'Maters and More!

We had a wonderful rain Monday night, nearly 2 inches at my house here on Granny Mountain. Much appreciated since everything was really getting stressed. The hostas were just glorious after the rain, green and lush.

It was short-lived, the next morning I go out and something is different... I now have Hosta Sticks. Sometime during the night the deer have made a visit to the "salad bar." 

EVERY.YEAR.IT.HAPPENS.

This year we had sprayed the plants with a commercial product that has Capsacin oil from red and black peppers. I had bought it mainly to spray on the sunflower seeds to deter the squirrels from eating them all in one sitting...  

You can see how well it worked. Evidently the deer and squirrels on our mountain like it spicy!

I think (I have my fingers crossed) that this mesh fencing may allow us to finally grow some tomatoes, peppers and squash this year. We attached it to the back of the fence and used landscape pins to secure the bottom.

When the cantaloupe and watermelon vines get a little bigger, they will escape the confines of the mesh so they may be short lived. The deer left them alone one year and we were able to have a bumper crop of pumpkins. The following year they ate them all. If food is scarce for them, they simply make do with whatever they can find. 

You can find the mesh rolls at your local Farmer's Co-op, I sure hope this works. It's really the only place in our yard that gets any sun at all... one of the drawbacks of living on wooded property. 

This is the lone hosta left in the yard, it's probably not long for this world! I could put a laundry basket over it but that kind of takes the beauty away~

The deer will leave some things untouched, Astillbe and the Solomon's Seal below are safe. They must be poison or taste awful because they are never bothered.

See the hosta sticks behind this Solomon's Seal?

It's a challenge every year to grow anything, but that doesn't mean I give up! 

I've just accepted that the deer live here and we container garden on the top decks where they can't reach.

  

I have big plans for this tomato as soon as it's ripe!

Saveur.com

If you look forward to that first 'mater sandwich every summer, you will love THIS.

I saw on AgWeb this week that caterpillars, garden web worms and slugs are doing the same kind of overnight damage to gardens. Listen HERE to a short clip that gives some great advice on how to prevent loss. Their best advice is to check your gardens daily and use Intrepid or Tracer and stay away from any sprays that have pyrethrins at this stage of growing. 

In the Kitchen this week... a recipe for a Fresh Corn Tomato Cheddar Pie, oh my! All my favorite things all rolled into one, go HERE for the recipe!

Get out this week and plant something, it will make your corner of the world a nicer place to be! Re-use a past-it's-prime wagon for your herb garden, add old fashioned charm with a rusty iron fence or 

re-purpose an oil can from Dad's shed into a birdhouse.