My Birthday Weekend

I got a lot of work done in the garden this past week...radishes, scallions,swiss chard, and beets
all got planted.

There was time for a coffee outside while the kids played.

Reading by the fire..

We started tomatoes and green beans inside and I will have to get out and get pictures of

the asparagus, lettuce and peas all coming up nicely.What is coming up in your garden?

What do you have planned? New crops? Anything you decided not to grow this year?

Best birthday gift this year? Farmer Dad and the Princess captured the Ground Hog and

entered him in the "Ground Hog Protection Plan". I beg for him to set the trap every year,

and then feel terribly guilty when the little thing is caught and squeaking in the have a heart.

I am sorry I can not post a pic of the capture, the very nature of the relocation plan demands

the utmost privacy. ;-)

Long overdue update

We've been too busy tending to this to blog.... good thing we love zucchini

this guy will not stay away...

We are canning these now....

Enjoying these..

Checking out the cool bugs who drop in

Did I mention hoping the rain stops long enough to weed?

I hope you enjoyed these pictures of our corner of the Garden State.

Hopefully it will not be so long before I can blog again.

Our Groundhog

He is still stealing, but at least now it is just from the compost pile.
This is what I saw earlier this week...

a bit of foraging....

the moment he hears the camera...sniffing the air to locate the sound..


the escape (he actually had a hunk of mater in his mouth)


Seeing me before turning tail to run.
The good news is, he hasn't been inside the garden since we fixed the fence!
He normally wouldn't go in the bin, but I had just dumped one bowl of tomato ends
and was heading into the house for the next load when he stopped by.Normally it
would all get covered with a dry layer and he wouldn't know it was there.
Canning means more compost able waste is made at one time, more than one trip out to
the compost bin for me, and apparently a late afternoon snack for our local terrorist.
That's what our neighborhood calls him.
He is pretty cute, although I wish he would stop eating my echinacea!

The canning continues

I have decided it might be a good idea to stop canning long enough to
post here about what's going on in our little corner of the Garden State.
We are still getting visited by the "Terrorist" aka the evil Groundhog.
Now, he climbs into the compost bin to steal tomato scraps.
Better than breaking into the garden to do it, and since I'm canning, there has been a fresh pile every day!
lol I will post pictures soon.I am having difficulties at the moment.

Technical Difficulties

I have been having trouble getting my latest pics to post,
so I will just tell you, it has been getting hot around here
again. I know it's shocking..being July in New Jersey and all
that...and most evenings we have had some rain if not thunderstorms.
Some areas quite near us have had serious storms, including tornado sightings,
but we keep missing the worst of it..for which we are grateful.
The Groundhog is still trying to get into the garden every day as far as I can tell,
but he has not breeched it yet...he is smarter than some critters, so I expect it
any day.
Things are blooming and growing and looking lovely early in the morning and tired and hot
in some spots in the heat of the day. Summer is here and we are enjoying it as much as we can.
Hope you are as well.

The Groundhog and the damage done....

Can you hear the whine of Neil Young?
Yes, I'm feeling a bit abused by the whole
groundhog experience.He chomped off the tops of most of the peppers






and ate all the tasty new lettuce. It looks like he left more in
these pictures than it does in person.
We brought in some professional security...


So far it has worked. We are ready to re-think it when necessary.Perhaps my friend
Zilla has the right idea, and it is truly time for the plastic explosives.;-)

The fence has been breached...

Wednesday will known as the day the Groundhog figured out
the weak link in our fence, or the day Kate was proven correct,
and Farmer Dad had to say,"oh yeah, guess I should have taken
care of that." I am not bitter...he only ate some of the tender bits of lettuce
out there, while I had gone inside to get my basket to pick some for dinner.
Really, I am quite over it. The have-a-heart trap is set now (re-set actually), and he is out there...circling
my garden fence...trying to figure a way inside. Hopefully the smell of peanut butter on apple will do the trick
before he finds another "loophole".Have I told you all how yummy the green beans, peas and lettuce have been this year? The squirrels "captured' most of my sunflowers it appears. I will put more seeds in today I think.
Hope for the best.Meanwhile nobody has discovered the cucumbers planted outside the garden gate yet,
I am a bit surprised, but give it time.

Getting our cages in a row...

as the rain started, Farmer Dad placed cages on all the tomatoes and such in the garden.
It was a pleasant Father's Day here in the Garden State.
It is really feeling more like summer every day.

A shot of the fig tree.

Monday found the Ground Hog (Wood Chuck) showing up again.
Not once, but several times. I am trying to deter him, by running out
and chasing him off...wouldn't want him feeling as comfortable in our yard
as these two do.
Ground Hogs just eat too much, too quickly.......
It also rained here in the evening, and it was terribly windy,
but we were spared the brunt of the storms.

He's Baaaack!

First things first, we have peas!! I was so busy the last few days, I had no time at all
to even check them, let alone blog about them. I am so happy. Last year the baby bunnies got
in the garden, and they ate all my pea plants!!So I had no peas! Can you even imagine a veg garden
completely pea less? The blackberries have flowers now too

And yes, he's back..the Ground Hog...well, not the same one (s)but...
yes, sure as it is the end of spring, some nasty old mean Wood Chuck Mama has
sent her little boys out into the big bad world, and one of them has picked our little
corner of the Garden State to make his home. I don't blame him...poor dear.
I want to live here too..it is quite nice especially early in the morning and early in the
evening when he visits. The sun is ever so gently dappling over the untreated lawn,
lush perennials and fruit and veg are everywhere.The sound of the wind chimes almost
always blocks out the traffic noise and my daughter does enjoy dressing up like Snow White
and singing to the wildlife.( She has yet to convince any of them to come in and help fold laundry
or sweep the floors, but hope does spring eternal)
Here are one of the two pairs of Morning Doves who call our yard home,
out for their late afternoon stroll. I hope they are not taking notice of all the weeds in that bed.

New Fence

Finally we have a slightly taller fence
that will hopefully keep the grounhogs out.
Farmer Dad even made a gate!
He is very proud of his handiwork,
especially since he only used bits and pieces
we had lying around. We still have a lot to do in
the yard to be ready for this year, but we are
getting a lot done as well.He plans on re-using
the old fence at the community garden plot.
This gate makes me miss our old arbor that
was taken out in a Nor'easter years ago.