It’s been miserable hot and sticky here in Kalamazoo, plus we have been dealing with very unhealthy air quality due to smoke from the fires in Quebec. It’s rained the past couple days so the AQI (air quality index) is back down in the normal ranges, and I sincerely hope it stays there. As a result, I’ve been inside and not particularly inclined to spend a lot of time in the garden after hauling the hose out to water things every other morning. Today it rained the better part of the day, which was thoroughly welcome, and I was able to get out and get a few things done between showers.
As you might recall, I decided to put tomatoes in pots this year to give my raised beds a break. I diligently started seeds for Midnight Snack cherry tomatoes and San Marzano paste tomatoes gifted to me from a friend in the Great Pacific Northwest. I potted up several starts and parked the leftovers in my tall lettuce box till I had time to deal with them. Well, as I probably should have realized, my rapacious city deer laid waste to about 2/3 of my pots after letting the plants get big and healthy for a month. Jerks.
This afternoon I got around to potting up those spares. I made a cover of a piece of metal fencing for my lettuce bed because I’d like to enjoy some of the things I grow this year, and not provide a convenient buffet for the monstrously greedy deer. These starts REALLY liked it in there, and were pushing up through that fencing, so it was more than time to get that done.
I potted up the eight plants and moved all of remaining tomato pots into the fenced garden. I put them on top of the cardboard covering my one fallow bed, and now the velocirapdeer will have to work for it if they want to murder my tomatoes.
I did put the chewed off stubs in the now empty spots in the incubating lettuce bed to see if they’ll recover. They had great root systems, so we’ll see. Behold my janky but effective cover!
Since I was out there anyhow, I decided to take some photos of what’s growing. Here are my cucumbers, happily climing up my repurposed baby crib trellis!
And here are canteloupes preparing to climb the other side of that trellis, with Cool Cat guarding the scene. The peas to the left had to be retrained to the net fencing, and not my melon trellis.
Across the aisle, here’s just one of the several watermelon plants I’ve got in the ground. The rain has really made a big difference in their growth. I’ve watered from the hose, but the thunderstorms really set them off.
In the blue barrel I’ve got 8 Ball bush zuchinni. I had Italian Gray spilling from the external cut outs and in a move that will surprise absolutely no one, the deer got them.
The garlics in my front perennial bed look so cute with their little paper hats! I let the seed bulblets fall where they will, and then I get more garlic, and really, who can argue with that?
It’s been a great year for the front steps herb clutch. At the bottom left and moving clockwise, I’ve got dill, chives, Genovese basil, lemongrass, and Thai basil. That plant on the top step is a daylilly from the collection of my good friend Billy Thompson, who has one of the most beautiful front yardens I’ve ever seen down in Memphis.
On the right side of the steps, under the watchful eye of the Meerkats of Linder, I have, from top left and moving clockwise, Everleaf Towers basil, cilantro, parsely, and a Thai Towers basil. The bottom step teacup is borage, and the plant wilding out of the sidewalk is catnip. Cheezit loses her everloving mind over fresh catnip.
In the backyard, my wild rose is an unmanageable bramble that I’m done fighting with this year. It’s surely pretty, even as it’s unruly.
This is the janky raised bed kit I posted about on 5/6/23. Look at them now! I need to move four bell peper plants out of there, they’re definitely not living their best lives.
All three types (Big Rainbow, Arkansas Traveler, and Mr. Stripey, all heirlooms) are showing flowers, but I liked this shot of the post-rain Mr. Stripey blossoms. These were taken with my phone, I’m no professional.
I’m growing eggplant this year for the first time and I’m really enjoying watching it grow. I’m looking very forward to making baba ghanoush from my own home-grown eggplants! These were planted 5/6/23 as well, they have been quite happy in pots.
Another arty phone photo of post-rain blossoms. I have four over the two plants, so I’m pretty danged excited. When they begin forming fruits, I’ll net them, like I will the aforementioned tomatoes.
I’ll close out this post with an update on Racoonzilla from my Memorial Day post. You see she has a family now, and I am apparently responsible for feeding them as well as the deer. These creatures really need to contribute more to the yarden, or get a job.
The Amy Experience 
One thought