A DAY OF REST - SORT OF

Since the garden seems to be all consuming at the moment, I decided to create this new blog to report on the garden and kitchen activities this time of the year.

Right now the garden is becoming very abundant with produce that has to be harvested and dealt with on a daily basis. This past week I've been mainly harvesting bush and pole beans, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes,onions, swiss chard, zucchini, yellow summer squash and potatoes for eating, processing and  drying for storage. And of course, there's the never ending weeding and other garden maintenance. After a very long, tiring day in the kitchen and garden yesterday, with computer cleanup up being my only sit down, rest time, my old, aching body is screaming for a day off today, for which I am more than happy to oblige!

One activity I may tear myself away from the sofa for, other than making dinner, may be to get out my deer, bunny repellant spray. Some critters have gotten into my small corn patch, so this is the last year I'm going to try to grow corn in these mountains. There are way too many critters who enjoy helping themselves to this crop, so next year that spot will be devoted to other less delectable veggies that may not have such a great appeal to the deer, ground hog, raccoon, bunny, possum, and other  denizens of the forest.

I've been sprinkling blood meal which is usually a good, temporary repellant for the rabbits and deer, as well as it's usefulness as an organic fertilizer, at least till it rains at which time it has to be re-applied. But either the deer have gotten used to it, or it's a raccoon who isn't deterred by the blood meal, who's the culprit, so I'll try the spray and see if that will do the trick.

I have a compost pile behind my pottery gallery, which is regularly visited by our resident mink, one of the neighbors dogs (both of whom we caught red handed), and I suspect the racoons and possums. I don't cover over the newly dumped kitchen waste on a daily basis, which gives them a chance to munch and maybe leave the garden alone.