B409966A F2CD 4ED4 8DA9 E52633C4349D Cursed deer

Cursed deer

It’s a class 2 misdemeanor to kill a deer that is eating your garden here in Virginia without getting a permit to do some from the Game and Wildlife dept. Luckily I’m on over 5 acres, so I could probably get one.

The dern critters ignored the hubs’ donation to the cause and the Deer Off and the Irish Spring soap, and got after the peas and munched on my kohlrabi, too, while I was out of town this weekend. Arg. At least they have ignored my tomatoes so far. I don’t know if the peas will even produce anything now that the ends are picked off. I could always just pull them all and put in more pole beans, I suppose. My friend has some Scarlet Runner….

The pole beans are looking good. The bush beans I planted 1/4 inch deep did not do very well:

Just 3-4 of the shallow planted beans took. see my new weed control with that old leftover tar paper?

The beans germinated and popped out of the ground where they sat in the sun and mostly died out. Today I planted several more of the Greencrop beans to fill in the space. I read those a a very good bean, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they do. The Garden of Eden beans are still doing well. The plant I tucked up on the trellis is hip-high now. I went ahead an tucked a few more in because the wind is blowing them down. They should take off soon. The Sevia Lima bean second planting does not seem to have germinated, or maybe the deer got them. I replanted again today.

My tomatoes and tomatillos look amazing:

The replanted butternut squash came up:

New butternut squash seedlings are down in the bottom right corner

Weeding was super easy this week thanks to all my work earlier. Jared got the new trellis in by the house, and the clearanced shrubs I bought are looking much better now that they are planted. Tomorrow I think I will cut that bush down to nubs so that I can get some disease-free canes coming up. That particular rose is super susceptible to black spot, unfortunately. It defoliates every year. I’ll post pictures when I start working on it.

In other news, I have now learned what poison sumac looks like. :-( Im at the crusting and oozing stage now. Luckily I had some leftover itch pills and steroid cream from last time. I may need to go back to the Dr to get more of the pills, however.

To wrap up, here are two pictures of Sydney’s zinnias:

Posted by Jenny Smith

I'm Jenny Smith. I blog about life on the 300+ acres of rolling farmland in Northern Virginia where I live. I like tomatoes, all things Star Trek, watercolor, and reading. I spend most days in the garden fighting deer and groundhogs while trying to find my life's meaning. I'm trying to be like Jesus -- emphasis on the trying.