Thursday, July 8, 2010

Garden Report

The Bag Lady's garden is a bit of a disappointment this year. There has not been much moisture, and it shows in the progress of the garden.
That aside, she has also had a garden raider! He has enjoyed the peas....

And the broccoli!

Fortunately, he didn't discover the strawberries....


The Bag Lady managed to beat the deer to the strawberries and she thoroughly enjoyed all three of them!

15 comments:

David Cranmer said...

We have some tomatoes outside and I've started to see the numbers diminishing. I may have to sit up and find out who is the culprit.

messymimi said...

My Bigger Girl is trying to grow a small garden for the first time. So far we have spent about $50 and have enjoyed 3 tomatoes.

The scarcity is not because of garden raiders so much as the smallness of the garden and the inexperience of the gardener.

I hope you come up with a way to keep the deer out.

Leah J. Utas said...

Fine looking strawberry. Sorry to hear about the raiders. It gets pretty darned annoying. Mesh bags, such as one buys onions and oranges in, over the plants will discourage deer.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I'm sorry about the garden. I'd send you some of our rain, if I could. Canada is always so generous with the cold fronts in winter, it would only be fair...

Reb said...

You'll have to build a cistern near the garden that you can hook a hose up to, or even better - a drip irrigation system!

the Bag Lady said...

David - I hope you discover the thief, and can discourage future activity!

Messymimi - $50.00 does seem slightly steep price to pay for 3 tomatoes, but the experience for your bigger girl is priceless! (along the lines of teaching someone to fish.....)

Thanks, cousin! Another friend said that plastic oil pails (of which we have many!) cut down and placed around the cabbage/broccoli/etc with a piece of cheesecloth over the top will also help discourage the moths who eat the plants. May have to try that.

BG - I would gladly take some of your rain. Right now, we are experiencing your temperatures (minus the humidity, thank heavens!). At 9:30 in the morning, it is already over 80F!
Sadly, in the renewal process of the garden, we lost all the volunteer spinach, and the seeds I planted did not germinate. I am going to try again, but this may well curtail your supply of Canadian spinach this year.

the Bag Lady said...

Reb - sorry, we cross-posted. I have often thought about building some kind of rain-collection system to use for that purpose, but that would also be dependent on rain. Which has been quite scarce, sadly.
I do, however, have some barrels under the downspouts and use that rain water on my flowers, tomatoes and peppers in the pots on the deck, until it runs out.

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

Beautiful strawberries! I'm glad you got to eat them. :)
It is a 2-footed creature who gets into the tomatoes, but it was the rabbits who attacked our early pea crop (my husband put up a bunny & deer fence after that)... all before the big wind storm flattened everything (mostly just temporary).

the Bag Lady said...

kcinnova - I'm fairly certain it's a deer that has been in my garden - the Princess chased him out the other morning.
I've been resisting putting a fence around the entire garden, but if the Bounce sheets on the pea fence don't keep him away, I might have to consider it.

Levi said...

Beat those sweet deer? How unkind!

Vee said...

My garden is horrible this year. We moved to a new place that has basically just sand. I'm doing a lot of amending/raised bed gardening but still... the weather! And the grasshoppers! Argh! I want tomatoes!

Vee at http://veegettinghealthy.blogspot.com

Gena said...

I have been wanting to plant a garden for years, but it's kinda hard when you live in an apartment. But one person who lives here has a nice container garden with eggplants, squash, and tomatoes. I could pull that off, with the addition of some green beans!

the Bag Lady said...

POD - I know, I know....

Vee - I think that's part of what's wrong with my garden, too. We enlarged it and should have added more manure to the clay soil. The little bit of rain we've received has turned the soil rock hard. Makes it difficult for the little sprouts to push their way up!

Gena - a little container garden on the balcony would be perfect! And not all that difficult, really. Go for it!

solarity said...

I've been muttering about rain all day. If it's going to rain enough to keep me from hanging out laundry, why can't it rain enough that I don't need to water the garden? The forecast looks like that for days. At least it is supposed to cool off some. Peppers don't set fruit above 90F; I may yet get some.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

carla said...

all three of them :)

this post is bad for me as it feeds my excuses fer not motivating to garden.

at all.