rodents be gone

Our entire green been crop is gone. Enjoyed by gophers. First the yard-long variety disappeared, they then moved on to the Blue Lake, and finished up with the Scarlets. It was the first time I'd grown the Scarlets. They had such a pretty red-orange flower, just like the Purple bean's lovely purple flower. Given that, wouldn't you think that the Blue Lake would sport a blue flower? Ha, it's white.

The Rainbow Chard is still alive, living all mixed in with Arugula. The Corn is fine. I'll be replacing the two lost peppers with three this evening and re-sow soybean seeds for the third time!

We haven't set up the gopher traps, yet. DH brought them home yesterday, at my request. The traps look awful, but the gophers are a major garden pest and they'll serve us better as fertilizer. I recently spoke with a woman who told me she caught eleven in one day. During the same conversation a farmer said that he's lost fruit trees to the rodents and pays $10.00 a gopher!

I always loved Caddyshack. Did I attract this?

Last night with dinner we enjoyed garden fresh zucchini, crookneck squash, and tender young collard greens. I'll steam or saute beet greens for dinner tonight. The greens came from a group of beautiful beets that I pulled prematurely during an over-reaction. I'd discovered one of them was in the process of being devoured by the gopher. I decided I'd have baby greens and beets rather than no beets.

I pulled plenty of weeds this morning, sowed some more beet seeds, and planted Ambrosia and Honeydew melon near the Watermelon. These are no ordinary red beet seeds, these are striped and solids, in a variety of golden and reds colors.