I want to live and let live when it comes to snakes, but they still scare me to death when I come across them in my yard.

This one appeared today. You can see why I always watch for snakes when I go out to work on my garden beds!



I hope it doesn't creep you out. It's a small garter snake lying on its back with its belly exposed.

I know it's alive, because I'd  actually come across it about a half hour earlier about 10 yards away. I was pulling weeds along the fence and stepped back to move a big rock over to the fence. That's when the snake decided to move. It had been curled (not coiled) up in the shade of the rock the whole time I'd been stepping and leaning over it to pull the weeds. It was definitely a garter snake with a yellow stripe down its back.

I've always heard that snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them, so I've always counted on them to get out of my way when I'm crashing around in the brush in my yard. But this is the second time a garter snake has waited until after I've been next to it for a while before it decides to wiggle.

After I finished screaming and jumping up and down, I watched it until it decided to move. I didn't try to get my camera then because I would sure it would disappear quickly. But it didn't. Instead, it moved across the yard toward the raised beds, stopping along the way to check out the speakers on Phil's boom box (the price I have to pay for getting his help in the yard).

I thought it would find more shade or a hiding place. Phil and I continued moving around nearby working on weeds, and I suddenly noticed it at the foot of the garden bed. When I got the camera and came back, it didn't move when I got close enough to take the picture (I didn't even have to use the zoom lens).

I want to pull that foxtail barley next to it every time I look at the photo, but I'll wait.

This picture also shows one of the problems I'm having with our raised beds. Those yellowish plants are zucchini and pumpkin. The soil is a mixture of compost and purchased mulch (Kellogg's "Garden Soil," which is made with forest products). My best guess is the yellow leaves are the result of a nitrogen deficiency. Quoting the Sunset Western Garden Book:

If you add organic matter to your soil as a conditioner, the matter may be high in carbon compared with nitrogen. Soil organisms working to digest the high-carbon material may then compete with plants for the limited amounts of nitrogen available in the soil. For this reason, high-carbon (high-cellulose) soil conditioners—such as sawdust, wood shavings, ground bark, and straw—require special handling.

My next step is nitrogen fertilizer. Sunset says, "As a nutrition source, organic matter is no more beneficial than an inorganic source." That's obvious now! Interestingly, the potatoes in the bed next to it, prepared exactly the same way, are bright green and thriving.