Casualties of War

Of course, my perception of gardening changes throughout the season. One day it could be a seen as a miracle, and the next a complete failure. There are days when I wonder why I went through all the trouble, time, and money. When the bugs, diseases, bacteria, and pests seem to be winning and I forget to notice the beauty. I feel like an organic gardening fraud and question what made me think I knew what I was doing. Especially if I focus too much on what is going wrong instead of what is going right:

Something ate more broccoli than I did!

Few of the sunflowers have survived. I've planted them three times (!) and you can see in this photo something has started eating again. See evidence of my arsenal of gardening weaponry? The red stuff is cayenne pepper, the shiny stuff is Epsom salts, and the white pellets are Sluggo. What you can't see is the Neem oil, BT and the onion-garlic sprays. But nothing seems to keep the plants from being eaten. I also used baking soda spray helped keep the broccoli from dying from a fungus and the milk spray strengthened the tomatoes so they could fight off diseases caused by all the dampness.

Cucumbers are surviving, but their lower leaves are all eaten away. Still, they are hanging on and growing.

This bean plant looks good, but check out the one in front of it. Eaten down to the stalk.

Even with all the Sluggo surrounding the lettuce, every time I check I find little slugs on it. The lettuce has grown big and full, but evidence that bugs have been crawling on it doesn't make me want to have a salad. Blah! I feed it to Peter, but even Peter won't eat it. Slug slime doesn't appeal to him either.

I grow lots of basil every year and usually it's very successful. See them in the planter? No? They all died. This year was the first year I used full-spectrum fluorescent lighting on the indoor start. Coincidence? I think not! I'm on the third planting of basil, now directly into the pot outside. Third time is a charm...maybe?

The Kabocha squash is doing fine, although something is nibbling the outer leaves. This is the only plant that survived out of twelve other indoor-started squash plants. I'm on the third and last planting of the others. Some are growing. I have about four zucchini, two acorn, and five pumpkin plants. No signs of delicata or butternut. Darn. My favorites.

And then there is human stupidity. This is my favorite plant this year. The reason it's my favorite is because I've rarely seen it in full bloom because Peter eats it down to nothing every year. So I moved it and protected it. Wouldn't you know I decided to weed wack the grass nearby. I had just changed out the plastic cutters and misjudged how long I left them.  Half the plant was wacked away before I knew it. You can see it all chopped down on the right side of the plant. I'm sure my neighbor wondered why I was screaming! Damn!

The weather just changed so we'll finally get some summer sun instead of constant rain. This might helps, especially to discourage the slugs.  I hope because nothing else is working!

I keep trying to remind myself this is part of the fun, but most of the time it feels more like frustration. I guess if I didn't want the challenge I could do what everyone else does and use chemicals. NO WAY! To me that's not real gardening. 

I try to focus on the beauty and let the cards fall where they may.

NEW GARDENING ASSISTANT!! Peter's in exile and besides, he eats more than he works. I've been wondering why my cucumbers are growing big and their leaves aren't being eaten away as much. There is a snake living in the broccoli garden!!! She's not very big, but I'm sure with a steady diet of slugs and other yummies, she'll get big and fat fast.

Inspecting the cucumbers.

Guarding the pumpkins.

The last resident snake was this cute little baby garter snake. I named her Lillian. Before mowing the grass I'd walk around to make sure she was safe. This went on for at least a month. Then one day she got in the way and I didn't see her until it was too late. I cried for an hour.