I spent the morning tending my vegetable garden.
I weeded each bed and was pleased at most of the vegetables’ progress.
The corn
Plenty of cucumbers and my butternut squash looks fine. I did have one plant so wilted it was a bit odd, so I pulled it out in case it’s got a virus or something. Carrots are doing fine – I pulled one out by accident and was surprised at how far along they are. I can harvest them in about a month. Same with the garlic; the bulbs really will be ready by the 4th of July, just as the old wives’ tale says (plant on Columbus Day, harvest on 4th of July – check, it really works!).
Peas – got my first pea pods today! It’s a pitiful harvest but I’m going to eat my raw peas for lunch. All six of them (hee hee).
The herbs got hacked back to a reasonable height. The only bed where nothing is growing well are the onions and beets. Last year I had abundant beets and onions. This year, tiny, sickly looking beet plants and really awful onions. Not sure why.
We had some excitement too while we worked. As I weeded, John used the edger to trim the tall grass the push mower can’t get between the raised beds. We had Shadow out with us and Pierre. He’s really an indoor cat, but he loves being outside, so we allow him supervised jaunts outdoors. Suddenly John let out a yell, put down the edger and went running back towards the house. Pierre had been sunning himself on the back deck. As Pierre raced around towards the front porch, I saw something big and black hanging out of his mouth. We both took off in hot pursuit with Shadow eagerly at our heels. She loves nothing more than to herd Pierre, proving you CAN herd cats if you really put your mind to it.
Pierre hid behind the hydrangea at the front of the house but not before we saw him release a large skink. I think it is a type of lizard. It was black with gold racing stripes. And no tail! Poor guy lost his tail somewhere. We have a mesh screen to keep wildlife out from under the porch, but the holes in the mesh are large enough so that Mr. Skink slunk under the porch. Poor Pierre….mewing and struggling, voicing his protests, we brought him back into the house. He’s been pacing by the front door ever since, hoping for the chance to get back for round two with Mr. Skink.
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Nice garden! I love the raised beds!
Great shot of the frittilary. Your veggie garden is awesome!
You have a lot of raised bed. How nice.
Skinks are pretty durable creatures. Your poor cat was probably confused. “I’m a hunter,” he’s saying.
Thank you for the nice comments! We put the raised beds in last year, fenced it off to keep the deer out, pray & water a lot. As for the skink….poor creature…..as for Pierre….he’ll get over his loss! When you’re a cat there are plenty of exciting things to do, like chase bugs.