I Spent Some Time In The Garden This Weekend ..

Pulling weeds, Watering the plants, pinching back unwanted growth, Fertilizing with compost, and agitating the soil. Speaking of agitating.. Something is AGITATING me! A ground hog. I tried to let the little sucker alone, but he's now digging all of the dirt below my shed, out into the yard. Having the soil being excavated from under the buildings foundation is not a good thing, so the little guy may need to be carefully relocated.

Here is the culprit..

Molly was checking him out .. the other day. That sort of surprised me. She is scared of everything, and I mean everything. Well she caught a glimpse of our furry friend, and ran over to check it out as he sat under the edge peering out.

Well it didn't stop at removing soil.. Nope! Now the critter is gnawing off some of my garden plants. Double No! Stay away from my plants mr/miss ground hog!!! As you can see below, it ate half the plant off. I noticed that it was starting to nibble on the string bean plants as well. I was trying to hold off on moving it from the area, but I may not have a choice. I am more worried about the structure than the plants.

Otherwise, The Garden Is Doing Just Fine..

Besides the plant or two above, the other squash plants look really nice. We are going to have plenty of squash in a few weeks time. The plants are about triple the size as when I put them into the ground. The summer heat and the plentiful rainfall has helped them grow quickly.

Here you can see the tiny yellow squash taking shape. I stuck my finger in there for comparison purposes. The flowers at the end will fall off in just a few short days. Each plant has the potential of producing 3 or 4 dozen squash. I am going to have squash out the ears!

The Pepper's Are Looking Good .. They are growing a little slower than I had anticipated, but we should have pick-able Peppers in 2 to 3 weeks from now. I can't wait to slice them up and grill them with some cheese, or add them to other meals, in other ways.

Our Single Tomato Plant.. Has lots of new growth and several flowers. It will be some time before the fruits grow and are ready to pick. It is something to look forward to though. I can't say I am a huge fan of eating uncooked tomatoes, but may try a few this year if they turn out to be tasty. The plant it not tall enough to tie to the posts yet, but soon enough I will not be able to say that.

Moving over to the String Bean Plants.. One or two fell victim to the ground hog, but the others are looking just fine. Lots of blooms, but no signs of the beans just yet. I would imagine they will come on fast, if past years are a good predictor of this years growth. We should get plenty of beans from the 8 or so plants that are left. I'll try and tie them up in another week when they are a little taller.

The Watermelon is starting to spread .. It doesn't take too long for these vines to spread through the bed I dedicated to them. Once they start, there is no stopping them. I will eventually have to trim them back and keep them trained to just this bed. If I let them grow, they would cover a good deal of area. I can only eat so much watermelon anyhow. If they turn out good, we'll give several of them away to the neighbors and family.

My ugly foot for a size reference

There are plenty of flowers starting to open up, and I did see a few bees in there doing their thing .. Sorry @bozz hehe. Soooo if they did their job correctly, I should see a marble size melon or two in the next few days. Finger's Crossed!

The Pineapple .. I planted at the end of the garden, Is doing fairly well, despite being ripped out of the ground every day. I may have to move them at some point. I don't think it's the groundhog that is doing it, but rather the stinking crows I saw lingering in that area on Friday. Grrrrrr.....

For now, I just put it back into the ground and give the soil a hefty pat on top.

If you look closely at the center, you can see the new growth it's pushing out. This is a good sign that it likes it here. My hope is that it will flourish in the next several month and develop enough of a root system to be repotted. I hope to have it into a pot by the fall so it can come indoors, otherwise it will not survive the winter. (Like @dswigle mentioned on a post not long ago) If you plan on growing a pineapple from the top of another, be prepared to wait a good Loooooonnnnnngggggg time before a fruit is born from it. It could take up to 2 or 3 years.

The Strawberries >> Are making a run for it! haha.. they are putting out what I call 'Runners'. The plants self propagate via stems (stolons) that produce new plants. You'll see what I am talking about below. These runners will produce a few plants each.

I hope that this years new growth, with the help of myself transplanting a few, will fill in the large gap at the end of that bed. Sorry Mr. Pineapple, but a new dog is moving in. hehe. Next year I will have to find another area to plant a pineapple.

That Pineapple Looked Lonely .. So I planting him a friend! Why??? I don't know. Why Not?

Don't Get Up Molly ..

No worries.. The Garden looks good, and I have a friendly plan in the works for your furry friend under the shed. You just stay right there and rest your little, old bones.

I said No need to get up! You can go lay back down. Nothing left to see out there.

Oh GOOD Girl! You decided to take my advice for once. I didn't mean to disappoint. You can go back out tomorrow me to check on those plants. I would appreciate the company and someone to keep a look out for crows and ground burrowing rodents.

“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
― Marilyn Monroe

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