A question???

I have a Lantana planted in my rock garden. It always does really good in this spot. Like REALLY good. Every spring I cut it back a lot & every summer it fills out quickly. This summer something happened.  I don't know what. I haven't done anything any differently than any other year. Normally, it gets out of control. This year I don't know how to describe it.

 Colossal maybe??

A view from the other side. These pictures really don't do it justice. I swear it's probably 5 ft. in circumference!  It's completely taken over everything else in the rock garden. I'm not concerned about that because everything else that's there grows like crazy & you can't get rid of it either. I just remember that when we bought the house this spot didn't have any grass because of the lab the people had. This was his spot. I wonder if he had some super duper "business" that fertilized the area really good??

That brings me to my question. Well, sort of. Would you rather have a raccoon on your patio or a snake? This is a serious question that I asked Dean yesterday. He didn't give me an answer. I can't figure it out but I'm leaning towards snake. The majority of the snakes I've seen always seem to be trying to get away from the humans whereas the raccoon sat there & looked at me. As my friend Allison would say he looked like he was asking "what's up? what'cha looking at?". The reason this came up is because Dean was outside cooking a brisket (that turned out totally amazeballs!!) on his Primo grill. He looked up just in time to see a snake slither into the rock garden. Yep, into the Lantana, which incidentally, is a FABULOUS hiding place. He wouldn't come out. We now have a shovel as a patio accessory just in case he comes out of hiding. Sidenote: If you're an animal lover or believe snakes are our slithery cousins (that's a direct quote from someone I know), DON'T TELL ME NOT TO KILL IT!!! When the raccoon made his appearance he too visited the Lantana.

I'd given some thought to cutting it back but I like all the blooms & truth be known I'm kinda curious to see how big it will get this summer. Now that I don't know what's inside I'll just wait. I just hope there aren't any eggs or baby something or others in there. I do seem to remember Dean saying something awhile back about the Lantana getting out of control & "it makes for a good hiding place". He's always right. Sigh.

Toodles!