The Garden in Late Summer
My newest fashion accessory is tomato seeds splatted all over my t-shirt. Yes, it's canning season. Unlike last year's tomato failure (shakes fist at tomato mites, a new pest we wish we had never heard of), this year we've got tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes. Thus far, I've made four huge batches of greenhouse glop (homegrown tomatoes, homegrown eggplant, and whatever else gets tossed into the mix, all cooked down to where you can stand a spoon in the roasted mass) and a dozen quarts of canned tomatoes. We're good for a bit, but yet the tomatoes continue ripening. I had envisioned gorging on Caprese salads for the rest of the summer, but the WBH seems to want to share the wealth. I know, how dare he?
The blueberries need to be gleaned and the door to the blueberry house left open so the birds can come in and eat the leftovers and the insects. The berry enclosure 2.whatever worked much better this year, except for where a fox gnawed a hole. This explains a couple weird holes that someone blamed me for last year. The WBH was enjoying the first sips of his coffee, when a blueberry bush in the first row started shaking and soon afterward a fox popped up, busily chewing away. Reynard escaped after bouncing off the walls, and we've started encircling the structure with chicken wire. Since foxes can climb almost as well as cats, this may not keep him out.
A bear ambled by our greenhouses last week. HUGE footprints. The only damage I could find was broken plum branches, which are brittle and could have been broken by a fox, raccoon, opossum, or too much fruit. Our neighbors had their hives destroyed, and our closest neighbors had only part of a row of lettuce munched. While we've found bear hair on our fences occasionally, this is the first time we've seen tracks. I just hope it doesn't like tomatoes and decide to tear its way into a greenhouse.
Next worry is water. When you run into someone you know, the first question isn't "How are you?"; it's "How's your well doing?" So far, we've still got water. The long range forecast says we're going to have less than usual rain for at least six months. I sure hope NOAA is wrong. Cross-posted from dreamwidth.org
The blueberries need to be gleaned and the door to the blueberry house left open so the birds can come in and eat the leftovers and the insects. The berry enclosure 2.whatever worked much better this year, except for where a fox gnawed a hole. This explains a couple weird holes that someone blamed me for last year. The WBH was enjoying the first sips of his coffee, when a blueberry bush in the first row started shaking and soon afterward a fox popped up, busily chewing away. Reynard escaped after bouncing off the walls, and we've started encircling the structure with chicken wire. Since foxes can climb almost as well as cats, this may not keep him out.
A bear ambled by our greenhouses last week. HUGE footprints. The only damage I could find was broken plum branches, which are brittle and could have been broken by a fox, raccoon, opossum, or too much fruit. Our neighbors had their hives destroyed, and our closest neighbors had only part of a row of lettuce munched. While we've found bear hair on our fences occasionally, this is the first time we've seen tracks. I just hope it doesn't like tomatoes and decide to tear its way into a greenhouse.
Next worry is water. When you run into someone you know, the first question isn't "How are you?"; it's "How's your well doing?" So far, we've still got water. The long range forecast says we're going to have less than usual rain for at least six months. I sure hope NOAA is wrong. Cross-posted from dreamwidth.org