I love playing in the dirt, always have. I love watching things grow, especially fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I have also become really excited finding nature’s predators in the garden taking care of business for me. Toads are always welcome and if I see one somewhere else in the yard, I will catch it and take it to the garden to search for food. This year I found ladybug larvae scattered throughout my sedum and when they hatched, the ladybugs went about eating all of the aphids that were attacking the sedum. Now I am watching a small Carolina Mantis stand guard over my poblano pepper plant.
In addition to the pepper plants, I have planted different varieties of tomatoes, onions, leeks and cantaloupe this year. We devised a type of trellis for the cantaloupe to grow up on instead of along the ground. We thought this might keep the voles at bay. Well as usual, we grossly underestimated plant growth. The plants have taken on a life of their own and are producing lots of large fruit, some too large and heavy for the vine to support. I have four melons that I found in the garden so far that have fallen off the hanging vine before they were ripe enough to pick.
This morning while inspecting the plants checking on a couple that are close to picking, I found two that were growing tightly wedged between the fence post, the 2 x 4 support and the back fence slat. One was quite large with a squished shape and the other was a bit smaller, though just as squished. The two were forcing the two slats to bow out and pull away from the support. We had to push the two slats away from the support in order to get the two melons. Have you ever seen a flat melon? It is something to see. Nature always finds a way.
A woman's view of hunting...with men 