Garden Discouragement
The new raised bed that I put together and Kidzilla helped me fill and plant and edge with bricks ... is a no go.
There is no asparagus. No peas. No lettuce. No spinach. No zinnias, which was Kidzilla's special, specifically requested contribution.
I feared for the lettuce and spinach - I had plastic over the bed until things started sprouting, then I pulled the plastic off. The next morning ALL the spinach and lettuce seedlings were snipped off. Nothing but bare little pale stems sticking up above the dirt. Not a bit of green leaf to be seen.
Now even the poor bare little stems are gone, and there's not a hint of *anything* else there.
I had criss-crossed the bed with twine to discourage cats from digging and pooping in it (I HATE THAT, ARG), and between the strands there are a couple of suspicious dents in the dirt, in a couple of places. Other than that, no sign of what might have been happening.
In our yard there are the aforementioned cats that roam the neighborhood, some garter snakes, plenty of visiting raccooons, opossums, and tons of birds of all stripes. (Starlings, jays, crows, chickadees, sparrows, goldfinches, wrens, hummingbirds, flickers, there's an owl that lives nearby, there are waxwings in season ... juncos have moved on now I think.) You can hear frogs at night, but I'm not sure whether they're closer than the creek up the street. No rabbits. No squirrels. (The cats keep them out of the neighborhood, I think.) A few snails, a few slugs here and there, plenty of ladybugs, earwigs, sowbugs, ants, aphids, box elder bugs, beetles, bees of all kinds, spiders, an occasional praying mantis.
It's a pretty healthy yard, I guess. Popular with critters. Not popular with neighbors (I'm looking at you, Mr. Scotts Turfbuilder Plus Golf-Course Perfect Lawn.) since it's pretty untidy and weedy (which is what makes the critters like it, of course). The mature plants do pretty well ... but growing things from seed can be a PITA. :(
Sigh. blah. very discouraged.
There is no asparagus. No peas. No lettuce. No spinach. No zinnias, which was Kidzilla's special, specifically requested contribution.
I feared for the lettuce and spinach - I had plastic over the bed until things started sprouting, then I pulled the plastic off. The next morning ALL the spinach and lettuce seedlings were snipped off. Nothing but bare little pale stems sticking up above the dirt. Not a bit of green leaf to be seen.
Now even the poor bare little stems are gone, and there's not a hint of *anything* else there.
I had criss-crossed the bed with twine to discourage cats from digging and pooping in it (I HATE THAT, ARG), and between the strands there are a couple of suspicious dents in the dirt, in a couple of places. Other than that, no sign of what might have been happening.
In our yard there are the aforementioned cats that roam the neighborhood, some garter snakes, plenty of visiting raccooons, opossums, and tons of birds of all stripes. (Starlings, jays, crows, chickadees, sparrows, goldfinches, wrens, hummingbirds, flickers, there's an owl that lives nearby, there are waxwings in season ... juncos have moved on now I think.) You can hear frogs at night, but I'm not sure whether they're closer than the creek up the street. No rabbits. No squirrels. (The cats keep them out of the neighborhood, I think.) A few snails, a few slugs here and there, plenty of ladybugs, earwigs, sowbugs, ants, aphids, box elder bugs, beetles, bees of all kinds, spiders, an occasional praying mantis.
It's a pretty healthy yard, I guess. Popular with critters. Not popular with neighbors (I'm looking at you, Mr. Scotts Turfbuilder Plus Golf-Course Perfect Lawn.) since it's pretty untidy and weedy (which is what makes the critters like it, of course). The mature plants do pretty well ... but growing things from seed can be a PITA. :(
Sigh. blah. very discouraged.