Frogs!

Really, I try to keep my house clean and we don't leave the doors open but one day a few weeks ago I went into the bathroom and there in my sink was this!

I think this little tree frog came in on a sweater I left on the deck and later put on the bathroom counter. Scared me half to death when he popped out! It took a couple of tries to catch him and put him back outside.

I truly love frogs though, the other picture is of a toad that lives in my greenhouse. I think it is a "she". She has been there all summer and I think it is a good thing. One day before she went into hibernation (in a flower pot) she was sitting near where I was working, I lifted a pot and a thousand legs ran out from under...that toad lapped it up before I could blink! Good Girl! So protect the the toads and frogs, you never know what kind of bad bug they might protect you or your plants from. Now if the frog doesn't attract a snake we will be OK!

Please Don't Squash the Catapillars!

I found these beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on my Bronze Fennel this week. I have really enjoyed this herb all summer and this was the icing on the cake. It brought back a very painful memory for me though, Many years ago, I lived out in the country and was happily watching over a patch of bright orange butterfly weed (Milk Weed). You know, I should have gotten a clue from the name - BUTTERFLY WEED! Duh! Anyway, on that particular day I went to visit my patch of butterfly weed that was in full bloom. The plants were covered with these awful green, orange and black caterpillars! Not only that but they were destroying my pretty flowers! Well, I began picking them off and squashing them flat. No telling how many I killed. It makes me so sad now to even think about it. I found out later that they were Monarch butterflies.  I still wonder if I am responsible for the decline in this beautiful insect.

So plant plenty of fennel, parsley, butterfly weed, butterfly bushes and other host plants and don't squash the caterpillars!

Remember too, that Sevin Dust  kills all the good bugs as well as the bad! I figure that I don't have a single plant that will not recover from a bug attack and I want to have the honey bees and butterflies around for a long time.

DIY Mosquito Trap

Source: velacreations.com via Kathy on Pinterest

Found this one on Pinterest.

"Mosquito trap - No more mosquitos!! Cut the top off a 2 liter bottle. Invert the cone and place it inside the bottle. Glue the two pieces together. Add 1 tsp yeast and 1/2 cup sugar to some luke warm water, and pour the mixture into the bottle. Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. The yeast feeds off the sugar and emits the same gas, so the mosquito enters the bottle, thinking she will find food there. FLIES LOVE THIS!!! Have caught 1000's of flies!!"

 

Get Rid of Those Fruit Flies - Safe and FREE!

Here's a great blog post I found out there in Cyber Space. If you've ever had trouble with fruit flies, this one's for you! Just click the link below.

Elle's New England Kitchen

This Bug is eating my plants!

Damaged Hibiscus 

I have searched all my books, the web and asked everyone I know and I have no idea what this pest is but I can tell you what it's doing. It's eating it's way through my garden as well as the garden's of many of my friends and customers! It acts like the rose slug but is eating everything EXCEPT my roses! It's a tiny (almost invisible) Caterpillar on the underside of the leaves and as you can see if left untreated, the leaves become skeletons.

Neem oil and Insecticidal Soap did not work. Neem is what I always try first because it is recommended for organic control. I don't like using chemicals but I also can't afford to lose all my stock plants either. Mimi's Greenhouse Nursery would be out of business without my stock plants for making cuttings and new plants to sell.

After about six weeks I resorted to Malathion spray on underside of leaves. I was careful not to use this around where the butterflies and Humming Birds were feeding.  The before and after can be seen on the two plants below. The top growth is healthy - Finally! If this had only been on a few plants I would have let them be and hoped for regrowth in the late fall but it was all over my plants both in the ground and potted plants - spreading since May!

If any of you have any idea what this pest is, I'd appreciate a comment.

new growth on Hibiscus

Angel Trumpet getting new healthy leaves

Mushrooms Abounding but Not a One to Eat!

First it was mega hot and dry for weeks and then we got rain. Boy, did we get rain! I truly grateful for therain but I also got some real strange fungi growing in my yard. I'm hoping some of you may be able to identify some of them. If you can please leave me a comment.


Some are very pretty like the red and white ones and the cute tiny brown ones with notched edges below.

This shaggy one would be at home in The Shire with Frodo the Hobbit.

A few are down right gross and probably deadly.

 

    I even have them growing on trees and stumps!

I know they will spray spores all over the place and keep coming back. Anybody got any ideas about how to rid my yard of these creepy things?

The Accidental Free Beetle Trap

Sometimes little happy accidents happen in the garden. Such a happening turned into a free and safe Japanese Beetle trap. I recently left an old white dog dish on the deck rail and it rained that night filling the dish with water. As usual, I procrastinated in putting it up and I noticed a few dead beetles in that dish the second day. I thought I was on to something so I left it there and watched. Sure enough, more beetles! I have emptied that dish three times so far and here is what it looks like today.

I think it's the while color, I have other containers of water around and no beetles. Whatever the attraction it is working. This is so much better than Sevin. Please don't use Sevin! It not only kills the beetles but bees and butterflies too. You all know how scarce the bees are and we will be in a world of trouble without our pollinators. I hand picked 100's off my Knock Out Roses but you know what? The roses and all the rest will come back as soon as the beetles are gone - they olny stay a few weeks. I hate them too but I'd rather squash them than kill the bees.

Natural Remedy for Ground Ivy Invasions

I wrote an article a while back about my love/hate relationship with Ground Ivy or as some of you may call it Creeping Charlie. As many of you know, I belong to a forum for back yard nursery owners. Through my contacts with that group I found a link to some very useful info about how to get ground ivy out of your yard. It is a VERY invasive plant as you can see from the picture above.I don't mind it so much around my pond because it disguises the liner where it shows but it has about taken over my shade garden.

In this article by David Lundsford of the University of Minnesota Extension service I learned that Borax can be used as a spray to kill this pesky plant. Below is the dilution recipe and how to use it.

Borax Solution for Creeping Charlie Control:
Dissolve 10 oz. Twenty Mule Team Borax in 4 oz. (½ cup) warm water.
Dilute in 2.5 gallons of water.

This will cover 1,000 square feet. If you have a smaller area to treat, cut the "recipe" accordingly.
    
 Apply borax when creeping charlie is actively growing in the spring, when no rain is expected for 48 hours. The borax treatment appears to be most effective during warm summers when soil moisture is ample.

Remember: The borax recipe has been tested only on creeping charlie and is not to be used on other broadleaf weeds. Be sure to use the borax spray only in the lawn because research shows established grass is tolerant of the spray. It should not be used in gardens.

If creeping charlie is growing in a very shady location, think about what you can replace it with before spraying this borax treatment. Unless you can establish other plants you'll find the creeping charlie sprouting again in the same location.
Treatment can be applied only once each year for two years. If you still have creeping charlie problems, then switch to a standard herbicide.

To read the entire article click here. http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h519borax.html

For more about the backyard Gardners here is the link http://www.freeplants.com/

Fly Repellant That Really Works

Ever so often one of those emails we get has a really useful tip. My husband sent me one that proved to be just that.

This actually will repel flies. The science behind it has to do with the way a house fly's eyes work.

 Insects have compound eyes. Instead of one lens they see through two spheres with many lenses. But apart from that they also often have extra single lens eye on the front of the head. Each lens of the compound eye catches it's own image. The final image an insect sees is like a mosaic. The more lenses the compound eye bears the higher the resolution of the image. The two large spherical eyes of a fly give an almost complete 360 degree vision. copied from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artfly/eye.html

Because of the multiple eyes, the fly sees the pennies in this little trick as a BIG predator and will not venture near.

The instructions said fill a zip lock baggie part full of water, add 4-6 pennies and zip. Hang around the space you want to be fly free. I put new pennies in mine (shiny) and hung them on my deck rail. We were eating watermelon on the deck after I hung them up. I actually watched a fly sitting on a plant hanger and it did not come onto the deck! I have hung them from the ceiling on the porch now and still no flies.

How To Get Rid Of Slugs and Earwigs With Beer

                                               How To Get Rid Of Slugs and Earwigs With Beer 

This is an excellent post I found today. I am going to try it but I am going to put some sort of raised cover - a rock propped up by small stones or something so I don't have to move the cans when I water. Slugs and earwigs have invaded my garden! Just click this post title to go to the original article. Enjoy!

Natural Insect Sprays for Garden and People

Well, the Japanese Beetle invasion is in full force! I think they should be called June Bugs and the beetles we played with as children called June Bugs should be July Flies because of the months during which they arrive. Anyhoo, I was heading for the roses with my can of Sevin when I decided to read all the fine print on the label. Shoot! This stuff kills bees and butterflies! As of today, June 21, I have not seen but one butterfly in my yard and the only bees I've seen were a few honey bees early (none now) and bumble bees. My yard is full of butterfly attracting plants too. This is really serious. Did you know that a lack of pollinators seriously effects our food chain?

To say the least, I didn't use the Sevin. I dug out all my reference books on organic gardening in hopes of finding a natural insect spray. Bingo! Good ole Jerry Baker had just what I needed in one of his books. Recipes to follow. I also want to tell you about a wonderful natural bug repellent for people that I found from my fellow Twitterer, Michelle, of Funky Chunks Soap Company. It is made from natural oils and other good stuff and no DEET! It works for me, the other night I was sitting on my studio porch and watched a mosquito hover over my arm and fly away without biting me! Read this article about the dangers of DEET. So get a bottle of Quit Buggin" spray and save your brain!

Now here are the recipes that I used to run off the beetles and save my bees. I tweaked them a little from the original and they worked great for me. Just remember organic treatments are not as "instant" as poisonous chemicals. I found within 24 hours the population of beetles was significantly less and today - 3 days later they are almost gone.

Spray for Leaf Eaters
4-6 fresh garlic cloves
2 hot peppers (the hotter the better)
1 sm onion
1 qt water
3 drops of baby shampoo
Blend everything EXCEPT THE BABY SHAMPOO until liquefied.
Let this mixture set overnight, strain out the solids, add the baby shampoo, pour into a hand held sprayer and spray everything that the bugs like to eat. Be sure to wash this off any edible plants before eating unless you like EXTRA SPICY!

This one is for direct kill
1 cup rubbing alcohol
2 teas. vegetable oil
1 qt water
Mix all together and spray directly on insects.
It takes a few minutes but the bugs will soon drop off your plants.

This one for Mildew worked real well on my squash plants and the bee balm:
1 tables. hydrogen peroxide
1 Tables. baby shampoo
1 teas. instant tea granules
2 cups water
Mix all in a hand held sprayer and mist the leaves thoroughly.
Jerry says mid-afternoon on a cloudy day works best but I sprayed on a hot sunny day and got good results.

Wonder Weed - Dandelion

A friend gave me a box of dandelion tea the other day. She can't drink it because she is nursing her baby and the tea box warned not to use if nursing. I read the label. It's good for your liver and a natural detox. It tasted pretty good too - I added honey and drank it hot.  

Funny thing was that when I opened my email today there was a post about the benefits of Dandelion. I think someone up there is trying to tell me something. 

I have been adding Dandelion leaves to our salads this spring and they are really good. Here are a few other things that I read about this often despised weed:

• The leaves and flowers contain Vitamin C

• The root contains potassium

• The leaves contain iron - helpful for anemia

• The entire plant is high in B complex

• The leaves contain more protein than spinach - who knew!

• The root can be made into a tea, which can help to inhibit 
• bacterial growth in the urinary tract

• All parts of the plant are rich in antioxidants and don't forget about that Dandelion wine!

So instead of trying to kill the Dandelions, eat them or make tea! My mom said she started picking off the flowers when she was walking around her yard - she has much fewer plants than before. makes sense - no flowers - no weeds! So eat a few and pick off the flowers.  

How to kill Aphids with No Harmful Chemicals

This great advice was posted to  gardening forum I belong to. The post was from Angi De Jesus from Southlake, TX. She and her husband Jose own and operate De Jesús Family Farm & Nursery there. They are Master Gardeners, seed savers and canners. Jose is a French trained pastry chef and chocolatier. Angi works in real estate. They hope their plant business will be able to fund a benevolence ministry to meet the needs of those that fall through the cracks of today's economy.

Here's what Angi said about taking care of an Aphid infestation or preventing one:

"Jules Wenke and her mother were prize winning rose growers from East Texas; Tyler, I believe. They were local celebrities winning prizes at the county and state fair, Texas Country Reporter and a weekly tidbit on a local news show and PBS. They always sprayed milk on their roses when the aphids began to appear. In a pinch powdered milk mixed with water in a spray bottle works well too. It seems that enzymes in the whey proteins are highly toxic to aphids.

Jose and I have been using this as well,  just for aphids on fruit and nut trees. It appears to only be toxic to Aphids and Pill Bugs but keeps the bees, Ninja Bugs, Assassin Bugs, Ladybugs, Praying Mantis around to do their jobs and it is safe around animals. Whenever we have a bit of milk, buttermilk or cream that is past due date, I mist it on and around our plants sometimes using a 20 gallon sprayer for larger jobs. (who are we kidding…I make Jose do this as I haven't the grace to lug around a 120 ft hose! LOL!)

I keep a large bag of powered milk around for this case as well. If I see a problem, and we have no milk on hand, then I put a cup of powered milk in the 20 gallon sprayer attachment and hand Mr. Jose a cup of coffee and direct him to his mission. Works every time!

I also make a practice of "cleaning" plants and cuttings that we introduce from outside sources. I give them a bit of wash using a mixture of 1/2 cup baby shampoo, 1/2 cup mint Listereine (or other oral disinfectant-not mouthwash like Scope) in a 32 ounce spray bottle topped off with water. I mist the plants or cuttings….sometimes giving them a bit of a wipe down if I see a problem. This is a trick I learned from the late Jerry Baker. I just love his books and have yet to find one of his Granny's home remedies that did not work."

I wish I had a Jose around my little business! Bill has a "Honey Do" list a mile long but he is not very good in the garden. He would probably spray that milk every where but where it needed to be! 

For more information on the garden forum check here: FreePlants.com

Mosquitoes and Ticks and Spiders, Oh No!

It has been an unusually wet spring here in Middle Tennessee. Everything is flourishing including the mosquitoes and ticks. I want to pass on to you some suggestions for deterring these pesky little critters and something I found years ago to help with tick and spider bites as well.

Let’s start with mosquitoes; my son told me about this little trick last week, he said it worked for him. He has a small yard, lots of shade and it is low so in tends to stay damp – perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. He could hardly stay on his back deck without getting bitten. Last week he bought a bottle of Listerine, added it to a gallon hand sprayer, topped it off with water and sprayed his yard. He said he had no mosquitoes until a hard rain washed it off. He also said, “I have no bugs and my yard smells minty fresh”. Ha!

I found a wonderful gadget at my local Dollar General Store. It is called a “Halo” and is made by Black & Decker. It comes with a container of Citronella oil and four batteries. You install the batteries, add the container of oil and when you turn it on, a little fan inside comes on and disperses the fragrance, a red light on the top glows softly to let you know it’s on and the device emits a high pitched sound that drives away the mosquitoes but is inaudible to humans. It will cover a 100 square foot area. We sat out on our porch in the dark with no bites! I bought two of them and they were well worth the $10 each that I paid.

Other than spraying a DEET based repellent on my shoes and clothes or using one of the granulated flea and tick repellents that are available commercially for your yard, I don’t have too many ideas for getting rid of ticks. I did read somewhere that garlic will keep them out of the grass but I honestly haven’t tried that one. I can tell you what to do if you get a bite that looks like it might be Lyme disease or a spider bite. Years ago, I got a spider bite while camping in the fall. Our camp site was surrounded by deep fallen leaves, a perfect habitat for Brown Recluse Spiders. A day after we got home, I noticed a nasty looking bite on my ankle. I went to our family doctor and he said it did indeed look like a spider bite. He was the type of doctor who would try a natural cure before using a dangerous steroid or antibiotic – here’s what he told me to do first. He said get some activated charcoal powder, add a little water to it to make a thick paste and apply that to my bite. He also said to cover all that with plastic wrap (like you cover a dish in the refrig) to keep the paste moist and also to keep the messy - I do mean MESSY black powder off your clothes and everything else you come near. He said to change it a couple of times a day. If the bite didn’t look better in 48 hours, to come back and we would do antibiotics. Within 24 hours the redness was almost gone!

Recently, I had a tick bite that after a day started to look like a bull’s eye ring and was stinging and itchy. I did my charcoal paste. By the way, I mix this up on a piece of aluminum foil so I can fold it up and dispose of the leftovers without making a mess. I tape the plastic wrap over the bite with adhesive tape to keep it in place. The next day, the ring was gone and only a small red place was left. By the third day no spot remained. Charcoal powder comes in capsules too and will absorb lots of kinds of poison. They are a good addition to your medicine cabinet. Give them orally if you think someone has ingested poison and then call your local poison control center or get to an emergency room.

In order to keep the mosquito population down, don’t allow water to collect in containers in your yard. Goldfish will eat mosquito larvae in your ponds and moving water is not as attractive to adult mosquitoes as still water is. I have a stream of water circulating in my little water feature along with koi and goldfish. There are safe additives called “Mosquito Dunks” that you can add to bird baths and ponds that kill the larvae too. Don’t forget to give your pets a flea and tick repellent and be sure they have their heartworm meds on time.

If you have any good tips for ridding our yards of fleas, ticks, or mosquitoes add them to my blog comment section.

Dealing with Garden Pests

Gardening in containers elimintaes a lot of the problems of traditional gardening: no weeding, no moles, no grubs. A couple of problems I did have last year were squash borers and powdery mildew. This year I’m trying an old prevention for the squash borers – paper collars around the stem when planted. You can see the one on this little squash plant. I’ll report on how this works later in the season.

The squash also had powdery mildew. Those squash were a problem but we love them so much, I’m trying again this year. I am going to tackle the mildew with Neem Oil before it gets started. I’m doing this on my Bee Balm and Lilacs too. It is one of the few chemicals allowed for organic gardens and is easy to find at most garden centers. A bottle goes a long way because it doesn't take much to make a gallon. A plastic spray bottle is perfect fro application.

Mosquito Trap

My son, Zack found this good idea for getting rid of backyard mosquitoes and I think it will really work. I bet there is a reason why all the electronic traps are black! Read below:

Items needed:

1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of yeast 
2-liter plastic bottle

HOW:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)

Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.

Attracting Toads to your Garden

Many of my friends have an aversion to frogs and toads. They obviously don't understand the beneficial aspects of these lowly critters. Last week my grandson Tad found a toad near the pond still groggy from his (or her) winter hibernation. It sat in his little hand for quite some time before hopping to a rock to warm some more. He loves to sit and watch the frogs jump into the little pond and sun themselves on the mossy stones. He is eight years old now and understands the difference between toads and frogs. He knows that the toads eat lots of bugs that otherwise could harm our plants and mosquitoes that might harm us!

He made a toad house for this one on the pond bank near the edge of the water. Later that day we saw Mr Toad sitting happily in his little nook. Tad was thrilled! He also put a decoy "froggy" to attract more. Looks like that worked - check out all the frogs I found this morning near his concrete frog!.   Follow the link below to find ways to attract toads to your garden.
 http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/how-to-attract-toads.htm

Solve Your Bug Problems withThese Tips

Squash Borer - Gross! 

Last year the squash borers got my squash and the squash bugs got what the borers left! I found the perfect solution in daddy's notes. He said, "Plant radishes with cukes, melons and squash. Mennonites said this would work for borers and bug problems. I did it and had no bug problems! Radishes & Marigolds work wonders for bug's." I'm for sure going to try this this spring.

Dad always tested the germination rate of his seeds. To be sure the seeds were good he would wet paper towels, place a few seeds (be sure to label what they are) on a towel, fold it over the seeds and place in a baggie. Check them in a few days to see if tiny shoots are coming out. If so, you know your seeds are viable. If no sprouts in a week or so buy new seed. Better than planting a garden with seeds that will not germinate.

About Turnips: Papa said Sept 15 was perfect time to plant them in our zone 6B. No bugs by planting them this late. He had best success by planting in rows rather than beds. First harvest was Oct 15. Need to thin the plants and eat the greens in order to get nice turnips later in season.  Harvested good turnips in December and still had turnips to eat after a hard freeze took out the green tops. Roots stayed good in ground even after hard freeze.

rooting in water

My grandma always started her sweet potatoes in the kitchen a month or so before the first of May. They will form roots in water and all you need to do is cut out the plants (each potato will produce several vines) and plant them in your garden. Be sure to till the soil until it is loose and fluffy. I've grown pretty good potatoes by continuing to pile on straw as the vines grow bigger, All I needed to do to harvest was remove the straw!

sweet potato in water

 

 Next week: The Best Gardening Advice Daddy Ever Gave Me!

How to Keep Deer from Eating Your Landscape

Deer have adapted so well to suburbia that they have become a nuisance and are destroying our landscape. Yes, they are beautiful and we sometimes enjoy watching them but who can afford to replace expensive landscapes because the deer have eaten it to the ground? One year they ate all my mature Hosta that I had painstakingly moved from my former home. I planted Anise Hyssop around my beds and discovered that the deer hated it! Now I have beautiful hosta and no deer! Below is a list of plants that deer will avoid. It came from my favorite gardener Mike McGroarty and his daughter, Amber with a few additions  from me.

Here’s what we know about deer dining habits:

• As much as 90% of their water requirements are met by munching on lush greens and tender young, plant growth. 
• Deer prefer high protein crops such as peas, soybeans, turnips, alfalfa and corn.
• They like trail mix. Fruit, nuts and seeds are especially important when the green vegetation starts to dwindle. Corn that you may put out for birds attract deer too.
• There are very few animals that can resist the sweet smell of apples. Deer are one of them.
• They will happily rip off the bark of maples, aspens and dogwoods. They get water from their bark and it sits heavily in their four-chambered stomachs, keeping them full longer.
•  Now what do they avoid?
• Deer are sensitive to smells and most strong scents can drive them away (unless that smell is apples!)
• Like small children, deer don’t like strange textures in their food. They prefer not to eat things that are fuzzy, prickly or thorny. (They do like roses though. I guess in their case, the thorns are worth the taste of the delicious flower.)
• Deer avoid plants with milky sap and other plants that will upset their stomachs or give them heartburn.
• Deer prefer not to walk through sharp ornamental grasses or thorny brush to get to food.
• Deer avoid the prickly center of zinnia flowers

Okay, now what do they NOT like to eat.
There are a variety of beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees that we can plant in our yard that deer are unlikely to do much damage to. This list is based on information collected from searching educational web sites, retail and wholesale suppliers’ recommendations, public forums and personal experience.
These are divided into two categories: one: plants that deer generally dislike eating and two: plants that deer really dislike eating

Generally Dislike Eating
Bee balm
Buckthorn (Rhamnus)
Calla Lily
Columbine
Coral Bells (Heuchera)
Echinacea (Coneflower)
English Lavender
Evening Primrose
Gladiolus
Lily Turf
Oriental Poppy
Parsley
Rose of Sharon
Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan)
Sage (Salvia)
Smokebush
Speedwell
Weigela
Yarrow
Zinnia

Really Dislike Eating
American Holly
Anise Hyssop
Arrowwood Viburnum
Barberry
Bayberry
Bleeding Heart
Bluebell
Blue Fescue
Butterfly Bush
Catmint
Common Boxwood
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
Foxglove
Germander
Hummingbird Mint
Iris
Japanese Blood Grass
Lamb’s Ear
Lavender
Lily of the Valley
Lungwort
Maiden Grass
most herbs
Oregano
Poppy (note: Oriental Poppy fit in category one)
Purple Moor Grass
Red Hot Poker
River birch
Rosemary
Russian Olive
Russian Sage
Snap Dragon
Switchgrass
Thyme
Yucca

Keep the Unwanted Animals Away

Dogs again! I just know one day I will look back on all this puppy stuff and be able to laugh. Right now it's not so funny when these guys chew on my plants, their dog house, my garden ornaments, flower pots and whatever else they come across.

I tried all the commercial repellents - a few worked but needed to reapply daily. I decided to mix up a potion of my own. I got a spray bottle, a strainer, cheese cloth and every hot pepper (whole and ground as well as seeds) that I had in the kitchen.

I covered the peppers with hot water and let them soak overnight. Next I strained this mixture through several layers of cheese cloth and a fine sieve. WEAR RUBBER GLOVES FOR THIS AND DO NOT GET IT INTO YOUR EYES! When I had as much sediment and pepper seeds as possible out of the mixture, I poured it into  a spray bottle and sprayed everything I did not want the dogs to chew on or even get close to. They took one sniff and backed away. The smell stayed for several days and even after a hard rain, they were not  interested any more!