What bothers me most when our ground becomes saturated is it drives the fire ants to higher ground. I might wish I had a narrow-mouthed toad as a roommate instead of a green anole. Ants are a significant part of a narrow-mouth toad’s diet.
The standing water will dry up quickly once the sun comes out leaving tadpoles from rarer frog and toad varieties stranded. I know I will feel compelled to re-locate them to the local agricultural heritage park again where the gatekeeper already announces me as “the frog girl.” I take them dragonfly larvae too. Why can’t I be “the dragonfly girl?” I like that much better.

@Armarante87 (Nadine). What in the world is a narrow-mouth toad? I have lived in the deep south for seven decades and never heard that label on a toad. We have lots of toads but their mouths don't look anything narrow.

I like the ring of "dragonfly girl".

Are you near Auburn?

I will have to try and convince the gatekeeper at Landmark Park on the merits of “dragonfly girl.
Auburn is about a two hour’s drive north of us. I have to be wary about wearing my Auburn University cap during football season. We have a University of Alabama soon-to-be graduate around.
Narrow mouth toads are shy and tend to burrow. If you do catch sight of one, what you would notice first is their hood to keep ants away from their eyes. It’s easy to find out if you have them around by their voice, however. Here’s a couple links.
http://www.outdooralabama.com/...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If you have imported fire ants where you live, you want to encourage narrow mouth toads as much as possible. They are the only tadpoles the others will not complain about my raising in the main house.
It sounds like Collinsville, MS, was hit hardest of all, but I think this was the same storm front that dumped so much snow in the Midwest.

My condolences, Nadine. I just use fire ant killer to control those nasty insects.

We have to use Amdro too. If there is an organic way to control imported fire ants, I haven’t discovered it yet. I read that mint repels ants and asked an older, more experienced gardener if it was true. She told me to go look in her mint bed. There was a big ant hill in the mint bed. The queen apparently had a taste for mint tea and wanted to be assured of a steady supply. I tried the grits trick too. It worked to drive them out when they took refuge in a potted plant, but made no difference I could see in the in-ground populations. A university in Texas is experimenting with the introduction of fire ants natural enemies, but, last I read, the fire ants adapted better to the cooler conditions than the creatures that controlled them in their native habitat. Nobody in this part of the country would want to garden if we couldn’t use poison on the fire ants.
My sister in Utica tells me the ants they have in New York don’t bite. . I think even our native varieties bite. It just doesn’t hurt as much as a fire ant’s bite.

I have found no ant that hurts and festers like the bite of the fire ant. I lose no sleep at night using chemicals to control these bast****.

First, I would like to welcome the newcomers to our transplanted thread. It is great to see some of the old gang have found us here and I hope to see more old friends trickling in over the next few weeks.
Ken, I have an “I Hate Ants” song, but I cannot publish the lyrics on a public thread. I have heard they do some of the same jobs in the garden that worms do, but I would much rather have the earthworms. Yesterday was a physical recovery day for everyone involved in the Amargia Experiment. That we all need a rest day after a hard work day is the new reality. It was literally a garden dreaming day for me. I slept most of the day.
The day before yesterday, we were able to get Jim’s new giant white fig in the ground and move one of the figs that has been here a few years into the same area. Our hope is to create a fig grove by Spring, instead of their being scattered around the property as they now are. We managed to also get the small flowered violas in the ground, but the pansies will have to wait another day. The honeybees have found the nursery containers so there is no hurry.
I did do some garden reading yesterday and that reminded me I had not posted my list of books for physically challenged gardeners.
The Able Gardener: Overcoming Barriers of Age and Physical Limitation by Kathleen Yeomans
The Enabling Garden: A Guide to Lifelong Gardening by Gene Rothert
Accessible Gardening for People with Physical disabilities by Gene R. Adil
Gardening Through Your Golden Years by James Wesley (Jim) Wilson
How To Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back by Ruth Stout
Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older by Sydney Eddison
Accessible Gardening: Tips and Techniques for Seniors and the Disabled by Joann Woy
The Nature Friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife and People by Marlene Condon
For V.I.P.s (visually impaired people) there is Garden Unseen by L. Stevens. It is only available in Braille and hard to find, but the book listed above by Joann Woy is comprehensive and includes visual impairment along with other physical challenges. Kathleen Yeomans also includes advice for VIPs. Woy’s and Wilson’s books may be helpful to those with invisible disabilities such as chronic fatigue.
If anyone knows of a book that should be added to this list, I would appreciate learning of it.
k*

Thanks for the book listing, @AmargiaExp.

Wonderful list of books ...

Back in my wild and woolie camping days in Canada's North country .. we had a 'bug song' .. here it is .. no tune ..

BUGS BUGS BUGS,
If I had them all in JUGS,
I'd DIG DIG DIG, a BIG BIG HOLE, and ..
BURY up dem BUGS


Guess it would lend itself to RAPPING today .. always made us feel better as the mosquitoes and black flies were awful !

lOVE IT

I've been exploring the world of plant tissue culture, specifically for hellebores, since I was so unwise as not to fully read the description before ordering some clones (ie sterile plants!!)

I've given myself a monster of a headache and learned: that I need to educate myself a bit more, before I can more fully understand what I'm reading!! **oh, me poor haid!!**

To fellow Alabama ATPers @SeaCanepain and @Amarante87! I haven't caught up on the thread yet except to say that I have used Amdro several yrs ago and I haven't seen a fire ant since then. My husband was just commenting this week that he noticed we didn't have fire ants on our property.

You will love ATP so much.

fire ants: you'd THINK that a ginormous governmental project would have considered indigenous species BEFORE designating an area for a SUPER-expensive scientific project. . . you'd be wrong!!

One has only to drive on a highway from Dallas past Waxahachie TX, and see the several-football-stadium-size hole (intended for the superconductor). Plans were drawn up for this several mile long buried atom smasher, developers hastily constructed housing units for all the workers; a snag was hit before the collider was even half completed. Fire ants were destroying the delicate crucial wiring for all the instrumentation!! At first, the contractors just repaired the breaks and damage; also, several efforts were made to control and/or eradicate the destructive insects. (As most Texans are very familiar with, this is like playing Whack-a-Mole!!) Finally, they gave up.

The good news? Housing is cheap and plentiful, especially multi-family complexes!

Hey, I can sing that one even when there are Children in the house, Marilynne.
What part of AL do you call home, Kabby?
Beth, no wonder there is so much fire ant research going on in Texas! I know fire ants drive Alabama Power up the wall because they get into equipment. Hope your head feels better soon. Tissue culture, you are a brave woman.

Our Valentine’s Day extravagance, the violets and pansies, are in the ground. I do admit to a sentimental association between those flowers and Valentine’s, but I have not totally taken leave of my practical senses. In the first place, anything in the viola family is dirt cheap in February in the deep south and because of Amargia’s peculiar micro-climate they stay in bloom far longer than they would even a short distance away. The redbuds a quarter mile away have been in bloom since late January. Instead of whining about the lands idiosyncrasies, this year I will take advantage of them. There must be ways to put frost pockets to use. Most members of the viola family are edible too and I need as much variety as I can get on a low protein, gluten-free, low salt diet. I grow lettuce in containers and edible flowers make a lovely addition. The word “beautility”, coined by the 70’s fashion industry, is one of my favorite words in the garden. Some lettuce varieties are gorgeous enough to stand on their own as ornamentals.
After last year, it may take us a while to get back to the beauty part in beautility, but all the new color provided by annuals makes for a beautiful start. I like the lower maintenance idea of no annuals, but I cannot yet imagine high summer without marigolds or winter without violas. I am still on the lookout for bee friendly perennials for the gap times when there is a dearth of perennial blooms.
k*

@AmargiaExp ( in real life I am also Kay) I live between Montgomery and Selma.
I have arthritic knees, I know one needs to be replaced. I'm thinking that the hips are trying to go too. My back is fairly good, I garden either bent at the waist or from a chair.
I am an RN, after 36 yrs of floor nursing I hope to go part time in April. I'm still 5-6 yrs out from retirement so I hope I can last a little while longer.
Back to the ants, we have had black ants more than once break the circuits in our AC. The last several summers they have also invaded my kitchen. @BetNC that was quite a story about the ants in TX and so totally believable.

Thanks for the welcome, Cabby. We are south of you, almost equal distance between Ozark, Enterprise and Dothan.
Did your hellebores bloom despite all the rain, Beth? I think anyone who grows hellebores is brave. The prices alone are enough to scare beginning gardeners

oh, yeah....my hellebores keep putting oin a show. They're like the Post Office USED to be. . . "neither rain, nor snow nor. . . "
This year, all but my three newest should bloom. My red native / rescued one (the oldest) has been in bloom for about 2 months...last week it got covered with about a foot nof snow..snow melted, blooms still there and it's put out some new ones. Two are just developing? the bud is almost full size but not yet lopen...is that a bud? or a bloom???
I just have 2 hellebores that haven't bloomed yet..one is definately a mid-March bloomer but I don't know when the other is sposed to bloom.
Hellebores are SUPER easy plants...just watch them do their thing! (plus mulch in fall, prune dead stalks, water occasionally in the heat of the summer)

@AmargiaExp
@Seacanepain
@Amarante87

Sorry, guys, I didn't hit 'watch' on the thread, have some catching up to do myself. Missed you all. The Tea Olive is thriving. Photograph is from February 1st. Extraordinarily mild winter so far. Don't get around quite as much as I used to, but still try to get outside every day (that it isn't too cold or too hot ), even if it is only to wander the yard and revel in the anticipation of Spring blooms. The dogs and I have the house to ourselves again, so it is a lot quieter 'round here.

@Kabby, I am officially Melissa Kay, but there was once another Melissa here who disliked her middle name so I started going by mine to avoid confusion. The other Melissa is gone, but Kay has stuck. I guess people think the simpler name suits me better. As long as no one reverts to calling me by my childhood name, Sissy, I am satisfied. Only octogenarians who have known me since birth are allowed to do that.
@BetNC, I am resigned to only having hellebores as images on Christmas wrapping paper until we have a second garden in north Alabama. They should thrive in that climate. I’ve read there are a couple Mediterranean varieties that might grow this far south, but the low maintenance plan I agreed to states we will only grow plants that have been proven hardy and trouble-free in our area. (Being a solo gardener does have its advantages). Of course, if a pack of seeds from one of those Mediterranean varieties should happen to fall into one of the nursery beds in a frost pocket and thrive. Well, they are considered very bee friendly plants.
The book , Easy Lifelong Gardening: A Practical Guide for Seniors should have been on my list. I will attempt an edit.
Today was another recovery day for me after putting in a new onion bed. I hopefully will not need so much rest time as the season progresses and I get back into shape. The downtime was spent re-reading and sampling the books listed for inspiration. I initially read most of them as a visually impaired, but otherwise healthy and strong, 40-something. The books dedicated to seniors are much more meaningful to me now.

@MISSINGROSIE, I recalled the comment in your January 29th post when I read the following in Jim Wilson’s book.
In a decade, if God grants me that much time, I will have lived as long as three of my grandparents. I hope that, like them, I will have had the guts and strength to garden until the day I die and that death will come to me in my garden. What a way to go! I just hope that the emergency medical team that comes after my remains will avoid tromping on my flowers.

BetNC said:Hellebores are SUPER easy plants...just watch them do their thing

I used to have a lot of them. A friend was breeding them for a while and I had pick of his seedlings after he went through them for his selections. Then I found out that despite trying to cut the bloom stalks off promptly, some seed heads got by me. Around each clump would be hundreds and hundreds of babies every year. It was awful trying to keep them weeded out. I tried using pre-emergent, but that did not seem to work. Finally I gave away what clumps I could. I have been trying to kill the few clumps that remain. That has not been easy. They seem resilient to most methods! I wish I had the strength to dig them up, but clumps in place for 10 years do not come up easily. I have been trying to chop a shovel through the crowns, and that seems hit and miss on killing them. I don't like using herbicides, and not sure that would even work since they have such glossy leaves. As much as I like them, my hands can no longer desk with the onslaught of seedlings.