Racoons are the reason for the electric fence. They totally trashed my corn in previous years. They also go after the grapes so we electrified that too.
I know there's racoons around because they've been pooping in my front yard under the trees.

I'm not fond of racoons!

Lots of racoons here every night. They love to visit my ponds.

The racoons cleaned all the fish out of shallower upper pond years ago. Fortunately they can't really get the fish in the deep, steep sided lower pond, but we had to put a heron net on that.

I recently had a nice chat with a couple who run an organic market garden here; they also (successfully !) use electric fence around their gardens. I paid a lot of attention to how they had theirs set up! I'll surely be running a jumper wire over from the horse fence this fall. I was ever so surprised that a very minimal amount of wire is needed for controlling rabbits and raccoons. I hope it works for groundhogs, too.

I forgot to cover my peas and beans last evening; I hope they're still there...

Tigarella is producing the most fruit of my heirloom tomato varieties, but the taste is just so-so, and the fruit is small...kind of like a large cherry tomato.

Well, I hope nothing ate your peas and beans overnight. It really must be more than annoying to have to constantly battle wuith the crutters to get a harvest.

I never had Tigarella so don't know how it us supposed to taste.

It is annoying, but even more annoying is forgetting about them ...even for a minute, let alone overnight!

They're all still there and had their morning drink ...now, I'll just leave them be and let them grow for a few hours. I'm like a mother hen with these silly plants!


The second planting of cucumbers is starting to vine...they just might make it to produce a nice late harvest of fruit before it gets too cool. My first planting is just now starting to show signs of imminent decline, so the timing might be just about right.

I have never done two plantings of cucumbers. I just do the one and when they are done, that's it for cukes for me for the year. It depends on when that is. Some years they really last a long time. They do keep producing as long as they keep growing.

Here are some of my peas. Doing great!



The cucumber vines look really ratty but producing well.


Chinese cucumbers I picked today. Those cukes are so strange looking but taste really good.

They even have flowers!

I had garden room so I decided to plant more peas. I had a 1/2 pound packet of Cascadia Sugar Snaps so I just planted them. Funny thing is the ones already growing I planted 7/21 and these now a month later at 8/21. It might be really late. But my gut tells me those on 7/21 went in slightly early and these are going in slightly late. We will see what happens.

Yesterday afternoon I put Neptunes Liquid Fish Seaweed Blend Fertilizer on those ratty looking cucumber vines. And on all my cucumber vines. Honestly they look greener already to me today. I hope it is not just my imagination!

I put up a lot more broccoli in the freezer and have another load of tomatoes in the dehydrator. There's some gorgeous huge tomatoes ripening right now that I'm thinking I'll can.

Still a lot of corn out there. I think I'll have some for lunch.

Oh no, not going to read about your corn again! Last time it made me go out and buy some for dinner.

My brocoli was a bust this year. I even tried for a fall planting but the slugs ate up the seedlings.

Ok, I won't take a picture of my lunch.

I thought the purple beans were done for the year, but I just picked an overflowing cullender of them.

Sounds great, Tabby. Love those extra surprises!

My fall beans are still there! Nothing's eaten them yet. Crossed the first hurdle, at least the plants themselves aren't tender and delectable anymore!

I intend to be ready for next year. I ordered 25 tomato cages today from Lowes as they had a free shipping offer till September. Works for me. Easier than going to get them at the store.

I bought the same 47 inch collapable triangle green coated wire cages as the ones already here.

Wait..what? My Lowes just has those useless round cages.
The collapsible triangle cages sound a lot like what we made out of concrete reinforcement panels, only ours are rusty.

Not as strong as that. Those triange cages are sold in all the big box stores around here.

I bought an extra one to make mine squares. I really like them because I can rearange the cross members as needed.

Humm, I bet that makes the cages stronger too. Of course I have too many tomato plants to use two cages apiece. But it is a great idea for those that only have a few plants.