I am eating it while I type. That and some chicken drenched in “Sweet Baby Ray’s Award Winning barbecue Sauce!”

My potatoes are about the only things I have gotten out of my garden this year, says someone who normally has a very green thumb.  It was more varmints than the drought.  I had so many rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks this year, it was not funny.  It is my own fault because I have a deck, they can hide or live there.  I have lots of shrubs, trees and plants because I want to make my yard as much like nature as the city will let me get away with.  I also have a small fountain, bird bath and keep a small amount of water in a tub for the thirsty squirrels to keep them from climbing into the bird bath.

My yard is now semi-private and when I do glance over to some of the other yards near me, I am reminded of a depressed neighborhood.  Some have a couple of plants or place one lone shrub at the far end of the yard.  Most have no landscaping what-so-ever and instead barren, dying grass.  Some of our neighbors have put out perennials in front of their yards with “free flower signs” after dividing, which is so nice.  I will be doing the same next year with hostas if I am still here.  I understand some don’t have the time or the money, but it is not very expensive to buy a few on sale and divide the next year or start them from seed.  I guess you are either a plant person or you are not.  I just love plants of all kinds and they help the environment in many ways.

I started my first garden years ago in the burbs with un-amended hard clay soil.  My plants were great.  I have no idea how some of the seeds ever took root, but they sure did.  The difference was I had no varmints there.  You never even saw one squirrel.  There were woods nearby and obviously the bigger varmints got the little ones before they became a problem.  Once in a while you saw, and smelled a skunk.

This year they got the green beans, both bush and pole, all squash, Spinach didn’t stand a chance, and most of the lettuce.  With some things, such as beets and carrots, either the germination was terrible, or the birds were eating the seeds as well, they got all the black and red raspberries this year.  I just happened to have a couple of left over Russet potatoes that were sprouting at the end of May so I threw them in the garden with the hopes of getting a few potatoes.  They are still there and I hilled them this year.  I will let you know how many I get from both plants in a later post.  The first one was sweet with tender skin and very good.

Hope the rest of you are able to enjoy your harvest this year.  God Bless!