Garden Harvest (August 1-15)

1st - I went to North Carolina to visit two of my darling grandbabies (and their parents).  

Ron watered and picked those three days. Can you guess which of these photos he took?

2nd - As you scroll through, do you wonder why I don't have big tomatoes? 

Hmph!  I'm at war with the squirrels! And, they've been winning.  

I always say that we have a love/hate relationship with our beautiful wildlife.  

Right now it is not leaning in the love direction.

There's a huge hickory tree beside our back deck.  All these squirrels sit on the branches, look down at you as they eat the nuts, and throw down the sharp woody shells. You can hear the shells fall all around. You literally cannot walk across the deck without shoes.  You'd think they'd be satisfied with all those hickory nuts. 

Nope!  

They hang off the bird feeders and eat the birdseed.  You'd think that would  be enough.  Nope!  

They go right into the chicken coops and have a snack on chicken food.  Do they appreciate that?

Nope!

They climb up my tomato cages, sit there grinning and pick the biggest tomatoes for themselves.  Do they at least enjoy the whole thing? 

Nope!  They eat half then toss the rest on the ground for me to find. 

The hickory nuts - They're welcome to them.

The bird feeders - We're letting them hang empty.

The chicken coops - We're not leaving food available during the day.

The tomatoes - We've put Irish Spring chips on the ground, and we've sprayed Repels All on the plants.  So the garden now smells of a weird combination of soapy clean and some dead rotten meat. Yuck... And... Sigh...