Crime Ridden Garden

It's a little early (or a tad late) for Garden Blogger's Death Day, but it's been a rough thirty-six hours in this here garden, and an interruption for a special Death Day is needed.

Monday kicked off  the carnage with three consecutive hits. I checked on the lettuce seedlings I planted in my salad table on Saturday to find only three in existence. I'm sure this was a case of early rising birds. First, what else would eat seedlings without leaving a single sign of stopping by for breakfast? Second, the only three left standing had red tinged leaves! This sounds a lot like the case of Granny's red leaf lettuces that escaped mutilation two weeks ago. 

The birds may have gotten away with their crimes, but the masked green goblin below was caught with mouth full of green bean leaves. I wonder if he/she has other partners in crime... I'm sure I'll find out all too soon.

And then there was the incident which took mere minutes to occur that afternoon while I was walking guests to the door... These cuties lasted all of 48 hours before the LO got a hold of them.

I imagine him seeing these adorable amphibians hanging from their containers, and unable to control himself, he picks both of them up then accidently drops one. "Oh. It broke. Neat. Let's do it again,"  his brain tells his hands. Only, as his hands are banging them on the concrete (the evidence of this was clear), his mind is realizing that there is something wrong with what he is doing. This is when Momma hears the pitter patter of little shoes behind her and, "Ma, come back. See. See." Leading me to the scene of the crime to show me the dismembered frogs laying on the ground... It was an innocent act, and I couldn't be mad at the poor child, but it ruined the rest of my day. He understood  that braking the frogs was wrong. This was obvious with the only decipherable things coming out of his mouth the rest of the day being, "We fick fogs?" "Fogs bokenen?" "Go ou'side we fik fogs Momma?" Somehow that sweet little hopeful voice asking for forgiveness the only way he knew how only added salt to my wounds...

Yesterday was a day of garden recovery. I reseeded my salad table and protected against further lettuce burglary by adding a cover. And then it was a busy morning out of the house today, so when I checked on my plants waiting to go into SWP's, I found more carnage. The deaths were by own hands this time. My tomato and pepper plants went from being overly moist to uber dry in less than 24 hours...

So, I've decided to take the rest of the evening off (only thinking about these events again briefly to finish up this post). Crocheting Boy Wonder's blanket while watching the girlie girl movie that's been in my queue for way too long, Julie and Julia. A movie about blogging about cooking a TV chef's creations that I myself used to love watching... Whoa, and g'night!

Garden Blogger's Death Day

I'll make the sadness of it all short... Here are the before and after pictures of the contents of my SFG. They weren't dead until after I pulled them all up... This still counts, right? ;-) What was left of my Yolo Wonder Bell peppers... I posted pictures of these last month, I think, for Death Day, but they weren't truly dead then... Not watering for a few weeks did the trick though. It's been so blazin' hot out that I don't think my watermelon, cantaloupe or sweet potatoes have grown in at least a week. I was beginning to think I had created a "bush variety" of sweet potatoes because they aren't vining at all. I wanted to see what they were up to so I pulled one today. Poor things. And, for my big disappointment... My broccoli and cabbage seedlings are all shriveling up. There's a patch of mold on this pot's soil. I think their deaths are due to too much moisture, not enough sunlight, and too much heat from sitting next to the window. Good thing I'm ahead of myself for the upcoming growing season! With the exception of my seedlings, I'm welcoming this month's nasty business of garden death, as it signals the upcoming season of cool weather crops. Instead of looking at my empty SFG with longing, I'm patiently standing by for the weather to cool off enough to get another round growing. My first season of gardening has been more turbulent than productive, but I feel I've learned a few things, and am better prepared for what's to come.

Garden Blogger's Death Day

*Double post. Please scroll down for the first one.* I almost let it pass me by, then when I thought of it, I almost didn't bother since it's such a sad (but all too necessary) part of gardening... I've had two deaths in the garden this month. The first were my two marigold plants that I started from seed. I planted them in a container that sat on the concrete, and had really babied these guys; moving them twice a day from morning sun to afternoon shade. Then summer activities got in the way, and after they finally started blooming, the heat quickly killed them. I didn't take a picture of the carnage because it was just too depressing for me, but they look a lot like ribbit's lavender over at The Corner Yard. So, if you wish to sneak a peek at garden carnage, click away... The second garden death were my bean plants, but I blogged about that earlier this month. I'll try to remember saving descriptions of death until Death Day next time. ;-)

Jumping on the Gardener's Death Day Bandwagon

After reading Annie's Granny's blog, which led me to the Gardening Without Skills' blog discussing Garden Blogger's Death Day, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and post this month's garden carnage for my garden. My garden may be small, and my carnage smaller, but it's a big deal for this first time gardener... Two crops that I've previously mentioned are my failed carrots and broccoli. Scroll down a bit to see how beautiful my last broccoli was looking (I had three but pulled two that weren't growing well). After a heat wave hit, however, I pulled it. It turned out good that I did this because there were a LOT of eggs on the undersides of the leaves, which I'm fairly certain would've grown into cabbageworms. Yolo Wonder bell peppers - These poor plants... I've put them through so much... First I gave them too much nitrogen (blood meal), then I over watered them. Finally, they were fine and dandy until I separated them from one container to two. Then with the 98-104 heat we've had since last week, the fruits were getting burned, and the roots probably steamin' in those pots! I moved them off of the concrete and cut the largest of the peppers off, but I'm pretty sure they're done for. Snap dragons and verbena - I haven't had my snapdragons and verbena for very long, and was able to get two rounds of blooms from them. But with their location above the concrete, sitting along a stucco wall, and, again with the heat, they finally succumbed. I wonder if snapdragons are edible... These fried up all crispy-like... See that peat pot nestled in the soil? I think these, and a combination of spider mites are leading to the demise of my green beans--and largest crop. I've pulled one plant whose roots didn't travel too far outside the peat pot, and the others seem to quickly be following it's lead (boo hoo). To end on a quirky note, my last garden carnage occured this evening with the death of my sweet potato surrogate. She did a great job at producing slips for me. I was even able to freecycle enough for two people to grow some in their gardens YAY! Sadly, I needed to lay her to rest--in the garbage. She was starting to get stinky, and was well into the rotting phase of life. Thank you sweet, sweet potato. Here's winkin' back atcha. ;-)