Squirrel tidbits

Wow. I'm impressed that artist Jorge Columbo had the patience to paint the image above on the iPhone; he used a $4.99 iPhone app called Brushes (which, of course, I was compelled to immediately buy).

But back to Evil Squirrels and gardening...



Thanks for pointing out that lavender CAN be eaten, everyone. David even posted a recipe for Honey and Lavender ice cream

Lots of advice on how to keep the squirrels away, including using (er...thanks, Margaret! :-D) human urine. But I was most amused by the following exchange of advice from my friends John Chew and Bruce Macintosh:

John:
I’ve heard people recommend sprinkling blood meal on the soil to keep squirrels away, but that presumably doesn’t work on carnivorous vampire squirrels.

Bruce:
Blood meal? Are you kidding? That’ll set off a feeding frenzy. Were the “people” who recommended that 7 inches tall and furry?

Heh. :-)

Evil Squirrels

Embracing the warmer weather, Jeff and I picked up a bunch of plants at a local nursery on the weekend. I tend to opt for plants I can eat while Jeff prefers nicer-looking plants that blend with the rest of the garden. My choices: sweet basil, Italian parsley, marjoram, German thyme, woolly thyme, red creeping thyme, peppermint, spearmint, sage, rosemary, stevia, two types of tomato plants, eggplant, red pepper, zucchini, cucumber and lavender. Ok, I can't eat lavender, but I love the fragrance.



Last year, I tried planting most of my herbs from seed but got discouraged when the squirrels dug up many of my seedlings after I spent weeks nurturing them before transplanting them outdoors. This year I opted for young plants instead.



I sprinkled cayenne pepper after transplanting them into pots, hoping to keep away the squirrels. Unfortunately it rained, washing away the cayenne, and this morning there were GAPING HOLES in the soil of many of the pots; looks like the squirrels have been digging again. I've liberally sprinkled more cayenne pepper -- I'm going to have to find a bulk supplier.



Speaking of squirrels, I'm pretty sure one died in the ceiling of my office recently. There were noises up there for a bit, but the noises stopped. Then the smell began. Ugh.

When I posted about this in Facebook, my friend Bruce Macintosh wrote:

It's also possible that the silence indicates the squirrel has stopped feeding and the smell comes from a recent kill. Are any neighbors missing?

:-D