Salsipuedes Garden-keeping Lucky Out

Well, most of today was dedicated to foiling Lucky's attempts to lay in the cool dirt (excuse me, soil) of  my container garden. Even though I tried shooting him with the water pistol as I have been doing when he sits under the bluebird nest box,  he kept coming back when I wasn't looking. So I did some thinking and came up with a plan. I'll admit I got the general idea from the book, Square Foot Gardening. Did I mention that I love this book?? Anyway, I made a trip to the lumber store here in town and purchased 50 feet of two inch chicken wire. I thought that would be way too much, but as it turned out, it was just about right. So I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon opening tomato cages and placing them around the barrels and then wrapping them with chicken wire. Lots of sharp edges. Ouch!! When I began, it was nice and cool, but by the time I finished, it was blazing hot in the sun! What a good feeling of accomplishment, though. Now Lucky won't stand a chance (I think). You never know about cats. Of course, just as I was finishing up, I realized that now I couldn't use just the tomato cages since the chicken wire was attached all the way around. So when the plants get larger, I'll either have to chance it that the cats won't get on them or take off all that chicken wire. Yuk! Maybe my plants will get so lush that they will take up the entire planters. :)

Now let's see you get in, Lucky!!

My peas are growing the fastest. The lettuce is growing, but slowly. I do hope it is ready to harvest before it gets too hot. I think the hot weather makes it bitter. Does anyone know about this? I may try to rig up a shade cloth for it.

I can't wait to harvest the lettuce!

I tried one more time to plant the Topsy Turvy Tomato. What a mess. This time I began with a much larger tomato plant but had difficulty getting it in the hole at the right place. By the time I finished gently placing the potting soil and looked at it, I realize that it was crooked. Hmm! It may be doomed. The high wind today didn't help any, I'm sure. I'm about to give up on that idea. Any suggestions??


My yellow squash still looks good but the zucchini doesn't look so well. I may have to re-seed it.

I'm definitely gaining even more respect for farmers who do this for a living. I read a delightful book, The Dirty Life- On Farming Food and Love. It is about a couple who does organic gardening on a large scale. It tells of their struggles to make a going business out of their farm. The author tells about the long hours  and grueling work--I can identify with that. Even though I love all the work here at Salsipuedes, it never ends. I always feel as if there are not enough hours in a day! But I guess that is better than sitting around being bored, huh?

Stay tuned!!