14 yr. old Lucas, a North Daviess Cougar!

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Garden Report

My dream garden turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The cute little bunny rabbits ate the first planting of lettuce, the gully-washer Spring rains sent most of the seed in a westerly direction, and so I had to re-seed... just about everything. The rabbits were back for the lettuce again, and this time they found the spinach,too. The radishes sprouted and promptly died. The night after I picked my first green beans, the sweet little deer ate the plants to the ground. Wah!

I've had a few nice cucumbers, very sweet and firm, but the plants are dying already. I've had three lovely zucchini, but the blossoms are now dying before the zucchini sets. What's up with that? Are the nights too cool? My butternut squash has struggled from day one, and now I fear some critter likes to eat the blossoms. I harvested the carrots, thinking Peter Rabbit would get to them before I could, but they were virtually tasteless. No fair, I love homegrown garden carrots!

Good news, though. There are tomatoes galore and they are delicious. I've put up several pints of tomatoes for winter soups and sauces, and if we could just get a few more really hot days, I think the remaining green tomatoes would "red up". If not, I can pickle the green tomatoes, make relish out of them, or just eat lots of fried green tomatoes. The green peppers are few but beautiful and growing a bit every day. They taste SO good; nothing like store-bought.

I put in a variety of herbs, but everything disappeared or never came up except a few sad little dill plants and the basil, which has been prolific. So I'll be making pesto, which I love. The chives that I planted three years ago are doing a repeat performance again this year, and I keep reminding myself to cut, chop and freeze some for winter recipes.

What's doing beautifully are the flowers! Sunflowers and marigolds everywhere and every size and shade of yellow, plus cosmos in all those lovely lavender/purple/pink colors, zinnias (a large, deep orange blossom appeared this week), and even a couple nasturtiums finally decided to bloom. Should I forget the veggies and just grow flowers?

Anyway, I guess things aren't too bad after all, but it certainly wasn't the garden I had hoped for. Mother Nature wins again! Next year? 1) A good, deep-tine tiller 2) More compost 3) More topsoil 4) More mulch 5) Wider paths between rows 6) A rabbit/deer fence? 7) Forget the whole thing and grow native wild flowers? :)