make it happen!
It’s official: although it is not pretty yet, the garden is officially temporarily enclosed, so there should not be any more rabbit damage. I suppose it’s possible, however, that there might be some deer catapulting themselves over the fence. Â Here’s how the garden looked this morning:
getting closer to the real gate
the final three beds have been turned
Had another garden party this morning–the whole family was involved. Dwight and Dad worked on the fence; Mom and I weeded and mulched the tomatoes and I finished digging a bed and dug about 1/3 of a second bed of three beds total. Â Bill provided double cheeseburgers from a fast food drive establishment, and Mom had carrots and celery sticks, homemade pudding (with whipped topping!) and brewed iced tea. I have also included a couple of photos of some of the garden’s produce.
first sign of broccoli
first two green beans
Mom mulching the tomatoes
setting the table for lunch
Dwight and I donated a little bit of blood via mosquitoes this evening! Wow! As I arrived at the garden tonight a wascally wabbit looked over his shoulder as he headed in to graze on my green beans. Let’s just say that his options are narrowing with every nail in the fence. Tonight Dwight finished putting up the sheet metal on the south and north ends of the garden. My next job will be to touch up the paint on the panels and fill in any gaps with dirt.
looking north from the back of the property
looking south from the tomato bed
Here we have proof–however fleeting–that I did plant some green beans. The rabbits have been eating the bean leaves as fast as they emerge. Hopefully, we will get the rest of the fence enclosed by this holiday weekend.
blue lake green bean
Slowly but surely we are finishing the fence. Today we worked on keeping the rabbits out on the east side. We only worked for a couple of hours really, but Dwight and Dad were able to finish one side–because Dwight didn’t have to work today because of rain. It was a perfect day, however, for fence building! Meanwhile, I trimmed.
installing the first panel
waterfront property featuring two in-ground swimming pools
in the foreground: evidence of yesterday’s escapade
the rabbits are watching and plotting, no doubt
So far I have been only posting positive thoughts and pics of the garden. Now it is time for a little good, bad, and ugly–in that order.
finishing the fence
decapitated beans (birds?)
under the row cover . . .
We had a little Friday night fence-raising. In addition to Mom, Dad, Dwight, Bill, and myself, we were joined by The Hammer (aka Lisa). By the end of the evening, we had all of the wire installed.
nice!
Dad and I are finishing up the last of the fence panels that we are using for the garden. Some of them are in better condition than others, but two coats of primer and two more coats of paint cover most of the problems.
Today we put the bottom rail around the remaining fence. Now we are ready for the wire. Then the metal around the bottom. Then the wire at the top (to dissuade deer). Plus, Bill and I made two trips to the landscape waste facility for wood chips. Oh, we mowed and trimmed both Piper Street properties, as well.
looking south
hardware cloth
northeast corner
Okay, the ground was not dried out from the previous rain, but if I didn’t plant the last of the tomatoes today, they would probably have dried up in their tiny, little containers (is that redundant? –rhetorical question. yes.) So I planted nine San Marzanos and three Mexican Midgets, plus the last three of the broccoli. I also weeded the onions and rigged up a deer/rabbit barricade for the newly planted tomatoes. I arrived at the garden about 9 A.M. and left about 1:30 P.M.
