A World of Many Hats and Not Enough Shoes

It has been a while since I've written about the garden but that does not mean we have not been there or things haven't been happening.  Last Saturday, Leslie and I met up at 6 am and did a major weeding job.  We worked for almost three hours.  It was muddy and the weeds were huge but thankfully they came out great!  We marvelled at her squash patch and the beauty of everything after a week's worth of rains.

But then Monday happened.

A mere two days later we went back, both on our own accord, to find complete devastation.

Was it robbers?  Yes.  Robbers who wore gray camo so that no one would sense their coming and going until it was too late.  Robbers who travel in groups so that they can cause more devastation than if they were alone.  Robbers who took the life out of Leslie's amazingly beautiful squash patch.  Robbers who are trying to do the same with our cantaloupe!  AHHHH!!!!

Yes, I am SO glad that the garden is not in my yard now!  These things are so gross!  The worst part is that they are in camo so you don't notice them at first but once you start watering or spraying they come out crawling in masse... ew, ew, ew!!!  They completely destroyed Leslie's squash patch and are about to finish off my cantaloupe patch.  They suck the plants juices straight from the vine and even the fruit, which they say is a new thing!  Ew!

Then, there are the bunnies.  They are in love with my red pepper plant leaves.  Yes, some tomatoes, but mostly the red pepper leaves.  They eat them right off and push over the plant as much as necessary.

However, Ezekiel is still loving it!  Jeremiah and Miriam are completely done with the garden, but Ezekiel has been more helpful as of late than a long time.  I think the break from watering thanks to the rains helped him out a lot!

One of the other sad things was our neighbor's in the community garden, this older couple who are slow moving and hard working and always hold each other's hands, had been having their veggies stolen.  They actually put up a sign and they said it worked and stopped the thievery.  

While I was out with Leslie on Saturday, I worked big time on my growing tomato plants.  The original 7 I planted are shot and done but there are 3 new ones that have lots of green fruit and 2 mildly new ones that I don't know what they are going to do. But overall, we are still getting veggies and they are wonderful and oh-such-a-blessing to us this month indeed*!

*Several people have asked me if it was financially worth it all.  I do not have the final numbers yet, but this being our initial year, the fact that I made a lot of mistakes, I guess "no" so far.  However, this month it has really helped out a lot and I am very thankful for God's provision through it!