Ugly carrots, but tasty
Little symmetrical green rows of hope
Candy roaster winter squash, looking like King of the Garden
All of the sweet pepper plants are loaded with fruits. I've picked four or five green ones to lighten the load on each plant. These sweet babies should turn red and make us all very, very happy.
This is a green zebra tomato, getting its stripes!
The bad news is that the groundhog is climbing over the fence (I've watched it) and eating the plants that are in their prime. She won't touch the towers of bolted lettuce. She doesn't munch on the bolting beet greens. She picks the plants that I have my eye on... it's like she can read my mind. These broccoli plants were my pride and joy for a week or two. I guarded the little seedlings. I congratulated myself on waiting until after the June heat-spell to plant them. They were thriving in our cool July weather. There's not much I can do other than shoot the groundhog. I don't want to shoot the groundhog because 1) I don't own this property and 2) It's too late to save the broccoli anyway. I might try the live trap, but I'll bet the skunk will find it first. Maybe something's wrong with me, though, because I've got some kind of zen thing going on with this groundhog right now.
The groundhog likes the carrot tops, too. The soil here is just not great. Because this is my first year in this garden, there are plenty of rocks (and marbles and broken flower pots and plastic dinosaurs) that need picking out. The soil needs more organic matter. And I'm not sure about the pH, but maybe these carrots don't love alkaline soils. It took me two years to create fabulous, carrot-loving soil in NY. The kind of soil that you can reach your hand into and bury it up to your elbow. Carrots are picky.
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