More Garden Woes

First, the weight of one of my butternut squash, that I failed to fashion a hammock for in time, snapped the vine. I lost about three feet of vine and two budding squash--one medium size well on its way to the table and one strong baby.

Lesson learned--all remaining squash are in nylon hammocks and vines secured to bamboo stakes.

Second, this morning I take my walk outside to check-in with my plot. I start with the porch garden, looking in on the seedlings, cantaloupe and butternut, then the herbs, peppers. Looking good. No frog burrows this morning from our resident porch frog. Then I make my way to the raised bed--ah. Bees burrowing their little busy bodies into the succulent centers of our sunflowers--there are about 10. Beautiful. I notice an extra splash of yellow in an out of place sort of place--I look in closer, excited by the possibility that we have a new bloom. Not exactly.

The yellow splash that I spy is not a new flower like I had anticipated but the head of a mature sunflower that has been snapped in half at mid-stem, no doubt by hungry, greedy ass little squirrels feasting on the bountiful center of seed. Argh.

Upon closer inspection, I see that they have completely removed the heads of two other dwarf variety sunflowers edging the plot. Argh. Fuckers.

I have to tell my kids, these were their babies. As sad as it is, it helps them understand the anguish I feel over the worm infestation as it devastates the plants I have nurtured from seed.

We have declared war--at least a firm resistance. They are earth's creatures after all, simply looking for food albeit overeating for sure.

Cayenne pepper seems to be the go-to measure of force to deter the sneaky rats, ah...um...squirrels.

Moving forward in our experimental gardening venture, we have grown in knowledge yet again.

But really, can't we just get there already?