While I Was at Camp

19 June 2012: Ed pulls weeds around the hot peppers.

Last week I was gone to Girls' Camp.  For 5 days before that, I worked 5 hours a day on a curriculum committee to make some extra summer money.  During those 2 weeks I was sick with a cold-turned-bronchitis.  I have to admit that I pretty much forgot the existence of my husband's garden during that time.

Front-to-back: cauliflower, radishes, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cabbage.

So it was fun to come home and find that portions of the garden have taken off!  Especially the plants in the middle bed (above), although I wonder if the cauliflower shouldn't be a little bigger by now.

Mixed results on the lettuce.

While some of the varieties of lettuce have whithered away, a few seem to be thriving.

Front-to-back: zucchini, cucumber, one surviving bell pepper,

hot peppers, tomatoes, and a thriving cherry tomato plant!

We actually had a bad frost a few weeks ago, which resulted in us and most of our neighbors losing many plants.  Our stalwart cherry tomato weathered it just fine and is going strong.  Our regular tomato plants, on the other hand, were destroyed and had to be replaced, along with several other plants.

Ed is disappointed that our tomato plants are still so small, when he had such a huge crop last year.  However, it seems to me that the tomatoes really took off last summer when the monsoon rains began in late June.  The monsoon season is nearly upon us, so there's still a chance!  I'm amazed by how much better plants flourish with rain water than hose water.

We are getting a few peas...again.

Not everything is great, though.  Just like last year, the peas are coming in patches.  They died early in the growing season last year, although we got to enjoy them for a few weeks.  I hope we can keep these going longer.  I think perhaps we got a bad batch of seeds, because these came from the same seeds as we used last summer.

Denuded pole beans.

One problem we did NOT have last year was bunnies.  That's right, adorable little cottontail bunnies.  I saw several hopping through our yard this spring and I admired their furry cuteness.  Right up until they ate all my spinach!

No, they didn't just nibble it.  They pulled up every last plant by the root.  Then, when our pole beans finally broke through the ground and began to stretch toward the sky, we went out the next morning and found that the bunnies had chewed every leaf off the stalks!  Ed says it's doubtful that the beans will recover from this violation.

Ed has readied his .22 and tells me we may be having rabbit stew for dinner soon.  And thus the battle for the garden begins...