A July Harvest

Just in from picking in the vegetable garden.  The thunder was rumbling while I was there so I hope some rain is in the clouds for us.

My first 2013 cucumber.  Many more smaller versions out there to be picked in the days ahead.

Basil doing okay.  Some of the leaves have been nibbled by something but this bunch will go with the cucumber tonight.

A fair sized tomato.  Haven't had one for awhile after the first from the patio and Rutgers plants produced one or two each.  This one is also a Rutgers but ... something else got to it first.  I'll see what I can salvage.

A mess of green beans.  We have been enjoying these for the last two weeks and now my second planting is producing as well.  Just in time because the first planting is about spent.

These olive tomatoes are producing like crazy.  I pop these in my mouth for a snack.

Here they joined the bowl I had picked earlier in the week.

Harvest Monday

Not Again! Grr!

Yes, the raccoons were back overnight.  Three nights in a row!  Is it the heat? The pot above has been attacked all three times.

I've taken a new tactic.  This one got repotted into the bigger pot and moved to the screen porch.

I have two pots of cacti and they did minimal damage to this one.  Maybe it was the spines.  I've left them out on the deck for now.

This pot they emptied so I've given up on two of these pots.  I moved the plants to an open bed in the vegetable garden.

The pot on the end above I moved to the porch.

This pot on the pond deck is too big to move so I repotted it and will have to try a mixture of cinnamon and ground pepper as well as a product someone recommended in a comment called Repels All.

Both planters under the swing were taken apart and I've replanted.  Next time?  I hope there won't be a next time.

This pot hadn't been touched before but its replanted and moved out of reach.

My amaryllis bulb was dumped and nibbled upon.  I put it in the garage for now.

Pots are now lining the edge of the screen porch.

And the deck is almost bare of pots.

I hope I can report good news tomorrow.

Bully Back Overnight!

This is the pot they disastered yesterday.

It's the only one on the deck that had a reservoir at the bottom.

Here's the reservoir access pipe.

I repotted the plants but left out the reservoir and moved the pot.  I don't know if the plants will survive a second upset.

But that wasn't the only pot they attacked.

This one above used to look like this one below which is on the other side of the swing. (See Wordless Wednesday post below.)

I even peppered the pots last night in hopes that would keep them out.  I think I'm losing this fight with nature's critters this year.

Wordless Wednesday - View from the Swing