Frustrated and Discouraged

The chipmunks and birds have gotten the best of my garden. I haven't had a single slicing tomato, and only a handful of blueberries. The critters have gotten everything else, including most of the grape tomatoes. The Romas are doing OK, but I'm not getting enough yield to can them, so I'm not sure what to do with them.

The cukes and zukes are running out of steam--the cukes are withered and brown, and the zukes aren't far behind. The cabbages were completely wormy, and the carrots are bitter.

I'm having serious doubts about continuing the vegetable garden. What's the point if it's not producing anything edible?

Bluebird Update

We heard the baby bluebirds today while we were out in the garden. I'm happy to report that they're big enough to make lots of noise when the parents are feeding them! The parents have been very busy going back and forth with tasty bugs. This evening, they sat on a wire watching us check on their babies. We've been sharing the backyard all spring and summer, so I have to think that they know us (and trust us at least a little bit).

Tomatoes!

Finally, the tomatoes are beginning to come in! Most productive are the yellow pear tomatoes. Unfortunately, they aren't as tasty as I'd hoped--a little bland and mushy. The Romas are looking pretty good. I have enough for a batch of salsa. I'm hoping that the rest will come in all at once, in a large enough quantity to make tomato sauce. The Cherokee purples are getting rotten before they ripen, and the Early Girls are getting eaten. Not by birds, especially since I've netted them. These are definitely gnawed, by nasty little rodents--chipmunks or squirrels that are worming their way under the netting.

When I bought seeds, I chose eggplant seeds that contained four varieties. I have four plants, so I wasn't sure what I'd end up with. The first plant to fruit has a traditional oblong, dark purple eggplant. I noticed last night that another plant has fruit--this one looks like a baseball--perfectly white and round! It's beautiful.

After four very dry weeks, we finally got some rain. We had a half-inch overnight, and more than an inch with this afternoon's thunderstorms. I hope we continue to get rain for a while--the garden is much happier (and so am I) when I don't have to water it.

For the Birds

We've solved the tomato mystery. I opened the back door the other day, just in time to see an explosion of birds from my tomato plants! We covered the cages with mesh (like we use on the blueberry plants). My tomatoes are now ripening unmolested. So far we've only had some red grape tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes. There are many, many green tomatoes on the others. Looking forward to tomato sandwiches and homemade gravy!

The bluebirds are incubating their new clutch of four. We're keeping track of number of eggs, hatching, fledging, etc., this time.

The robins nesting on the rain gutter are feeding three babies. They're big enough for us to see them from below (and from our living room).

Independence Day

Random updates:

• The neighbors DID pick cukes, beans, and squash while we were gone! I can only imagine what the pile would've looked like if they hadn't. The cukes are still going wild, as long as I keep them watered.
  
• The bluebirds are back. There are four new eggs in the nest box. We'll keep a closer eye on their progress this time.
  
• There's a robin's nest under the eaves on the front porch. I think they've hatched--it looks like she's been feeding them, but they're too small to see or hear (and too high up to see).
• Something is eating my tomatoes. My cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen. Several times this week, I've seen ones that will be ready the next day. The next day, however, they're gone, except for a few chewed-up pieces on the ground. The likely culprits are squirrels or chipmunks, but I haven't caught anyone yet. We bought Shake-Away, a granular powder that's supposed to deter small critters. It contains fox urine...
• My bean yield isn't as high as I wanted, so I'm soaking more seeds to plant a few more squares of each kind of bush bean and add to the pole beans. I'll plant them later today.
• After a very wet spring, we've had two weeks of hot and dry weather. The grass is getting crunchy and the ground is cracking. We've been watering the vegetable garden and some of the landscaping. I've planned the landscaping to need minimal watering, but things are getting really bad out there. There are thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow, so maybe the weather pattern is changing.