This is our 'patio', built on what was the septic tank! This is where JOS sets, perpetually capturing bugs in her net.
I used to have big veggie gardens in rural Ottawa, when I was young and my back was better. It is more difficult here, what with the wildlife, the wind, and cool Lake Effect temperatures.
To make myself feel better, I decided to put a few seeds into some pots on our patio. Then, I used a tree trunk up-ended with a hole in the middle for the squash, the pumpkins are in a pot. I hope it all works!We face a delicious south, and are nestled in a forest that shades us for the early and late parts of the day. The sun heats us during the middle of the day. The mint has spread like wildfire.
We have lots of wildlife that visit us. We are grateful, even for the hungry grasshoppers!
Down at the lake the trees protect us from the hurricane winds we have had. I have began letting the thistle grow. The one I have now is over 5 1/2 feet! The goldfinches love them and I anticipate some great photos later in the
summer.My Dad's garden (now mine) is now sheltered by trees that did not exist when I was 5 years old, when we bought the property. Actually, there was a swamp there! His garden sits on a bed of sand, the only way at the time, to fill in the swamp.
I have built up these gardens at the lakeshore. Amending the soil, adding soil (tons of wheelbarrowfuls!), more rocks to keep the dirt in, and more plants to shelter each other. The dry August, with 33 C. temperatures, demands that I throw lake water onto it. (Rather convenient!)
Last week I decided to be brave and planted a zucchini plant (above) at the lakeshore.
You can see that it doesn't look very good!I went down to check on it and found the blossoms had disappeared. I know what happened. It was my little buddy, the muskrat.
Chop, chop - gone. C'est la vie!
I moved it up to the patio! I hope JOS can guard it for me. I hope I get some new blooms.
Last July my muskrat visited me while I had a camera ready. Little twerp...
6 comments:
Good luck with your garden! It has been rather cool, which the perennials seem to love. Vegetables and annuals may grow slowly though.
So you have a wascally muskrat? Hmmm. I guess they have to eat too. ;-)
It was nice of the muskrat to let you get the video of him enjoying the fruits of your labor. I hope he doesn't follow the zucchini plant up to your patio.
Muskrat Susie or Muskrat Sam? :)
Cute video.
Hope you have some produce from your garden. We just picked a bucket of cucumbers and zucchini and a bucket of peppers.
My post is here: Carletta’s Captures.
You have quite the garden going. I loved the descriptions of everything. That muskrat is pretty cheeky. He eats a lot.
George, that is my worry, too, but I think our rebel attack cat (the one who treed the fisher) will keep it in check.
Carletta, good question. I'm not sure how to tell! I just tend to name most of them 'she'!
Yogi, thank you. I wouldn't mind so much is it ATE everything, but it chops it down, tries it, munches just a bit, and leaves it. Such a waste!
But nature is grand.
Very beautiful! I wish that we didn't have to have a septic system. I would love to plant our whole back yard and have little yard to mow, but unfortunately it is mostly septic field bed. Muskrats are a real nusiance. We have to worry about them destroying our dam.
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