drawing august

Day 1, lobelia on the path to barn

Not sure exactly which lobelia this is.

I looked it up and it's probably one of two species,

but one of those species has three varieties

and it was just too steamy and uncomfortable today

to go back out with a hand lens and micrometer.

 Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, here it is August already.

Who saw that coming?

~~~~~

rain at last

 

This is only the third or fourth time since first planting

 that the gardens will not need morning or evening watering.

After barn chores this morning I went to check on the new garden as usual,

and just stood for a minute watching the rain make all the leaves shine.

Very refreshing.

~~~~~

first fruits

I haven't planted summer squash for ages, but with a new garden spot added this year, there was room for a couple of plants. This is the very first squash, harvested yesterday. Isn't it beautiful?

Do any of you gardeners have trouble actually picking and eating your perfect, beautiful vegetables?

Asking for a friend.

cold lunch

The basic: cellentani/cavatappi, mayonnaise, feta, relish.

Excellent hot-weather lunch. Also supper. Sometimes also breakfast.

Yesterday was a pleasant day weather-wise and I was able to spend the whole afternoon outdoors for the first time in weeks. Maybe not the smartest choice considering the ongoing air quality warnings due to smoke from the northern wildfires, but it just felt so good to be outside.

Sometimes with sweet corn.

Thank you all for your ideas about the raccoons, and I am sorry to hear there are so many kinds of critters making free with our gardens. My favorite solution was the rubber snakes, and "buy snakes" is now on my list. I also checked my spices box for red pepper but only found a little tin of smoked paprika from Portugal. However, I did find lots of coriander and sprinkled it liberally around the garden fence and the bean rows. I never cook with coriander, so it was worth sacrificing it to an experiment. The mystery is why I had not one but three jars of a seasoning I never, ever use.

Occasionally with avocado!

The family of raccoons has since appeared about the place in early morning and early evening, trundling along in single file with the tiny youngster bringing up the rear. They are either living very close by, or under one of my outbuildings. I'm afraid it's the latter, because I've noticed most of the goats haven't been escaping the heat and biting bugs by tucking themselves into the cooler, darker space beneath the shelters as they usually do.

Or mushrooms.

I've been tearing the house and workshop apart looking for my sprayer bottle that attaches to a garden hose and dilutes a liquid (usually fertilizer or pest spray) as you water. I bought it ages ago and have never needed to use it, and now that it is needed, it seems to have disappeared. If I buy another we all know how that will turn out, so the search goes frustratingly on. My plan is to spray a mist of diluted wine (stay with me) under the shelters and barn and around the workshop. Because: one raccoon recommendation was using a vinegar spray. Gathering dust in my tiny kitchen is a rack of wine bottles looking for a job. I haven't bought - or drunk - wine in many years now, so my thought is that most of those bottles probably now contain vinegar. It would be very satisfying to put them to good use. Just need to find that sprayer bottle!

~~~~~

planting beans

 

    This morning I planted beans again.

This is the third time.

The same beans.

Not the same *type* of bean.

The same actual beans.

Raccoons are not my friends.

After finding bean plants uprooted, scattered, and buried under dug-up soil a week ago, I hastily replanted them. The poor beans rallied and continued to grow, which was remarkable considering their ordeal.

This morning I found the same rows dug up again.

Disheartening, to say the least.

Again I replanted any intact plants I could find.

I'll keep watering and hope for the best.

But I need to better protect the garden from varmints.

(Yes, I said varmints. Strong word, I know, but this destructive behavior is unacceptable. Raccoons have plenty to eat without digging up my beans in search of worms, or whatever the heck they are doing.)

Earlier this season I experimented with planting hills of beans instead of rows.

This is the tidy garden the day I planted the seeds:

And this is the same garden the very next morning.

The three hills and a row of cucumber seeds.

Excavated.

Faced with such devastation, Moxie and I had to have a little sit-down.

The main thing needed: a fence around the new garden area.

Done. 

But since putting up the fence, rows of bean plants have been churned up twice.

Does anyone have a tried-and-true method for keeping raccoons out of a fenced garden? Burying the fence a foot deep isn't an option here. I tried scattering cinnamon sticks along the fence and even along the bean rows. 

For a few days, all was well.

Until this morning.

~~~~~