In The Garden

The garden is doing well with the exception of one of the squash areas. Once again we are plagued with the little vermin known as pocket gophers. Neighbor Dean and we have been working hard to eradicate the pests with early morning, mid day, and afternoon hunting. Dean has been much more successful than we have. (And more diligent, to be honest.) In the last month he's killed about eight of them with his shotgun (very effective, I might add!), my husband has killed one with his shotgun, and I have killed two with my traps.

We've managed to slow the damage but they are continuing to be a bother. Here you can see there is one squash left next to the gopher's hole.

In this picture in the background you can see what that squash pit used to look like.

The squash and melon seed packets always say to plant the seeds in a hill. We've tried that before and with our sandy soil and hot sun it just doesn't work. What does work for us is just the opposite. We dig a slight depression in the soil and build the sides up. The seeds are planted in various spots around the big hole. Then when watering we fill the hole with water. The soil gets wet and waters the seeds and eventually the growing plants and the water doesn't run off to help the weeds grow!

You can see we also do something similar with our other garden plants. We got one of those cheap watering wands (around $10 at Lowe's) that you can turn off and on with the flick of your thumb. This way the water goes into the hole with the plants and the surrounding areas don't get watered. We've learned over time that this method helps keep the weeds down in the surrounding areas. The weeds don't get water and are less likely to grow. We're slow learners...

Another thing I was going to mention is you can see in the above picture how I've pinched the bottom leaves off the tomato plants. I've been doing this for several years now. This doesn't hurt the plant at all. In fact I think it helps because it makes it easier for me to see and get rid of any weeds growing in the water well area around the roots of the tomato.

Here is our first tomato this year! I can hardly wait. I've had some "vine ripened" from the store, but we all know what that is like. Still pretty bland.

Here's the serrano chili. Besides having the fresh sliced tomatoes I am really looking forward to fresh salsa. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about it.

The grape vines are really going crazy this year. I have no clue on what the proper way to grow grapes is so we've just been pretty lucky as far as they go.

And finally the little squashes that haven't been attacked by the gophers (yet). I'd better pick them no later than tomorrow. Because we all know what happens when you forget to check your squashes every day! (They turn into monsters!!!)

And now I'm off to Lowe's for one more line of defense against the gophers: the sprinkle stuff they allegedly hate and is supposed to drive them away. We are trying everything we can!