Garden Progress

Calabacitas
Originally uploaded by Beaver w/ a Toothbrush

We've had some ups and downs at the hovel lately. After Big Mike died, two more of our chickens died the next day while we were at work before we realized that the coop was getting much hotter than we thought. This will be our first summer with the new coop. I was pretty torn up about Lyla and Little Mike dying so soon after Big Mike and I made some immediate changes to the coop so hopefully we won't have any more problems. I'm monitoring it now and it seems to be staying a reasonable temperature.

Then some javelinas discovered that the fences around our gardens weren't all that sturdy and they ate almost everything in our two largest plots. We no longer have ground cherries, peppers, okra, eggplant, pole beans, melon banana, saucer squash, and a few varieties of tomatoes. We still have calabicatas which are doing really nicely, tomatillos, corn, and a few tomato plants. I was excited to see a couple of the stranger things we planted; maybe next year.

The tomatillos were the only things left in the largest plot. They seem pretty happy. I've also started pumpkins, sweet and hot peppers, luffas, and corn seedlings. We bought staples for the bottom of the fence. We're hoping that (and some pepper flakes sprinkled around liberally) will be enough to keep the javelinas out in the future. Although I should mention that the javelinas did us a big favor. They also ate all the weeds.