Tomatoes, peppers, basil, and eggplant

I finally managed to snag warm-season transplants last week, and they're now in the ground (with the usual dance around spinach, lettuce, garlic, and the peas that are finally growing rapidly -- probably just to be zapped by hot dry weather).

Soon to follow are the direct-seeded warm season veggies, although not that many. 

I sorted through my seeds today, matching up space to seed and will need to be careful.  I'm mindful of climbing squash in the front garden looking AWFUL in mid-season, because of powderly mildew!

I think I'll sow pole beans of various sorts tomorrow, set up additional trellises, and do a woodchuck barrier in the lower bed, so it might actually be productive, too.

My gardening companion disturbed the woodchuck burrow this afternoon, but I know that s/he will have multiple tunnels.  S/he ate our neighbor's tomato plants a couple of days ago.  I wouldn't have thought that tomato foliage would be high on a woodchuck food preference list, but perhaps they're hungry...

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A brazen woodchuck

If the squirrels eating the kale weren't enough, a woodchuck appeared in the back garden yesterday chewing on buckeye leaves. 

They're full of nasty compounds.  Amazing.

At least the squirrels don't seem to like spinach, Japanese red mustard, or parsley (at least not yet).

This is quite a sub-par photo, taken through the window, and blurry, but you get the idea.  Hmrph.

Eating buckeye leaves?  Really?  No wonder that they'll chew their way through cilantro, etc.   This one has just come out from its burrow, so probably hasn't discovered the small amounts of spinach, etc. that I have in flats.

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Slugs, woodchucks, and other gardening conundrums

A brazen woodchuck went across the front of the house this afternoon, undoubtedly heading toward the beans, as I was reading on the couch (looking out).  Woody, our Golden is totally uninterested, of course, but I managed to rouse my gardening companion to help chase the woodchuck back into the forested ravine behind our house.

I'm annoyed at the herbivory (that this one) has done on my beans this summer.  While we were away, there's definite evidence of leaves and vines snipped (only the beans, at the point -- parsley and greens were earlier in the summer).

These are raised beds in the FRONT of our small house in the mountains, but it's definitely in an urban area, and really, woodchucks?  by the driveway?

Raised beds in May, 2010 (they're a jungle at the moment); click to see and read more about them

My other current gripe is slugs on the tomatoes.  OK, after last year, I'm glad to have abundant tomatoes, even if my variety is limited to Cherokee Purple, Indigo Rose, Better Boy and Sweet Million, with a couple of San Marzano struggling along. Hmm.  This is nothing to complain about.

But, as the big Cherokee Purple and Black Krim start ripening (the San Marzanos, too), the slugs appear and start burrowing out holes.  Yuck.  Time to harvest!

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Cleaning up for fall

I'm almost done "excavating" the main vegetable garden and the satellite garden in the Piedmont of their cloak of over-summering crabgrass.  It was thick, and more abundant than I'd ever experienced before, thanks to the exceptionally high rainfall this summer.

Evidence of deer and spotting of woodchucks (one has taken up residence under the garden shed) means that defensive measures need to be taken before greens are planted. Hrmph.

I'm fine planting recently received garlic, shipped from a West Coast farm, and dividing and moving around the perennial leeks, dividing

But with greens -- hmm, I might as well just say welcome, woodchucks -- I have something tasty for you -- help yourself!

I may try to use a row cover/hoop house barrier to see if that deters them short-term.   Or, I may just rely on my mountain beds for greens.  They're less susceptible to woodchucks because of the city location, although not immune.

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